Average Collection Period

Is the time taken by a company to collect the account receivables (AR) from its customers. More specifically, it shows how long it takes a company to receive payments made oncredit sales.

这对于现金依赖的企业至关重要：

• Convenient stores
• Nail salons
• Food trucks
• Laundromats
• 小餐馆/当地酒吧
• Delivery services
• 礼品店
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• Carpenter

这些企业类型依赖客户以现金支付，以确保他们有足够的流动性来偿还供应商，贷方，员工和其他贸易付款。

当企业依靠一些大客户时，他们会承担付款延迟的风险。这可能会导致财务困难并在最坏的情况下关闭其业务。

As a result, keeping cash in hand has proven critical for smaller enterprises, as it allows them to pay off future debt and other financial obligations. To facilitate this, businesses often arrange credit terms with suppliers and customers.

这些信用条款的范围从30到90天不等，具体取决于业务的往绩和财务需求。

供应商可以通过与他们设定有利的信用条件来协助小型企业；该安排可以允许企业收到其股票并稍后支付，这将记录为应付的交易balance sheet.

同样，企业允许客户以后付款；这被记录为企业资产负债表上的贸易应收帐款。

最后，平均收集期是评估当前信用安排以及是否应进行更改以改善营运资本周期的度量。

平均收集期公式

* if total net credit sales are not stated inyour financial statements，一般规则是使用总净销售额

Example

ABC是一家制造公司。它的运营取决于买家的现金流入。目前，它的平均收入为250,000美元，净信贷销售额在365天内为600,000美元。ABC想知道他们的平均收集期是多少。

By using the formula above, we can calculate this indicator as:

($250,000 ÷ $600,000) × 365

The result would be 152.08 days. So, what does this number mean? Well, a company should think about two things:

• What is the current credit collection policy?
  • Suppose ABC company has a credit policy of 120 days, and their average collection duration is 152.08 days. This may suggest that it should implement a stricter credit policy to ensure that all credit payments are collected on time. This will help avoid bad debts, which affect thecash flow statement.
• 什么是行业基准？
  • 假设ABC的竞争对手的平均收集期更长。在这种情况下，ABC可能希望考虑放松其信用政策以提供更灵活的付款期限。这将有助于吸引更多客户，因为这可能是一个不同的因素。

This example shows how a company can utilize the average collection period to compare its credit policy to industry norms, internal monitoring, and standards.

The importance of average collection period

对于任何企业来说，跟踪该指标都是至关重要的，因为它可以深入了解该业务financial health, credit terms, andcash flowcycle.

没有这一点，预测业务的未来现金流，需求和流动性将是艰难的；因此，计划费用和投资将是一项相对复杂的任务。

For example, ABC wants to open up a new plant to expand its business operations, including expenses such as market research, licensing, labor costs, and other overhead costs.

ABC将需要了解收款和其他来源的现金流入，以便提前计划其费用/投资。

For this reason, companies that have high credit sales will want to focus on the following aspects:

• 维持流动性
  • 流动性是公司在需要时筹集现金的能力。按时接收商品和服务的付款在维持流动性方面发挥了重要作用。manbetx 2.0下载这使公司能够还清短期负债，例如账单和贸易付款。它还有助于跟踪业务的财务状况。
• 提前计划
  • 平均收集期数字允许公司有效计划即将发生的成本。这可以以获得贷款的形式出现，以获取更多的长期资产进行扩张。它还可以帮助预测任何现金流中断。大多数公司的目标是在其信用政策中找到适当的平衡。这应该是公平的，适合客户，同时对公司有效和现实。

Covid-19如何影响平均收集期？

COVID-19进一步强调了平均收集期的重要性。仅在2020年，美国有340多家公司就申请破产，著名的名称，例如J.Crew,Hertz,吉他中心， 和Mallinckrodt.

这是因为许多公司面临以下财务挑战：

• 现金流量应变
• 流动性不足
• Delayed payments
• Default on payments
• Shutting down their business
• File for bankruptcy

这些问题促使企业进一步简化了他们的应收账款流程implementing several key metrics and procedures to maintain liquidity.

1. Proactive communication:还鼓励企业加强其发票工作，这些工作是通过数字方式完成的，或以新的付款方式进行的，以提醒客户按时付款。
2. Convenience:付款流程应尽可能无缝，以使客户轻松付款。例如，如果大多数客户群通过数字付款方式付费，则应在线启动还款程序，而不是以现金去商店。
3. 优先级：大流行在企业的日常运营中引起了许多混乱。企业通常会忘记或边线收集活动。因此，通过为该任务建立专门的团队或寻找收藏机构，这是必不可少的关键帐户。
4. Using analytics to assess your accounts receivable portfolio:The AR portfolio will vary depending on each business. But as a general format, businesses can split accounts into a three-tier system of good, fair, and poor. This will help identify which accounts are more likely to repay and those that are likely to default.

Average Collection period by industry

取决于行业，该指标会有所不同。例如，众所周知，某些行业以高平均应收账款日而闻名，例如以下内容：

• Management companies
• 石油公司
• 天然气公司
• Technical and trade schools
• 汽车租赁和租赁公司
• Engineering companies
• 建筑公司
• Outpatient care centers

相比之下，私有公司和科技公司的收集期较短，为30至40天。为了更好地了解收集期内的多样性，我们将研究以下行业：

1.农业和林业：该行业的收集期限稍长，因为供应商和买方之间的关系是建立在相互信任的基础上的。

• 农业和林业商品的季节性通常批量出售给政府或大型商人。
• 由于这些通常是具有合同和现有合作伙伴安排的可信赖的机构，因此可以帮助降低较长的收集期风险。

2. Construction and real estate:This industry will emphasize shorter collection periods because real estate frequently requires ongoing financial flow to support its operations.

• 例如，巨额费用将是购买材料并雇用劳动力。一旦建筑物完成并提供一致的收入流，这将得到报销。

3. Medical and healthcare:Collecting payments in this industry is challenging.

• 这是因为付款是通过第三方（例如保险）处理的。保险公司将需要进行彻底的调查，以授权付款可能需要很长时间。
• Therefore, healthcare providers frequently need to stay on top of collections to guarantee that they can continue to give free treatments to non-paying customers.

Is It Better to Have a Low or High Collection Period?

Generally, having a low average collection period is preferable since it indicates that the firm can collect its accounts receivables more efficiently.

高马收集期间y indicate:

• 信用政策松散- loosening credit policy can increase sales effort. This occurs when small businesses deal with larger retailers to secure long-term partnerships to boost sales. However, this is also due to a lack of bargaining power.
• 恶化economy- this may lead to delayed payments as customers' cash flows are impacted.
• 减少收集工作- less attention is being paid to accounts receivables due to a decline in efficiency in the funding and collections department or a high staff turnover in this department.

较低的收集期可能表明：

• 更严格的信用政策- 由于经济不景气的预期，减少了working capital， 和changes in competitors' credit policies
• Shorter payment terms- 施加较短的付款条款有助于通过保留和吸引客户来增加销售工作。
• 增加收集工作- dedicating a team or sourcing externally to collect outstanding debt and repayments.

但是，如前所述，收集时间很短，例如将客户丢失给拥有更宽松的收集期的客户。

结果，最好将结果与行业标准和其他竞争对手进行比较，因为它们可能会根据公司的行业而异。

It will also be helpful for businesses to compare the average collection period with其他关键绩效指标(KPIS) such asDays Sales Outstanding (DSO),收集器有效指数（CEI）,每个帐户的利润（PPA）， 和past performance to get a clearer picture of what this figure indicates.

Did you know that 49% of B2B invoices in America are overdue?

Best Practices

Integrating best practices into the collections department and team can help to improve collection efficiency.

公司可以实施的一些实践如下：

• 公司应该瞄准对于95％-99％的收款率百分比。
• 建立AR的目标范围将有助于减少收集期。
• An appropriate performance measure would be to have no more than 15 to 20% of total AR in more than 90 days.
• 概述明确的计费程序，以使客户更容易付款。
• Creating a clear internal communications system and processing invoices to track down repayments more efficiently.
• 使用邮寄付款，例如邮政信箱合作伙伴，密码箱银行业务，预先授权的支票和预先授权的借方。

Researched and authored by Freida Lee|LinkedIn

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