How is cash flow affected by the average collection period?

Furthermore, a lengthier collection period reduces the availability of cash for investment opportunities, whether that’s expansion, R&D, or strategic moves to outperform competitors. Over time, missing these growth opportunities can negatively impact a firm’s market position and profitability. For example, average collection period meaning 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. By automating their AR process with HighRadius Autonomous Receivables, businesses can significantly improve their order to cash cycle.

The average collection period can be found by dividing the average accounts receivables by the sales revenue. A software development company, “ACME Corp’,’ has an average accounts receivable balance of $60,000. ACME Corp now has all of the information that they need to calculate the ratio for average collection period. A longer average collection period signifies that a company is more lenient or slower in collecting its receivables. This scenario causes funds to be tied up in debtors for an extended period, potentially leading to cash flow issues.

How Do Businesses Use the Average Collection Period Calculation?

Oftentimes, companies will also consider accounts receivable write-offs in conjunction with average collection period days for a broader assessment. Creditors may also follow average collection period data and may even include threshold requirements for maintaining credit terms. The “average collection period” is a financial metric that represents the average number of days it takes for a company to convert its accounts receivables into cash. It is calculated by dividing the accounts receivable by the net credit sales and then multiplying the quotient by the total number of days in the period. As we said earlier, accounts receivable are the monies owed to a company, or in Jenny Jacks’s case, from customers who’ve been allowed to use credit.

Alternatively and more commonly, the average collection period is denoted as the number of days of a period divided by the receivables turnover ratio. While most companies figure average collection periods over the entire business year cycle, some also break it down into quarters or other periods. This is why it is important to know how to find average accounts receivable for other collection periods as well. The average accounts receivable formula is defined as the average of the beginning accounts receivable and ending accounts receivable for the collection period.

What is the Average Collection Period?

This output means that the higher the ratio of accounts receivable to daily sales, the longer it takes a business to collect its debt. The average collection period is the average number of days it takes for a credit sale to be collected. While a shorter average collection period is often better, too strict of credit terms may scare customers away.

In order to calculate the average collection period, you must calculate the accounts receivables turnover first. The accounts receivable turnover shows how many times customers pay during a year. In short, average collection period is the amount of time that elapses before an organization or company collects their accounts receivable (A/R) — the payments that are owed from clients and customers.

Examples of average collection period formula

Without this, predicting future cash flows, demand, and liquidity of the business will be tough; therefore, planning expenses and investments will be a relatively complex task. Lastly, the average collection period is a metric to evaluate the current credit arrangements and whether changes should be made to improve the working capital cycle. When businesses rely on a few large customers, they take on the risk of a delay in payment. This can lead to financial difficulties and closing down their business in the worst case.