It’s the most popular yardstick for companies to measure the health of their cash flow: Days Sales Outstanding (DSO). Compare your numbers against these recently-released benchmarks.

If your company’s like most, you’ve noticed that some customers have started dragging their feet a bit about paying your bills (sometimes more than a bit).

Times like these are when you find out just what your collection policies — and your collectors — are made of. Your DSO is a great report card for both.

Naturally, different industries have different standards. But compare your DSO rates against the national averages:

If you’re looking to drill even deeper, your organization will want to turn to the second incarnation of the old stand-by: Best Possible DSO. Because you calculate it this way (Current Receivables/Total Credit Sales) x Number of Days, you get some extra insight into delinquencies.

See how your Best Possible DSO stacks up against what your peers are reporting:

No need to choose one over the other — measuring both is your best bet. The closer your DSO is to your Best Possible DSO, the closer your receivables are to an optimal level.

Tags: collections, Days Sales Outstandling (DSO), Receivables