Days sales outstanding (DSO)
DSO is the average number of days it takes to get paid after a sale — a single number for how fast invoices turn into cash.
Days sales outstanding (DSO) is the average time between making a sale and collecting the cash for it — one number that captures how quickly your invoices actually get paid.
How it works
- Take your accounts receivable balance over a period.
- Divide by the sales made in that period, then multiply by the number of days.
- The result is your average collection time in days.
A DSO of 45 on Net 30 terms means, on average, customers pay a fortnight late. Rising DSO means cash is arriving slower than it used to — even if sales look fine.
Why it matters
DSO is the plainest measure of whether your payment terms are real or aspirational. Every extra day is working capital you’ve lent to your customers for free, and money you can’t use for payroll or growth. Track it over time and it tells you whether collections are improving or quietly slipping — and it turns a vague “people pay late” into a figure you can act on.
How Fynex does it
Fynex shortens the gap DSO measures: auto-invoicing sends bills the moment work is done, branded payment links make paying immediate, and every payment reconciles itself against the open invoice. Watching DSO alongside your accounts receivable aging shows whether collections are tightening. See cash.