What is a good turnover of accounts receivable?

The accounts receivable turnover ratio is a financial metric used to measure a company’s effectiveness in collecting its receivables or money owed by customers. The ratio calculates a company’s credit sales by its average accounts receivable. A high accounts receivable turnover ratio indicates that a company collects its receivables quickly and efficiently. A low ratio indicates that the company is not managing its receivables on time.

The average accounts receivable(AR) ratio indicates whether a business is able to collect its dues efficiently. It is also known as the debtors turnover ratio. A higher AR turnover ratio indicates that the business can collect its total receivables many times over in a particular period. It is calculated by dividing the net credit sales by the average AR during a particular time period.

Businesses can also calculate the average accounts receivable days (DSO) by dividing the number of days in the accounting period by the turnover ratio. Rather than looking at the AR ratio and DSO of a business in isolation, benchmarking it against the industry average provides a better perspective of the company’s collection strategies. A lower AR ratio compared to the industry average indicates poor collections and vice-versa.

List of different industry average accounts receivable turnover ratio and DSO

Here is a list of the industry average accounts receivable turnover ratio and DSO for Q2 2022.

IndustryAR turnover ratioDSO (in days)Retail17.625.10Energy9.989.01Utilities8.3410.79Transportation7.6211.81Services7.3112.31Consumer non-cyclical12.487.211Basic materials6.9912.87Capital goods6.9812.89Healthcare6.8313.17Conglomerates6.2214.46Consumer Discretionary5.0617.78Financial0.41219.51

(Source)

How to improve your accounts receivable turnover ratio?

The accounts receivable turnover ratio is a direct measure of a company’s ability to collect its past dues. In order to improve this ratio, you need to focus on the multiple sub-functions within your order-to-cash process. 

Here are a few pointers to help you out.

What is a good turnover of accounts receivable?

1. Send invoices on time

The first step in the order-to-cash process is to send timely and well-documented invoices that clearly mention all the payment terms. It ensures there is clarity on when the customer needs to clear their dues.

2. Make it easy for the customer to pay

Businesses can make it easier for customers to pay by offering multiple payment options like checks, e-payments, and ACH. Embedding payment links in dunning emails also supports faster collections. These measures help ensure there is very little friction in the payment process.

3. Collect proactively

A proactive collection process helps businesses identify at-risk customers and reach out to them based on priority. This ensures that there are fewer delinquent accounts and that bad debt is minimized.

4. Give incentives for early payments

You can increase the chances of quicker payments by offering early payment discounts. For example, businesses can offer a 2% discount if customers pay within 10 days. If you want customers to pay upfront, you can offer higher discounts to those who pay in cash when the product/service is delivered or on a date prior to it.

How can HighRadius help lower your accounts receivable turnover ratio?

Automating the e-invoicing and collections process is the key to maintaining healthy accounts receivable turnover ratio. Automation boosts collection speed and enables your business to recover AR 75% faster.

HighRadius RadiusOne e-invoicing and collections application help streamline invoice delivery and ensure that your customers always receive it on time. It also supports multiple payment methods and a self-service portal to offer customers a frictionless payment experience.

Our solution also offers prioritized worklists making it easier for collectors to target at-risk customers. It also provides insights using real-time data and reports on what next steps to take on each customer account to maximize cash recovery.

Reach out to our representative to know more about how our solutions enable you to achieve a higher AR turnover ratio.

1. What is a good account receivable turnover ratio?

Like DSO, the accounts receivable turnover ratio varies widely from industry to industry. For example, the industry average is 17.62 for retail and 9.98 for energy. However, the general rule of thumb is that the higher the AR ratio, the better.

2. Is a high AR turnover ratio good?

The higher a business’s turnover ratio, the better it is for cash flow and day-to-day operations. It shows a company’s ability to collect its AR multiple times a year and indicates that customers pay on time.

What is a high receivable turnover?

High Receivable Turnover It means that a company collects payments from its customers relatively quickly, without a long waiting period. A high-efficiency ratio means that the company has high-quality customers who pay their debts in due time.

Is a high accounts receivable turnover good?

What Is a Good Accounts Receivable Turnover Ratio? Generally speaking, a higher number is better. It means that your customers are paying on time and your company is good at collecting.

What is average receivable turnover?

Accounts receivable turnover is the number of times per year that a business collects its average accounts receivable. The ratio is used to evaluate the ability of a company to efficiently issue credit to its customers and collect funds from them in a timely manner.

What does a receivable turnover of 5 mean?

Accounts Receivable Turnover Formula The result of this formula is expressed as the number of times net credit sales have been collected during that time period. For example, a ratio of 5 means that the accounts receivable have been collected 5 times during that time period.