US Firms Improve Working Capital Despite Tough Times - Survey

According to the sixth annual Working Capital Survey produced by REL Consultancy Group for CFO Magazine, US companies are continuing to find ways to improve cash flow despite a volatile economy. On average, US companies reduced Days Working Capital – a metric that measures how many days of sales are tied up in business operations – by 5 days to 49 days in 2001. In general, improvements in cash flow were not achieved ‘on the backs of suppliers,’ evidenced by the fact that US firms paid vendors an average of five days faster in 2001. On the flip side, companies did a better job of billing and collecting from customers: average Days Sales Outstanding (‘DSO’) dropped from 53 to 47 days last year.

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