This past weekend gave us a unique opportunity to watch some of the most elite athletes in the world perform in their primes in both the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics.

These sporting events have been phenomenal, and it is such a pleasure watching these amazing athletes perform on the world’s stage under unfathomable pressure.

If there is one consistent theme that comes from these high-level performances is the absolute belief that every one of these athletes has reached their pinnacle of performance through practice, training, and coaching. Over and over, you hear them talking about getting in their “reps” (short for repetitions) and how many times they practiced their performances.

So, if the best athletes in the world can get better by practicing, we can’t business people?

In 2022 and beyond they can and more importantly they should!

I have been hearing something a little different during the recent set of Earning calls delivered by CEOs to Wall Street analysts. Right upfront, many executives are warning their shareholders that a little know rule change to the tax code is going to have a potentially huge impact on businesses and business decision-making in 2022 and beyond.

In my last blog on 3 Ways of Improving Days Sales Outstanding, I shared thoughts and insight on one of the newer metrics of financial management that many organizations are focusing on. I was fascinated by the response and had several great conversations about it and how the information was helpful in terms of immediate application to the decision-making required to improve the DSO.

One of the conversations I had with a former business acumen workshop participant who is a Supply Chain leader led to an interesting dialogue on another related topic called the Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC) and this blog will share some interesting content on that emerging concept as well.

I can say with some certainty that most of the readers of this blog didn’t wake up this morning hoping that I would write about ways of improving Days Sales Outstanding (DSO).

If you have no idea what I am talking about, you are not alone. Days Sales Outstanding is one of those financial terms that in years past were kept in the background by finance departments but today has become a key metric that matters.

What is Days Sales Outstanding?

Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) is a measure of the average number of days that it takes a business to collect payment for a sale. Typically, a business offers its customer credit terms (how long it takes for them to pay you) which extends the time it takes to collect the cash. DSO is often determined on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that most of the ideas and things shared come from real-world dialogues and experiences either from an Advantexe training program or interviews and research I am conducting as part of the development of new programs.