How To Calculate Days Payable Outstanding in SAP | Arithmix

Calculating days payable outstanding (DPO) is an important metric for any business, as it helps to determine how long it takes for a company to pay its suppliers. This metric is especially important for businesses that rely heavily on credit from their suppliers. In this article, we will discuss what DPO is, why it's valuable to calculate it, and how to calculate it in SAP.

What Is Days Payable Outstanding?

Days payable outstanding (DPO) is a financial metric that measures the average number of days it takes a company to pay its suppliers for goods and services. This metric is calculated by dividing the total accounts payable by the average daily cost of goods sold. The resulting number represents the average number of days it takes a company to pay its suppliers.

DPO is an important metric for businesses because it helps to determine how efficiently a company is managing its cash flow. A high DPO may indicate that a company is taking longer to pay its suppliers, which could lead to strained relationships and potential supply chain disruptions. On the other hand, a low DPO may indicate that a company is paying its suppliers too quickly, which could negatively impact cash flow and profitability.

When Is It Valuable To Calculate Days Payable Outstanding?

Calculating DPO is valuable for any business that relies on credit from its suppliers. This includes businesses in industries such as manufacturing, retail, and healthcare. By calculating DPO, businesses can identify areas where they can improve their cash flow management and strengthen relationships with their suppliers.

For example, if a business has a high DPO, it may want to consider negotiating better payment terms with its suppliers or implementing more efficient payment processes. On the other hand, if a business has a low DPO, it may want to consider extending payment terms to improve cash flow and profitability.

How to Calculate Days Payable Outstanding in SAP

To calculate DPO in SAP, you will need to gather the following information:

• Total accounts payable
• Average daily cost of goods sold

Once you have this information, you can use the following formula to calculate DPO:

DPO = Total accounts payable / (Average daily cost of goods sold)

For example, if a company has $100,000 in accounts payable and an average daily cost of goods sold of $10,000, the DPO would be:

DPO = $100,000 / $10,000 = 10 days

This means that, on average, it takes the company 10 days to pay its suppliers.

In conclusion, calculating DPO is an important metric for any business that relies on credit from its suppliers. By understanding what DPO is, why it's valuable to calculate it, and how to calculate it in SAP, businesses can improve their cash flow management and strengthen relationships with their suppliers.

How Do You Calculate Days Payable Outstanding in SAP

SAP itself isn’t naturally geared towards letting you calculate complex metrics like Days Payable Outstanding. As an alternative, teams typically use products like Arithmix to import data from SAP and build out dashboards.

What is Arithmix?

Arithmix is the next generation spreadsheet - a collaborative, web-based platform for working with numbers that’s powerful yet easy to use. With Arithmix you can import data from systems like SAP, combine it with data from other systems, and create calculations like Days Payable Outstanding.

In Arithmix, data is organized into Tables and referenced by name, not by cell location like a spreadsheet, simplifying calculation creation. Data and calculations can be shared with others and re-used like building blocks, vastly streamlining analysis, model building, and reporting in a highly scalable and easy to maintain platform. Data can be edited, categorized (by dimensions) and freely pivoted. Calculations are automatically copied across a dimension - eliminating copy and paste of formulas.

Arithmix is fully collaborative, giving your entire team access to your numbers and the ability to work together seamlessly.

Calculating Days Payable Outstanding in Arithmix

Calculating metrics like Days Payable Outstanding is simple in Arithmix. Once you've created your free account, you’ll be able to import your SAP data, and use it to create natural language formulas for metrics like Days Payable Outstanding.

Arithmix is designed to give you the power to build any calculations you want on top of your SAP data, while also being easy to use and collaborate on. You can share your dashboards with users inside and outside of your organisation, making it easy to empower your whole team.