A Quarterly Report for Benchmarking A/R Performance
Q3 2019 Report
Dun & Bradstreet and the Credit Research Foundation have partnered to help the commercial credit community by jointly creating this US Accounts Receivable and Days Sales Outstanding Industry Report. Use this quarterly report to benchmark your company's A/R performance against industry averages and investigate the differences. Although differences could be driven by unique company portfolios, we believe that using credit best practices play an important part in driving A/R performance.
This joint report expands upon the Credit Research Foundation's own quarterly report, the National Summary of Domestic Trade Receivables (NSDTR), by providing A/R aging percentages on considerably more industry segments. This expanded coverage of industry segments gives the credit community more value for benchmarking credit department performance, according to William F. Balduino, President and COO of the Credit Research Foundation.
The Q3 2019 report lists more than 220 US industries by SIC code, along with the percentage of Dun & Bradstreet reporting companies that are current on payments, then slow to 30 days late, slow to 60 days late, slow to 90 days late, and then severely delinquent at 91+ days late. The final column is the Credit Research Foundation’s DSO figure (for more information, see Methodology below.) The Q3 2019 report data is presented in 15 different industry segments: Agriculture, Chemicals, Construction, Consumer Goods, Energy and Utilities, Food, Machinery, Metals and Mining, Manufacturing, Retail, Professional and Business Services, Technology and Electronics, Transportation, Wholesale, and Wood and Paper.
Highlights of the Q3 report show that medical/hospital equipment distributors are reporting to Dun & Bradstreet that almost 25% of their accounts receivable dollars are paid severely delinquent (more than 90 days late). However, even those industries with severely delinquent customers still have the majority of their dollars current.
As a preview of the data available, the chart below shows the top 15 industries that paid more than 90 days late during Q3, July 1 – Sept. 30.
Top 15 Industries Getting Paid Severely Late in Q3 2019
| SIC Code | Industry | % Paying Current | Up To 30 Days Late | 30-60 Days Late | 60-90 Days Late | 91+ Days Late | CRF DSO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5047 |
Wholesale medical/hospital equipment | 50.10% |
2.37% |
16.05% |
7.26% |
24.23% |
|
| 3441 | Structural metal fabrication | 57.80% |
10.74% |
6.54% |
1.64% |
23.28% |
|
| 7371 |
Custom computer programming | 59.75% |
11.71% |
7.11% |
3.25% |
18.18% |
|
| 5142 | Wholesale packaged frozen goods | 68.28% |
13.00% |
2.01% |
1.13% |
15.58% |
|
| 7359 | Equipment rental/leasing | 50.68% |
10.49% |
15.52% |
8.23% |
15.07% |
|
| 5084 |
Wholesale industrial equipment | 51.02% |
21.05% |
8.88% |
4.43% |
14.63% |
|
| 3496 | Manufacturing misc. fabricated wire products | 68.80% |
11.23% |
3.29% |
3.34% |
13.35% |
|
| 7699 | Repair services | 64.04% |
15.68% |
5.24% |
3.03% |
12.00% |
|
| 76 | Miscellaneous repair services | 64.26% |
15.57% |
5.20% |
3.02% |
11.95% |
|
| 5141 |
Wholesale general groceries | 73.03% |
13.22% |
1.87% |
1.21% |
10.67% |
|
| 3444 |
Manufacturing sheet metalwork | 80.17% |
7.45% |
1.42% |
0.95% |
10.02% |
|
| 7353 |
Heavy construction equipment rental | 49.94% |
24.56% |
10.88% |
4.73% |
9.88% |
|
| 5113 |
Wholesale industrial/service paper | 53.51% |
16.31% |
14.71% |
5.72% |
9.75% |
|
| 73 |
Business services | 72.11% |
10.68% |
4.73% |
3.06% |
9.41% |
45.36 |
| 3535 | Manufacturing conveyors/equipment |
53.36% |
16.34% |
12.60% |
9.23% |
8.47% |
Methodology
This report is created from Dun & Bradstreet’s robust dataset of commercial accounts receivable payment data as provided by credit departments for credit reporting purposes. The DSO numbers are those collected by CRF from its NSDTR survey process. Where possible, Dun & Bradstreet’s A/R aging data and CRF’s DSO numbers are presented side by side for an industry. Both sets of data are presented when the numbers of providers and survey results meet a minimum threshold of relevance.
