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Cash Conversion Cycle - Definition, Formula, & Examples

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Synopsis:


The cash conversion cycle (CCC) shows us how much time a company takes to buy raw materials, convert them into products, sell those products to generate cash, and then use that cash to pay back its suppliers. In short, CCC shows us how efficiently a company is managing its working capital. Read more...
While CCC is an important financial indicator, you should not use it alone. For example, a company can offer massive discounts to its customers to convince them to pay earlier. This policy will reduce its CCC but will also lower its profit margin, return on equity, and return on capital employed. Hence, you should use CCC with other indicators to form a holistic view of a company’s performance.  Read less

What is the Cash Conversion Cycle?

The cash conversion cycle shows how fast a company can sell its products to its customers, get payments from its customers, and use those payments to pay back its suppliers for raw materials. Let us simplify this concept further.

All companies are in the business of earning profit by selling a product or service. To sell a product, they need to manufacture it. To manufacture it, they have to first buy raw materials. The cash conversion cycle shows us how much time a company takes to buy raw materials, convert them into products, sell those products to generate cash, and then use that cash to pay back its suppliers.

Read this blog, as it explains how to calculate the cash conversion cycle with the help of examples and discusses many aspects related to it.

Understanding the Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC) in Detail

On a daily basis, companies buy raw materials, convert them into products, and sell them in the market to generate money. The cash conversion cycle is an indicator that shows how well a company is managing its working capital (inventory, accounts receivables, & account payables), which means the funds it invests in its day-to-day operations.

Typically, a company with a shorter CCC is better than the one with a longer CCC. A shorter CCC means that a firm is able to convert its working capital investments into cash quickly. Conversely, a longer CCC shows that a firm is taking a lot of time to convert its working capital investments into cash.

Why is the Cash Conversion Cycle important?

The cash conversion cycle is important because it helps a business understand how well it is managing its working capital. If a company is taking too long to convert its working capital investments into cash, it may affect its day-to-day operations. For example, it may not have sufficient cash to pay expenses, like salaries, wages, rent, etc.

Hence, businesses have to find ways to shorten their cash conversion cycle, if possible. You may wonder how a business can ascertain whether it has a short or a long CCC. Typically, a business has to compare its CCC with that of its nearest competitors for this purpose.

Let us say that a company has a cash conversion cycle of 30 days, but its closest competitor has a CCC of 20 days. Now, that is a massive difference. The company has to analyse why a firm that operates in the same industry is able to convert its working capital investments into cash 10 days faster than it.

How to Calculate the Cash Conversion Cycle? 

The cash conversion cycle’s formula is given below:

Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC) = Days Inventory Outstanding (DIO) + Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) − Days Payables Outstanding (DPO)​

In this formula, DIO means how long a business’s inventory sits before being sold on average. DSO means how long a business takes, on average, to collect cash from its customers after selling products to them. DPO shows how long, on average, a firm takes to pay its suppliers for the raw materials it buys from them. Having discussed how to calculate the cash conversion cycle, let us dig deeper into this topic.

Stages of the Cash Conversion Cycle

A firm’s cash conversion cycle has three stages, which are explained below:

a)     Days Inventory Outstanding (DIO): This metric shows how many days a business takes to sell its inventory to generate cash. A lower DIO shows that a company is able to sell its inventory quickly; however, a higher DIO shows that it is taking longer to sell its inventory. DIO is calculated using this formula:

DIO = [Average Inventory / Cost of Goods Sold] x 365 Days

Average inventory equals the average of beginning and ending inventory for a period.

b)    Days Sales Outstanding (DSO): This indicator shows how long a company takes to collect cash from its customers. A lower value indicates that it is able to collect cash from its customers quickly, and vice versa.

DSO = Average Accounts Receivables or Average Debtors / Revenue Per Day

Average accounts receivables equals the average of beginning and ending accounts receivables for a period.

c)      Days Payables Outstanding (DPO)​: This metric shows how long a company takes to pay its suppliers. It is calculated using the formula below:

DPO = Average Accounts Payables or Average Creditors / Cost of Goods Sold Per Day

Average accounts payables equals the average of beginning and ending accounts payables for a period.

How to improve your Cash Conversion Cycle?

A firm can improve its cash conversion cycle by using these strategies:

1.     Efficient management of payables: A business should negotiate for better terms with its suppliers so that they can allow it more time to make payments for raw materials.

2.     Ensure customers pay quickly: A firm should find ways to ensure that its customers pay as quickly as they can. Of course, it cannot put pressure on them to pay early because it may lose sales. However, it may try to understand from their perspective as to why they delay paying early.

3.     Be regular in follow-ups: A business should regularly follow-up with its debtors to check when they will make the payments due. If it does not even check with its customers, they may take a long period of time to make the payments.

4.     Efficient inventory management: A business should have tight control over its inventory levels. If it keeps unsold inventory, it will lose money. On the other hand, if it buys less inventory than needed, it will lose sales.

Examples of the Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC)

The cash conversion cycle’s relevance varies from industry to industry. Let us take the case of a supermarket, which sells packaged food products, home-care products, personal-care products, etc. It buys products from suppliers and sells them to customers.

Hence, it has to maintain a check on its CCC because it should not extend too much credit to its customers and take too little credit from its suppliers. Moreover, since it deals in perishables, like cheese, bread, and butter, it needs to optimize its inventory levels.

On the other hand, software companies provide licenses of software to their clients. Hence, they do not need to maintain inventories. Therefore, they do not have to worry about paying their suppliers. Their concerns are limited to getting the money from the customers at the right time. Having discussed the examples of the cash conversion cycle, let us move on to other related aspects.

What is a good Cash Conversion Cycle?

A good cash conversion cycle should align with a business’s objective by ensuring that its customers and suppliers are happy and it is able to maintain a sufficient level of cash for its day-to-day operations.

Hence, what is a good cash conversion cycle for one company may not be a good CCC for another. To analyse a company’s cash conversion cycle, you should compare it with that of its competitors.

Besides, a lot depends upon the context as well. For example, we know that a company should try to get as much credit as possible from its suppliers. However, it should not happen at the cost of its reputation as a buyer of their products.

Similarly, a firm should try to get payments from its customers as soon as possible. However, if for this reason, its customers stop buying its products, then it will not serve the purpose.

How to reduce the Cash Conversion Cycle?

A firm can deploy a number of strategies to reduce its CCC:

  • It can use a just-in-time (JIT) system to maintain the ideal level of inventory.
  • It can offer incentives to its customers to make them pay earlier. However, it needs to ensure that the incentives do not impact its cash flows adversely. For example, if it provides a high discount, its customers may pay earlier; however, that can badly affect its cash flow position.
  • It can use automation tools to streamline its cash conversion process. Such tools reduce the scope of errors and cut down manual workload.
  • It should forecast the demand for its products correctly, which will help it maintain the right level of inventory.
  • It should negotiate better terms with its suppliers so that they can extend the time for payment while maintaining good relationships.
  • Sometimes, it makes sense to consolidate the number of suppliers because it helps a company give more business to fewer suppliers, who may be willing to extend more credit.

How does inventory turnover affect the Cash Conversion Cycle?

A firm’s inventory turnover directly affects its cash conversion cycle. When a company has a higher inventory turnover, it is able to sell its inventory faster. Hence, it is able to convert its inventory into cash faster, which reduces its CCC and is generally good for the company.

On the other hand, if a company has a lower inventory turnover, it is able to convert its inventory into cash slowly, which increases its CCC and is not good for the company.

A higher inventory turnover allows a company to improve its liquidity, cashflows, and working capital management. However, a lower inventory turnover affects a company’s liquidity, cashflows, and working capital management adversely.

Using the Cash Conversion Cycle

The cash conversion cycle can provide interesting insights into a company’s working capital management. However, you should not use this metric alone. It should be used with other indicators, like net profit margin, return on capital employed (ROCE), growth in free cash flows, and return on equity (ROE), to assess whether a company’s policies with regard to CCC are helping it to provide a better return to its shareholders or not.

Let us understand why you should not use the cash conversion cycle alone. Suppose a company’s objective is just to reduce its CCC and nothing else. It can provide discounts to its customers to convince them to pay earlier. However, such discounts may affect its net profit margin adversely. Such discounts can even reduce its cash flows, ROE, and ROCE.

Hence, CCC should be used in conjunction with other indicators.

Negative Cash Conversion Cycle

When a company receives money from its customers for the products it sells to them before it pays money to its suppliers for the raw materials it purchases from them, it has a negative cash conversion cycle.

Let us take an example. Suppose a company provides a 20-day credit to its customers. However, it gets 50 days of credit from its suppliers.

In this case, the company will get money from its customers after 20 days. Since it has 50 days to pay its suppliers, it will still have 30 more days to pay its suppliers after getting money from its customers.

A negative CCC helps a company improve its liquidity, cashflows, and working capital management. However, only a few companies manage to have a negative cash conversion cycle.

Conclusion

Whether you are about to open a demat account or are a seasoned investor in the Indian stock market, you should understand the concept of the cash conversion cycle. A company with a shorter CCC has a better grip on its risk management than a company with a longer CCC. That said, you should not use CCC alone. Along with the cash conversion cycle, you should check how well a company is performing on parameters like cash flows, return on equity, and return on capital employed to form a holistic view of its performance.

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Disclaimer: Investments in the securities market are subject to market risk, read all related documents carefully before investing.

This content is for educational purposes only. Securities quoted are exemplary and not recommendatory.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the cash conversion cycle (CCC) in financial management?

Answer Field

The cash conversion cycle shows the time taken by a company to convert its working capital investments into cash.

How is the cash conversion cycle calculated?

Answer Field

The cash conversion cycle is calculated by using the following formula:

Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC) = Days Inventory Outstanding (DIO) + Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) − Days Payables Outstanding (DPO)​

Why is the cash conversion cycle important for a business?

Answer Field

If a company takes too long to convert its working capital investments into cash, it may not have money to pay its expenses. Hence, a business has to efficiently manage its cash conversion cycle.

What factors can impact a companys cash conversion cycle?

Answer Field

The factors that can impact a company’s cash conversion cycle are: the number of days for which it gets credit from its suppliers, the number of days it allows credit to its customers, and how long it keeps its inventory before selling it.

How can a business improve its cash conversion cycle?

Answer Field

A business can do so by negotiating with its suppliers to get more time to pay for raw materials. It can also convince its customers to pay earlier. Besides, it can optimize its inventory levels.

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