In management accounting, the Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC) measures how long a firm will be deprived of cash if it increases its investment in resources in order to expand customer sales. It is thus a measure of the liquidity risk entailed by growth. However, shortening the CCC creates its own risks: while a firm could even achieve a negative CCC by collecting from customers before paying suppliers, a policy of strict collections and lax payments is not always sustainable.
[edit] Definition
| CCC | = | # days between disbursing cash and collecting cash in connection with undertaking a discrete unit of operations. |
| = | Inventory conversion period | | + | Receivables conversion period | | – | Payables conversion period |
| = | Avg. Inventory
COGS / 365 | | + | Avg. Accounts Receivable
Revenue / 365 | | – | Avg. Accounts Payable
COGS / 365 | | |
[edit] Derivation
The generic equation is written to model the time between disbursing cash and collecting cash for a retailer that buys and sells on account.
- Since a retailer's operations consist in buying and selling inventory, the equation models the time between (1) disbursing cash to satisfy the accounts payable created by sale of a unit of inventory, and (2) collecting cash to satisfy the accounts receivable generated by that sale.
- The CCC cannot be directly observed in cashflows, because these are also influenced by investment and financing activities; it must be derived from Statement of Financial Position data associated with the firm's operations. For a cash-only firm, data on sales operations (e.g. changes in inventory) would suffice, because disbursing cash and collecting cash would be accompanied by purchase of inventory and sale of inventory, respectively. However, no such 1:1 correspondence exists for a firm that buys and sells on account: Increases and decreases in inventory do not occasion cashflows but accounting vehicles (receivables and payables, respectively); increases and decreases in cash will remove these accounting vehicles (receivables and payables, respectively) from the books. Thus, the CCC must be calculated by tracing a change in cash through its effect upon receivables, inventory, payables, and finally back to cash—thus, the term cash conversion cycle, and the observation that these four accounts "articulate" with one another.
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| Label | Transaction | Accounting (use different accounting vehicles if the transactions occur in a different order) |
| A | Suppliers (agree to) deliver inventory - →Firm owes $X cash (debt) to suppliers
| - Operations (increasing inventory by $X)
- →Create accounting vehicle (increasing accounts payable by $X)
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| B | Customers (agree to) acquire that inventory - →Firm is owed $Y cash (credit) from customers
| - Operations (decreasing inventory by $X)
- →Create accounting vehicles (booking "COGS" expense of $X; accruing revenue and increasing accounts receivable of $Y)
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| C | Firm disburses $X cash to suppliers - →Firm removes its debts to its suppliers
| - Cashflows (decreasing cash by $X)
- →Remove accounting vehicle (decreasing accounts payable by $X)
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| D | Firm collects $Y cash from customers - →Firm removes its credit from its customers.
| - Cashflows (increasing cash by $Y)
- →Remove accounting vehicle (decreasing accounts receivable by $Y.)
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Taking these four transactions in pairs, analysts draw attention to five important intervals, referred to as conversion cycles (or conversion periods):
- the Cash Conversion Cycle emerges as interval C→D (i.e. disbursing cash→collecting cash).
- the payables conversion period (or "Days payables outstanding") emerges as interval A→C (i.e. owing cash→disbursing cash)
- the operating cycle emerges as interval A→D (i.e. owing cash→collecting cash)
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- the inventory conversion period or "Days inventory outstanding" emerges as interval A→B (i.e. owing cash→being owed cash)
- the receivables conversion period (or "Days sales outstanding") emerges as interval B→D (i.e.being owed cash→collecting cash
Knowledge of any three of these conversion cycles permits derivation of the fourth (leaving aside the operating cycle, which is just the sum of the inventory conversion period and the receivables conversion period.)
Hence,
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| interval {C → D} | = | interval {A → B} | + | interval {B → D} | – | interval {A → C} |
| CCC (in days) | = | Inventory conversion period | + | Receivables conversion period | – | Payables conversion period |
In calculating each of these three constituent Conversion Cycles, we use the equation TIME =LEVEL/RATE (since each interval roughly equals the TIME needed for its LEVEL to be achieved at its corresponding RATE).
- We estimate its LEVEL "during the period in question" as the average of its levels in the two balance-sheets that surround the period: (Lt1+Lt2)/2.
- To estimate its RATE, we note that Accounts Receivable grows only when revenue is accrued; and Inventory shrinks and Accounts Payable grows by an amount equal to the COGS expense (in the long run, since COGS actually accrues sometime after the inventory delivery, when the customers acquire it).
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- Payables conversion period: Rate = [inventory increase + COGS], since these are the items for the period that can increase "trade accounts payables," i.e. the ones that grew its inventory.
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- NOTICE that we make an exception when calculating this interval: although we use a period average for the LEVEL of inventory, we also consider any increase in inventory as contributing to its RATE of change. This is because the purpose of the CCC is to measure the effects of inventory growth on cash outlays. If inventory grew during the period, we want to know about it.
- Inventory conversion period: Rate = COGS, since this is the item that (eventually) shrinks inventory.
- Receivables conversion period: Rate = revenue, since this is the item that can grow receivables (sales).
[edit] See also
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