How long an order takes to become cash

The cycle spans three document types, which is why nobody computes it. Joined, May measures 6 median days to issue, 1 to invoice, 24 to cash, and the seven slow invoices get names instead of dragging an average.

RuleMeasure the cycle leg by leg with medians, from landed documents joined across types, and never sum the legs, because medians do not add and pretending they do invents a number.

Neveraverage the cycle. One stuck order drags an average for a quarter; the median tells the truth and the tail gets its own list.

The cycle spans three document types, which is why nobody computes it. The joins make it a query.

◆ The legs, Maymedians, honestly separate.

Leg	Median days
Order confirmed to goods issue	6
Goods issue to invoice	1
Invoice to cash received	24

Billing speed, the 78 invoices	Invoices
Within a week of the goods issue	71
Over a week after issue	7
Invoices, May	78

The legs stay separate because medians do not sum, and writing a total would invent a number. The 78 are the register’s invoices; the seven slow ones are mostly the due list’s alumni, which is the point of valuing that gap daily. Sample values are illustrative, never client data.

◆ Why nobody computes thisthe cycle spans three documents.

Each leg lives in a different document type, so delivered reporting shows each piece and never the journey. With orders, deliveries, and billing on shared keys, the cycle is one join, and practitioners who finally see it usually find the cash leg is the whole story.

◆ The backdating pollutionleg one inherits month end.

Goods-issue backdating, visible on the deliveries page, shortens leg one on paper at every close. The entry-date column keeps the measurement honest while the posting date keeps the books consistent.

Use case

Problem

Cycle time is a guess spanning three documents, averages hide the tail, and the cash leg’s dominance surprises everyone annually.

What we build

Legs measured as medians from joined documents, tails listed with owners, backdating excluded from the measurement honestly.

What you get

A cycle you can shorten: the dominant leg obvious, stuck documents named instead of averaged, and a measurement month end cannot flatter.

Which leg of your cash cycle is the long one?

We join the three documents and answer in a day.

Talk to us

Terms on this page

SAP: The vendor. Systems, Applications, and Products in data processing.
HANA: SAP’s in-memory database, the platform S/4 runs on.
SD: Sales and Distribution, the order-to-cash module.
leg: One hop of the cycle, measured alone.
median: The honest middle; immune to one stuck order.
the tail: The slow minority, listed with owners.
cash leg: Invoice to payment; usually the story.