When times are hard, cash is king: there’s a lot of truth in that old saying. It’s no surprise that in the current economic climate, finance officers and CFOs are scrutinising their accounts closely, looking for ways to optimise cashflow.

This article* on AP Matters looks at some existing and new metrics that help finance staff understand how fast cash is coming into the business, and how fast it’s going out again. As well as covering the established days payable outstanding (DPO) in the accounts payable department, and days sales outstanding (DSO) in accounts receivable, it also looks at emerging benchmarks that can reveal hidden credits and debits.

Of course, having an AP solution that gives you easy access to the data and metrics you need is critical. As well as seamless, end-to-end processing, you need in-depth reporting to help you identify bottlenecks or any payment issues. The PaletteArena suite of products does just that, making it simple for finance staff to get what they need, when they need it.

* http://www.iappnet.org/ViewItem-2138.do?parentCatId=1018