Days sales outstanding

Overview

The Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) chart in the Invoices tab of the Billing and Collections dashboard. It measures the average number of days it takes to collect revenue after an invoice is issued. It provides a leading indicator of cash flow efficiency.

Chart configuration

This chart is built using Metabase’s Visual Builder and uses the following settings:

• Grouping: Created At: Month

• Summarize By:

  • Sum of Invoice Total
  • Sum of Amount Due
  • Average of Trend

Trend Formula

The Trend is calculated for each invoice as:

Trend = ((invoice_total - amount_due) / invoice_total) * 30

This approximates the portion of the invoice collected to date, scaled to a 30-day collection cycle.

Sample chart output

• Sum of Invoice Total: Total invoiced amount for all invoices created in February 2025.
• Sum of Amount Due: Remaining unpaid amount as of query time.
• Average of Trend: Average time-to-collection estimate across all invoices in that month.

SQL behind the chart

The SQL below is auto-generated by Metabase and reflects the configuration above:

SELECT
  toStartOfMonth(source.created_at) AS created_at,
  SUM(source.invoice_total) AS sum,
  SUM(source.amount_due) AS sum_2,
  AVG(source.Trend) AS avg
FROM
  (
    SELECT
      invoices.status AS status,
      invoices.invoice_total AS invoice_total,
      invoices.amount_due AS amount_due,
      invoices.created_at AS created_at,
      (
        toFloat64(invoice_total - amount_due) / NULLIF(toFloat64(invoice_total), 0.0)
      ) * 30 AS Trend
    FROM
      invoices
    WHERE
      status IN ('approved', 'paid', 'partially_paid')
  ) AS source
GROUP BY
  toStartOfMonth(source.created_at)
ORDER BY
  toStartOfMonth(source.created_at) ASC

Additional notes

• Metric Interpretation: A lower average Trend implies slower collections; a higher value means faster payment realization.
• Data Source: invoices table
• Filter: Only invoices with status in ('approved', 'paid', 'partially_paid') are included.
• Time Dimension: created_at is bucketed monthly using toStartOfMonth.