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Don't you know how much capital you have caught between paying suppliers and charging customers? This calculator shows you your real Cash-to-Cash cycle, how much money you have fixed and allows you to simulate improvement scenarios with benchmarks from your industry.
Find out how much capital you have trapped in your operation and how to release it with concrete data.
Enter the four details of your company and get your cash conversion cycle, fixed capital in USD and a comparative diagnosis with your industry.
The tool is free, requires no registration and works directly in the browser.
Just four pieces of information from your financial statement:
You can enter the data directly in the form or upload a file with the information. If you select industry, the calculator automatically activates the comparison with the average and top performers in your sector.
Block 1: Your C2C Cycle
The main result is the number of days in your cycle, calculated with the formula DIO + DSO − DPO, accompanied by a proportional visual bar that breaks down how many days correspond to inventory, collection and payments to suppliers.
With the data from the example: 72 + 55 − 20 = **107 days**
Block 2: Fixed working capital
The calculator translates the days of the cycle into real money: (C2C/365) × Annual Revenue.
With the data from the example: $7,328,767 USD trapped in the operating cycle. This is the capital that your company has “in transit” and that is not available to operate or grow.
Block 3: Traffic Light Diagnostics
A qualitative diagnosis classifies your result into four levels:
Block 4: Benchmark by Industry
If you selected industry, the tool shows your C2C versus the industry average and top performers, with an alert that indicates how many days you are above or below the average.
With the data from the example and the Distribution/Wholesale industry:
Block 5: Scenario Simulator
Three adjustable sliders allow you to simulate what happens to the released capital if you reduce days of inventory, accelerate collection or extend payment periods to suppliers.
Block 6: Financial Impact
An annual interest rate slider (by default 9%) calculates the real financial cost of trapped capital and the ROI of optimizing it:
El cash conversion cycle (Cash-to-Cash Cycle or C2C) is the financial metric that measures how many days elapse from paying your suppliers until you collect money from your customers.
Think of it this way: When you buy inventory, your money comes out of the box. That money goes through the operation — storage, production, sale, collection — until it comes back as available cash. The C2C measures exactly how many days that journey takes. Every day that cycle lasts is a day when you can't use that capital for anything else.
A shorter cycle means better liquidity, less dependence on external credit and greater capacity to react to opportunities or unforeseen events. A long cycle, on the other hand, means that you need more working capital to sustain the same level of operation, which puts pressure on cash and increases the financial cost of the business.
The most direct analogy: C2C is the time your money spends in “standby mode” before returning to your bank account. The shorter that wait, the more times the same peso or dollar can work within the year.
The goal isn't necessarily to get to zero. It's knowing exactly where you are, comparing yourself to your industry and identifying which lever moves the number the most.
The formula is straightforward:
C2C = GOD + DSO − DPO
Three components, each calculable from the company's financial statements.
It measures how many days on average inventory remains in stock before being sold.
DIO = (Average Inventory/Cost of Sales) × 365
A high DIO indicates that inventory rotates slowly: capital tied up in a product that has not yet generated income. An excessively low DIO may indicate a risk of shortages or frequent stockouts.
Measure how many days on average it takes to charge your customers after the sale is made.
DSO = (Accounts Receivable/Revenue) × 365
A high DSO means that you're funding your customers with your own capital. In B2B markets with extended payment terms, this component is often the most difficult to compress.
Measure how many days it takes on average to pay your suppliers.
DPO = (Accounts Payable/Cost of Sales) × 365
Unlike the previous two, The DPO is good for you: the longer it takes you to pay (within reason and without penalties), the longer you have that money available to operate. It is the only variable in the cycle that improves liquidity as it increases.
Let's take a distribution company with these data:
C2C = 72 + 55 − 20 = 107 days
Interpretation: from the moment this company disburses the payment to its supplier until it receives the payment from the customer, they pass 107 days with fixed capital. With annual revenues of $25,000,000, that's equivalent to $7,328,767 USD trapped in the operating cycle.
Important note: If your C2C is negative, it's not a mistake. It means that you charge customers before paying suppliers, which generates automatic positive cash flow. It is the model that companies such as Amazon or large mass-market retailers operate.
A number without context is of no use. C2C must be interpreted based on three factors: The absolute value, your industry and The trend over time.
Not all 80-day C2C are the same or require the same urgency:
Warning that many analyses miss: An artificially low C2C isn't always good. A very low DIO may indicate chronic shortages. A very low DSO may mean that you're losing sales because you require payment terms that are too strict. Optimizing C2C isn't about blindly compressing numbers; it's finding the right balance for your business model.
