A reader writes “we have seen a greater than average amount of advertisers slow paying or not paying their bills. Last month we did not hit our 93% collection budget. We also have more in 60-90+ than we have in a long time. I wonder if other companies are seeing this…”

The best way to measure collection times is to look at days sales outstanding (average receivables/annual revenue) times 365.  Billboard Insider’s affiliate Circle City Outdoor had slower collections as measured by days sales outstanding during the first quarter of 2021 with sharp improvement in the second quarter of 2021

Circle City Outdoor Days Sales Outstanding

The public US Out of Home companies showed an improvement in Days Sales Outstanding during the first quarter of 2021 as a healthy economy allowed clients to pay faster.

US Public Out of Home Company Days Sales Outstanding

Billboard Insider is surprised at how long it takes the public Out of Home companies to get paid.  We suspect that this is due to national receivables involving agency accounts.  Agencies can take 90-120 days to pay their bills.  One reason to be rooting for programmatic and automated platforms to succeed is that they will eliminate the delay inherent in multi-party agency transactions.

How have your company’s collections been?  Email davewestburg@billboardinsider.com.

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