Days' payables outstanding is frequently used to determine if a company
pays its bills slowly, yet for for some companies, months' payables
outstanding may be a better measure.
CFO recently discussed
45 publicly traded companies that had an average days' payables
outstanding of 212.3 days. The longest had a days' payable of 585.9
days, or almost 20 months! Although the article touts a long payables
period as beneficial because "the company is able to deploy cash to
other uses," it is also forcing the company's suppliers to finance part
of the company's operations.