calculate_days_payables_outstanding
Calculate days payables outstanding (DPO): the average number of days a company takes to pay its suppliers. Formula: DPO = 365 / Payables Turnover. WHEN TO USE: Use to measure how long a company holds onto cash before paying suppliers — a source of working-capital financing. WHEN NOT TO USE: Do NOT treat very high DPO as always positive — it can indicate cash stress or strained supplier relationships. BEHAVIOUR: pure deterministic calculation — no side effects, no network or storage access; idempotent and non-destructive; identical inputs always produce identical outputs. Division by zero or non-finite inputs returns an explicit error instead of a number. RETURNS: JSON object { days_payables_outstanding: number of days (e.g. 48.7), inputs }. PARAMETERS: cogs_or_purchases (required): Cost of goods sold or purchases for the period, e.g. 600000. Must be > 0. begin_payables (required): Accounts payable at period start, e.g. 70000. Must be >= 0. end_payables (required): Accounts payable at period end, e.g. 90000. Must be >= 0.
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| end_payables | Yes | Accounts payable at period end, e.g. 90000. Must be >= 0. | |
| begin_payables | Yes | Accounts payable at period start, e.g. 70000. Must be >= 0. | |
| cogs_or_purchases | Yes | Cost of goods sold or purchases for the period, e.g. 600000. Must be > 0. |