DSO is a behavior question. The AR cycle is an operating cadence, and cash collection runs to standard when the operating system holds.
Optimize the AR cycle. Embed effective AR practices. Reduce DSO through behavior change. The capability that frees cash trapped in the receivables cycle.
Days Sales Outstanding moves on the same operating disciplines that move productivity. The AR team is a frontline function with its own supervisory cadence; the customer-facing collectors run their own version of the eight Active Management Behaviours; the AR cycle has its own standard work, its own escalation routes, its own daily and weekly review. Proudfoot installs the operating discipline that lets the CFO see the cash and that lets the AR organization collect it.
Where cash collection leaks.
Cash collection leaks at three points. The AR cycle is held together by manual workflow that hides the structural inefficiency. The AR practices in place are run informally, where the collector improvises and the cycle drifts. The DSO is held against an industry benchmark that does not match the operating reality of the customer base; the leakage absorbs cash that the business should hold.
The lever is structural and operational. The AR cycle redesigned against operating reality; the collection practices coached against an observable model; the DSO managed by behavior at the collector level rather than by escalation at the back of the cycle.
Three sub-capabilities. One operating discipline.
Optimise the AR cycle
The cycle redesigned end to end. Invoicing accuracy at the front; dispute resolution coached as a structured discipline; collection cadence run to standard; structural escalation when the cycle exceeds the band.
Embed effective AR practices
Standard work for the collector; coaching cadence for the AR supervisor; performance routines on the AR frontline sized to the operating reality of the customer base.
Reduce DSO through behaviour change
The behavioural lever applied to the AR organisation. Customer-facing collectors coached against an observable model; supervisor cadence rebuilt against the 8 Active Management Behaviours; DSO held to the right band shift after shift.
Where cash collection discipline runs.
The capability is industry-blind by design; AR discipline holds across operations where the customer cycle is operating-led. Most visible across:
- Manufacturing: multi-customer industrial sales, AR cycle on long-cycle commercial relationships.
- Cement and Building Materials: building products customer base, regional AR.
- Chemicals: specialty and commodity AR cycles.
- Food and Beverage: CPG channel AR, distributor cycles.
- Paper and Packaging: converter customer AR, B2B cycles.
Cross-functional, with operating leadership at the center.
Accelerate Cash Collection is structurally cross-functional, sized at the boundary between commercial, operations, and finance.
The capability also sits adjacent to the commercial discipline that Optimize Price and Increase Sales Effectiveness cover.
The methodology backbone.
The Proudfoot System runs the engagement across five phases and 86 steps. The Proudfoot MOS (the 6+4 Element Framework) is the operating cadence on the AR frontline; the 8 Active Management Behaviours (8AMBs) translated to the AR supervisor are the behavioural spine; Proudfoot SIC runs the daily and weekly cadence on the AR cycle; Aerial Mapping structures the executive interview at engagement entry across finance, commercial, and operations; MOS Critic scores the AR operating system.
The full methodology lives on the methodology page.
What it looks like when it lands.
DSO reduced through behavioural discipline on the AR frontline.
Customer-facing collectors coached against an observable model; supervisor cadence rebuilt against the 8AMBs profile; AR cycle redesigned end to end.
Building products receivables redesigned across a multi-region operation.
Standard work for the collector; coaching cadence for the AR supervisor; DSO held to the right band.
CPG distributor receivables across a multi-site CPG operation.
Cycle redesigned; collection cadence rebuilt; working capital released through structural AR discipline.
Talk to our cash collection team.
AR and working capital across complex commercial structures.
Manufacturing AR and customer cycles.
Five days on the AR cycle.
Two senior Proudfoot operators on the priority site for five working days. Proudfoot AI reading the AR data, the customer cycle patterns, and the corpus first, remotely. MOS Critic on the AR operating system, day-in-the-life-of on the AR collector and supervisor, quantified opportunity hypothesis sized to the cash collection lever.