“Days Sales Outstanding,” or DSO, is defined by Staffing Industry Analysts’ online Lexicon of workforce solutions ecosystem terms as a company’s average collection period. A low number of days indicate that the company collects its outstanding receivables quickly. The DSO figure is an index of the relationship between outstanding receivables and sales achieved over a given period.

This is a critical consideration for staffing firms that are required (by law in some countries) to pay employees on a frequent basis (normally weekly) while receiving payment from clients could take significant amounts of time.

In Europe, DSO is more commonly referred to as Debtor Days.

As the ecosystem evolves, SIA’s mission is to keep the language current for professionals in the space.