Core Metric Catalog

Written by Uday Kumar Updated September 17, 2026 07:17

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The standard catalog holds the metrics SmartResearch uses when answering questions about payables and receivables, and this article describes them. The count above the catalog is higher wherever a tenant has added its own, so treat the screen as the authority on how many exist and this article as the reference for what the standard ones mean. Each metric carries a category badge, a plain language description, and a formula you can read. Anyone relying on a SmartResearch figure uses this article to check what the number represents.

Figure 1. The core metric catalog, showing each metric with its category, validation state and formula.

Review a metric before you rely on it, and when a figure does not reconcile with an existing report. The period, the calculation basis, and the currency treatment all appear in the formula, and most disputed numbers are explained by one of those three.

Global behavior

The following behavior applies across the catalog.

Table 1. Catalog-wide behavior

Behavior	Description
Period	Built into each formula. Days Payable Outstanding, Days Sales Outstanding, and Spend by Category use the last 90 days. Overdue Payables uses 548 days. Overdue Receivables (Last 2 Years) uses 730 days.
Billed basis	Days Payable Outstanding, Days Sales Outstanding, and the Collection Effectiveness Index use invoiced and billed amounts rather than cost of goods sold or credit sales.
Discount scope	Discount Capture Rate covers only vendors whose payment terms state an early payment discount.
Currency	Sum-based metrics evaluate for each currency and return one row per currency. Rate-based metrics return a single value.

Note: A metric’s period is separate from the Time range setting in User Preferences. Time range scopes conversational questions that carry no period of their own. It does not change a metric’s own window. For more information, see User Preferences.

Accounts payable metrics

Table 2. Accounts payable metrics

Metric	What it measures	Formula
Bills Due Next 15 Days	The number and total amount of bills due within the next 15 days, by currency.	COUNT(Bills), SUM(Bill Open Amount) WHERE Bill Due Date BETWEEN CURRENT_DATE AND CURRENT_DATE + 15 days, FOR EACH currency
Bills with PO Coverage	What percentage of bills are backed by a purchase order.	COUNT(Bills) WHERE Has PO = TRUE ÷ COUNT(Bills) × 100
Current Payables (Not Yet Due)	Unpaid amount on bills that have not reached their due date yet.	SUM(Bill Open Amount) WHERE Bill Due Date >= CURRENT_DATE, FOR EACH currency
Days Payable Outstanding (DPO, Billed Basis)	On average, how many days of billing sits unpaid, which shows how long you hold supplier cash.	SUM(Bill Open Amount) ÷ (SUM(Bill Total Amount) over the last 90 days ÷ 90)
Discount Capture Rate	Of the early payment discounts offered by vendors with a stated discount term, the percentage captured.	SUM(Discount Taken) ÷ SUM(Discount Available) × 100 WHERE payment terms include an early payment discount
Invoice Hold Rate	What percentage of bills are currently on hold.	COUNT(Bills) WHERE Is On Hold = TRUE ÷ COUNT(Bills) × 100
Invoice Match Rate	What percentage of bills matched successfully to their purchase order or receipt.	COUNT(Bills) WHERE Match Status = 'Matched’ ÷ COUNT(Bills) × 100
On-Time Payment Rate	What percentage of payments were made on or before the due date.	COUNT(Payments) WHERE Payment Date <= Bill Due Date ÷ COUNT(Payments) × 100
Overdue Payables (Last 18 Months)	Total open amount on vendor bills past due, with due dates falling within the last 548 days.	SUM(Bill Open Amount) WHERE Bill Due Date < CURRENT_DATE AND Bill Due Date >= CURRENT_DATE − 548 days, FOR EACH currency
Payables Aging Buckets	Unpaid amounts grouped by days past due: 1 to 30, 31 to 60, 61 to 90, and over 90.	SUM(Bill Open Amount) FOR EACH aging bucket, FOR EACH currency
Payables Cash Forecast	How much cash you need for bills coming due in the next 7, 30, 60, and 90 days.	SUM(Bill Open Amount) FOR EACH due-date window, FOR EACH currency
Spend by Category	Your spend broken down by expense category over the last 90 days.	SUM(Line Item Amount) FOR EACH Category, FOR EACH currency, WHERE Bill Date within the last 90 days
Total Outstanding Payables	Total unpaid amount across all vendor bills.	SUM(Bill Open Amount) FOR EACH currency

Accounts receivable metrics

Questions about collections, cash application, and credit exposure draw on these metrics, and the Formula column spells out the definition each answer applies.

Table 3. Accounts receivable metrics

Metric	What it measures	Formula
Cash Application Auto-Match Rate	What percentage of customer payments were matched to invoices automatically.	COUNT(Payments) WHERE Ready To Auto Apply = TRUE ÷ COUNT(Payments) × 100
Collection Effectiveness Index (CEI, Billed Basis)	Of the money you could have collected this period, what percentage you actually collected.	(Beginning AR + Invoiced in Period − Ending Total AR) ÷ (Beginning AR + Invoiced in Period − Ending Current AR) × 100
Credit Memo Exposure	Open credit memos: how many, their total value, and how much has not been used yet.	COUNT(Credit Memos), SUM(Memo Amount), SUM(Memo Amount Unapplied) WHERE Memo Status = Open, FOR EACH currency
Days Sales Outstanding (DSO, Billed Basis)	On average, how many days customers take to pay you.	SUM(Invoice Open Amount) ÷ (SUM(Invoice Total Amount) over the last 90 days ÷ 90)
Dispute Rate	What percentage of invoices are disputed, and the amount at stake.	COUNT(DISTINCT Disputed Invoices) ÷ COUNT(Invoices) × 100; SUM(Disputed Amount)
Overdue Receivables	Amount owed on customer invoices past their due date.	SUM(Invoice Open Amount) WHERE Invoice Due Date < CURRENT_DATE, FOR EACH currency
Receivables Aging Buckets	Amounts owed grouped by how late: current, 1 to 30, 31 to 60, 61 to 90, and over 90 days.	SUM(Invoice Open Amount) FOR EACH aging bucket, FOR EACH currency
Total Outstanding Receivables	Total amount your customers still owe you.	SUM(Invoice Open Amount) FOR EACH currency
Unapplied Cash	Money customers paid that has not been matched to an invoice yet, which makes your receivables look worse than they are.	SUM(Payment Amount Unapplied) WHERE Payment Amount Unapplied > 0, FOR EACH currency

Working capital metric

A single metric spans both sides of the ledger: how long customers take to pay you, set against how long you take to pay vendors.

Table 4. Metric spanning payables and receivables

Metric	What it measures	Formula
Working Capital Gap	The number of days your cash is tied up: how long customers take to pay you, minus how long you take to pay vendors. A positive value means you pay out before money comes in.	Days Sales Outstanding − Days Payable Outstanding

Working Capital Gap is the only metric defined in terms of other metrics rather than raw fields, and the only one carrying two category badges.

Figure 2. Metric catalog with the category filter open

Related information

For more information, see Create or Edit a Metric.
For more information, see Metric Validation Status.
For more information, see Browse and Filter the Metric Catalog.