Days Payable Outstanding (DPO) is an important financial metric for businesses that measures the average number of days it takes a business to pay its suppliers. This metric can be calculated by dividing the total accounts payable balance by the average daily purchases during the period in question. In order to benchmark their performance, businesses use the DPO industry average to compare the time it takes for them to pay their suppliers with other companies in the same sector. The DPO average tells us how many days on average companies are taking to pay their creditors and provides insight into their cash flow management.