Cash gap calculator
Could your inventory be holding back growth?
Money committed to inventory is money you can’t use for your next order or your next hire. Estimate the funding your inventory cycle needs, then explore what a shorter cash gap could change.
Start with the example below, then enter your own estimates. No email required.
Sales and margin
Your sales and the landed cost of the products you sell.
Average monthly sales after discounts and returns, excluding sales tax. You can type 100k or 1.2m.
Percentage of net sales remaining after product, freight, and duties, before operating expenses. This is margin, not markup.
Landed cost of goods: $25,000 per month
Timing
Follow an average product from placing the order to receiving customer cash.
Include production, shipping, and receiving. Count the time waiting for a sale in the field below.
Days from ready-to-sell until a product sells. If a shipment sells evenly over 90 days, use about 45 days. Include slow sellers in your estimate.
Use days from placing the order, even if your terms start at the invoice date. Pay at order? Enter 0. Assumes one payment; deposits and staged payments are excluded.
Average days from a sale until the cash reaches your bank. Use your actual card payout delay or customer collection time.
Growth
Explore the additional product funding higher sales could require.
Increase in sales you want to explore, assuming the same margin and payment timing.
Estimated product funding
On average, customer cash arrives 63 days after you pay the supplier. This estimates the product costs you may need to fund while you wait.
Illustrative product-cost estimate for steady sales and replenishment. Excludes operating expenses, deposits, unsold stock, and seasonal peaks.
Estimated product funding: $52,500. On average, customer cash arrives 63 days after you pay the supplier. This estimates the product costs you may need to fund while you wait.
- Average cash gap
- 63 days
- Average time to sell
- 45 days
- Additional product funding for 20% growth
- $10,500
- Daily landed cost
- $833
Growth assumes the same margin and timing. A seasonal cash forecast may differ.
What could a shorter cash gap change?
Shortening the average gap by 30 days could reduce this product-funding estimate by $25,000.
Try faster selling, quicker customer payments, or agreed longer supplier terms in the inputs. This scenario keeps sales and margin the same.
Stackless connects your sales, inventory, and accounting data to help you find the slow-moving products and payment delays behind your cash needs.
Find the delays in my businessAverage product payment timeline
Products sell and customer cash arrives throughout the selling period. These bars follow an average product from order to payment. Hover or tap for the days in each phase.
View as table
| Phase | Starts (day) | Ends (day) | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time until supplier payment | 0 | 30 | 30 days |
| Order to ready-to-sell | 0 | 45 | 45 days |
| Average time to sell | 45 | 90 | 45 days |
| Customer payment time | 90 | 93 | 3 days |
| Average cash gap | 30 | 93 | 63 days |
Estimated product funding
$52.5K
Methodology
How the calculation works
- 1
Find your landed cost
Monthly landed cost of goods is monthly sales × (1 − gross margin). We divide it by 30 for a daily figure. - 2
Estimate average selling time
Use the average time a product waits before it sells, starting when it is ready to sell. For example, a shipment sold evenly over 90 days has an average holding time of about 45 days. Products that never sell cannot be represented by a finite selling time. - 3
Find the average cash gap
Add the time from order to ready-to-sell, average selling time, and customer payment time. Subtract the days from order until supplier payment. The timeline follows an average product; individual sales bring cash back throughout the cycle. - 4
Estimate product funding
Multiply daily landed product cost by the positive cash gap. If customers pay on or before you pay the supplier, the estimate is $0. This covers product costs, not the full value of unpaid customer invoices or the peak cash needed for a shipment. - 5
Plan for growth
Estimated additional product funding is the current estimate × your planned sales growth. It assumes the same margins and timing. The shorter-gap example shows the effect of reducing a positive gap by up to 30 days; it does not predict that improvement.
This is a simplified estimate in US dollars, based on steady sales and replenishment and a 30-day month. It assumes one supplier payment covering the landed product cost, measured from the order date. It excludes deposits, staged payments, unsold stock, operating expenses, tax, borrowing costs, and seasonal peaks. It is not a current cash balance, a full working-capital calculation, or financial or accounting advice. Calculations run in your browser; sharing a results link shares the inputs in that link.
Find out what’s tying up your cash.
Stackless connects your sales, inventory, and accounting data so you can see which products are moving slowly, where payments are delayed, and how those changes affect your cash needs. Use your actual data to find where to act next.