Walmart’s suppliers fund more than its entire inventory
At the end of January 2026, Walmart owed its suppliers $63.1B. Its inventory was worth $58.9B.
Shoppers pay at the register. The retailer pays its vendors weeks later, and the cash in between funds the business.
The gap has grown. Walmart’s payables were 84% of its inventory in January 2009.
They passed 100% in January 2018, years before the 2021 inflation spike. They’ve been above 100% at 7 of the 9 year ends since.
Accounts payable covers every vendor Walmart owes. So this ratio shows how much all its suppliers fund, not CPG brands alone.
Accounts payable as a share of inventory, at each fiscal year end
Above 100%, the retailer owes its vendors more than its stock is worth. Hover for each year.
Years are labelled by the calendar year that contains most of the fiscal year: Walmart’s year ending January 2026 is 2025. Amazon is left out at 318%: its cost of sales and payables mix retail with services, so the ratio isn’t comparable. Kroger is in the table with a note on its inventory accounting.
The largest brands do the same to their own suppliers
Days payable shows how long, on average, a company holds its bills: accounts payable divided by cost of sales, times 365.
P&G’s figure rose from 56 days in fiscal 2009 to 137 days in fiscal 2026. Walmart’s is 43 days.
The pattern holds across the largest CPG companies.
Take the 11 with more than $10B in revenue and data for both years. Their median rose from 52 days in 2009 to 111 in 2025.
Mondelez, Kimberly-Clark, General Mills and Coca-Cola are all above 100 days.
Days payable: large CPG companies and Walmart
Accounts payable ÷ cost of sales × 365, at each fiscal year end.
Keurig Dr Pepper is left out. Its reported history switches from Dr Pepper Snapple to Keurig at the 2018 merger. Its latest figure is 144 days.
Smaller brands absorb the difference
Big and small CPG companies wait about as long to collect. The median is 33 days for companies over $10B, 34 for $1B to $10B, and 32 under $1B.
The difference is on the paying side. Companies over $10B hold their own suppliers’ bills for a median 105 days. Companies under $1B hold them for 34.
The cash conversion cycle combines both with inventory: days to collect, plus days of inventory, minus days payable.
It counts how long each dollar is tied up between paying for materials and getting paid.
Cash conversion cycle by revenue band, latest fiscal year
One dot per company. Left of zero, suppliers fund the cycle. Right of zero, the company funds it. Hover or tab to a dot for details.
Revenue band uses latest annual revenue. Dots beyond 200 days are drawn at the edge of the scale. Companies whose latest 10-K is older than fiscal 2024 are excluded.
What the gap costs your brand
Enter your own figures. Defaults are medians for the 42 public CPG companies here with revenue under $10B. Nothing you enter leaves this page.
9% is a placeholder, not a market rate. Use the rate on your credit line.
Money a retailer has short-paid while you contest it. You fund it until it’s resolved.
How it works: receivables = revenue × days to collect ÷ 365. Inventory and payables use cost of goods, which is revenue × (1 − gross margin). Cash tied up = receivables + inventory − payables + disputed deductions.
Supplier finance gets you paid early, for a fee
Since 2023, US companies have had to disclose their supplier finance programs under ASU 2022-04.
In these programs, a supplier can sell an approved invoice to a bank or other finance provider and get paid before the due date. The supplier pays the discount.
In their latest fiscal years, the companies in our data settled $125.3B of invoices through these programs. Walmart settled $40.1B of that.
Invoices settled through supplier finance programs, latest fiscal year
Each company’s own latest fiscal year, so periods differ (Walmart: year to January 2026; P&G: year to June 2026). XBRL tag SupplierFinanceProgramObligationDecreaseSettlement. Companies that don’t tag it aren’t shown.
Every company, every year
Sort by any column, or pick a year. Each company name links to the 10-K its figures come from.
| Company | Days payable | Days to collect | Days of inventory | Cash cycle | Payables / inventory |
|---|
A blank cell means the company doesn’t report that line in a comparable XBRL tag that year. Target, for example, doesn’t report receivables as a separate line. Hover for notes on series breaks.
How we built this
Every figure comes from 10-K filings, pulled through the SEC EDGAR XBRL API.
We use year-end balance sheet values, not averages, so you can check any number against the filing. When a company restated a value, the most recent 10-K wins.
- Days payable = accounts payable ÷ cost of sales × 365.
- Days of inventory = inventory ÷ cost of sales × 365.
- Days to collect = accounts receivable ÷ revenue × 365.
- Cash conversion cycle = days to collect + days of inventory − days payable.
- Charts label each fiscal year by the calendar year that contains its midpoint, so retailers and manufacturers line up.
- Text about a single company uses that company’s own fiscal-year name.
The 58 manufacturers are US-listed 10-K filers that make food, beverage, household, personal care or pet products sold mainly through retail.
Foreign filers such as Unilever and Nestlé file different reports and aren’t included. Acquired companies stay in the data up to their last 10-K.
Limits
- Accounts payable includes non-merchandise vendors. Payables to inventory measures funding by all of a retailer’s vendors, not only CPG brands.
- Days payable is a balance-sheet ratio, not a payment term. Cost of sales includes costs that never pass through payables, such as labor and depreciation.
- Days to collect covers all of a manufacturer’s customers. Receivables are net of allowances, and a company that sells receivables reports fewer days.
- Retailer and manufacturer figures are industry-level comparisons, not matched buyer-seller pairs.
- Walmart and Dollar General value much of their inventory at LIFO cost, which reads lower in inflationary years. Walmart doesn’t disclose the FIFO difference.
- Walmart’s ratio was already 106% in January 2019, before the inflation spike.
- Retailer year ends fall after the holidays, when inventory is low.
- Public companies only. Private mid-market brands don’t file 10-Ks, which is why the calculator takes your own figures.
The scripts that rebuild this data from EDGAR are versioned with the site. We rerun them when new 10-Ks are filed.
Use this data
The charts and data are free to use with a link to this page. Suggested citation:
Find the cash your deductions are holding back
Disputed deductions are the part of your cash gap you can recover without renegotiating terms. We trace each one to its root cause in fourteen days, from $2,500.