The State of Order-to-Cash 2026

We asked more than 400 credit, AR, and finance leaders—at manufacturers, wholesale distributors, building material suppliers, transportation & logistics providers, and food and beverage companies—about the current state of order-to-cash. Not which systems they use, but what happens in the gaps between them.

The big takeaway? 73 percent told us their order-to-cash process directly affected their company’s cash position or its ability to operate in the past 12 months, and half of that group said it affected them significantly.

We specifically asked about order-to-cash from end-to-end: their credit approval process, their ordering and invoicing processes, how they get paid and reconcile those payments, and how they handle collections. That means their own process, not just their customers, is part of the problem.

Order-to-cash has been a challenging, manual process for as long as companies have been transacting. So why is it still costing them?

In this report, you’ll learn:

• Why the credit approval delay isn't really about speed
• Why 77% of teams chase down information at least once a week, and what it's costing them
• What credit and finance leaders say would actually fix it, and what didn't make the list