Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI), Columbus, Ohio, this week released its monthly TRENDS report, showing the average sales performance by HARDI distributors was an increase of 2% percent during October.

The average annual sales growth for the 12 months through October 2020 is 3.1%.

“Sales growth during October was trimmed by one less billing day,” said HARDI Market Research & Benchmarking Analyst Brian Loftus. “We estimate the sales growth for the month would have been near 6.5% with the same number of billing days.”

The Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), a measure of how quickly customers pay their bills, is now at 43 days.

“DSO is increasing month-to-month since July consistent with the normal seasonal pattern, but remains much lower than the prior year level,” said Loftus. “An unusual combination of events led to a larger than normal share of cash transactions and historically low DSO levels. This is another one of the many unusual features of 2020.

“2020 is ending with encouraging economic trends like the strong retail sales report and strong housing market reports,” Loftus added. “The recovery remains at risk while the pandemic risk persists. If the health care system gets overloaded, it will interfere with progress like our overloaded trucking system this summer.”