Key finding:
Professional services had $22.11 in trade receivables for each $100 of trailing revenue. Retail had $4.30.
That is a 5.1 times gap.
The data are for Q1 2026.
They come from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Raw dollar totals can tell a different story.
A big sector may have more receivables because it also has more sales.
So RecurSave compared receivables with revenue.
Accounts Receivable by Industry
| Sector | Trade receivables ($m) | 12-month revenue ($m) | Per $100 of revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Professional services* | 218,475 | 988,240 | $22.11 |
| Information | 269,092 | 1,915,002 | $14.05 |
| Mining | 52,371 | 425,986 | $12.29 |
| Wholesale trade | 423,321 | 3,911,102 | $10.82 |
| Retail trade | 189,828 | 4,411,031 | $4.30 |
*Professional and technical services, except legal services.
RecurSave calculations from U.S. Census Bureau data. Source values are in millions of dollars.
What the Data Show
Professional services had the highest rate of the five sectors.
It had $22.11 in trade receivables for each $100 of trailing revenue.
Retail had the lowest rate.
It had $4.30 for each $100 of revenue.
The professional services rate was 5.1 times the retail rate.
Wholesale tells a different story.
It had the most receivables in raw dollars.
Its balance was $423.321 billion.
Professional services had $218.475 billion.
But wholesale also had far more revenue.
After we account for revenue, wholesale fell below professional services.
Its rate was $10.82 per $100 of revenue.
Method
RecurSave used the Census Bureau's Quarterly Financial Report.
We used trade receivables from Q1 2026.
We then added four quarters of revenue.
Those quarters ran from Q2 2025 to Q1 2026.
We divided trade receivables by that revenue total.
Then we multiplied the result by 100.
The formula is:
Q1 trade receivables ÷ 12-month revenue × 100
The Census data cover corporations with at least $50 million in assets.
The professional services group does not include legal services.
Limitations
This study covers large corporations.
It does not cover all U.S. businesses.
It is not a small-business benchmark.
The rate does not show overdue bills.
It does not show how fast customers pay.
It is not Days Sales Outstanding.
The Census revenue figure includes more than credit sales.
The study also joins two types of figures.
Receivables are measured at one point in time.
Revenue covers a full 12 months.
Retail also uses a different QFR quarter rule.
The source data are not adjusted for seasons.
Census may change the figures in later updates.
The data show a gap between sectors.
They do not tell us why the gap exists.
Why the Finding Is Useful
Raw totals can be hard to compare.
Industries vary a lot in size.
Revenue gives each sector a common base.
That changes the ranking.
Wholesale had almost twice as many receivables as professional services in raw dollars.
But professional services had the higher rate after revenue was taken into account.
That is the useful part of this measure.
It shows something the raw dollar totals do not.