Cash paid to suppliers is the amount of actual cash that you pay to the supplier during the accounting period. This number will most likely not be equal to the amount of product costs you purchased from suppliers during the period. This is because most companies buy on credit. If the company buys on credit then it will not pay cash right away. It is possible to find the total amount of cash paid to suppliers by analyzing the company's general ledger.
Search the general ledger and highlight any cash transactions. Only highlight journal entries where you credit the "Cash" account.
Sort through the journal entries you highlighted in Step 1 and mark any journal entry where you debit either "Purchases" or a supplier's accounts payable.
Add together the accounts you marked in Step 2 to determine the total cash you paid to suppliers for the accounting period.
