Aged Receivables
Who owes you, how much, and how overdue. QuickBooks starts this at $85/mo.
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As at [date]. Ageing is measured from each due date.
| Customer | Invoice | Amount | Due | Overdue by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [add one line per invoice] | ||||
| Total owed to you | $ 0.00 |
| Ageing bucket | Amount | % of total |
|---|---|---|
| Not yet due | $ 0.00 | — |
| 1-30 days | $ 0.00 | — |
| 31-60 days | $ 0.00 | — |
| 61-90 days | $ 0.00 | — |
| Over 90 days | $ 0.00 | — |
| Total | $ 0.00 | — |
Nothing on this list is more than ninety days past due.
What is an Aged Receivables?
An aged receivables report lists every unpaid customer invoice and sorts it by how long the money has been outstanding — current, 1 to 30 days, 31 to 60, 61 to 90, over 90. A single total for debtors hides the problem: £40,000 owed can be healthy or nearly lost depending on which column it sits in. Without the ageing you chase whoever shouts loudest.
Bookkeepers, credit controllers and owner-managers run this at month end, but it earns its keep in between: before a bank conversation, before extending more credit to a customer, before handing anything to a collections agency, and in any week when payroll looks tight. Accountants ask for it at year end to support the provision for doubtful debts. If you have taken over someone else's books it is the first report to run, because it shows which inherited balances are real.
The buckets are a management convention, not a legal standard. What is governed is what you do next. Statutory interest and recovery costs on late commercial payments come from local law: the Late Payment of Commercial Debts legislation in the UK, national implementations of the EU Late Payment Directive, prompt payment statutes that differ by US state. Limitation periods for suing, and the conditions for VAT or GST bad debt relief, vary too — check the current rules with your accountant.
This is a picture of your own ledger, not evidence of what a customer owes. It records what you invoiced, so a disputed invoice, a duplicate and a genuine debt sit in the same column until you mark them differently. It is not a demand for payment, not a legal notice and not a write-off — an invoice does not stop being an asset because it crossed into the 90-plus column. It says nothing about whether a customer can pay.
What to put in an Aged Receivables
These are the details this template asks for. Anything left blank is marked in red on the preview so you can see what is still missing.
| Field | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Business name | For example: Barton Supply Co. |
| Your address | For example: Unit 7, Barton Road, Columbus, OH 43212 |
| As at date | Free text |
| Outstanding invoices | One per line: Customer | Invoice | Amount | Due date |
How to write an Aged Receivables
Set an as-at date and freeze it
Pick the date the report speaks for, usually the last day of the month, and take every figure as it stood at close of business. Payments landing the next morning belong in the next report. Re-run it a week later and the totals will have moved, so print the date on the page. A statement without one cannot be reconciled against anything.
Age from due date, not invoice date
An invoice issued on 1 March with 30-day terms is not 45 days overdue on 15 April — it is 15 days overdue. Ageing from the issue date makes every customer on long terms look delinquent and buries the ones who are. State the basis in the header so nobody reading the 90-plus column has to guess what it counts.
Give every invoice its own line
For each open item show the invoice number, issue date, due date, gross amount, anything already paid and the balance. Group the lines under the customer, then subtotal. A customer-level total is useless the moment you pick up the phone, because the first thing the other side asks is which invoice you mean and under what reference it was raised.
Separate disputes and credit notes
Mark invoices in query, and show unapplied credit notes and payments on account as their own lines rather than netting them off silently. An invoice at 90-plus days because a delivery was short is a different problem from one nobody chased. Netting also hides overpayments, which are a liability you owe back, not a reduction in what you are owed.
Total each bucket and tie it back
Add the columns across and down, then check the grand total against the debtors control account. A difference is usually a journal posted straight to the control account, a credit note raised in the wrong period, or a payment allocated to the wrong customer. Find it before you circulate the report, not after somebody else does.
Common mistakes
- Ageing from the invoice date rather than the due date makes customers on 60-day terms look overdue on day 31, so real problems disappear into the noise.
- Leaving unapplied payments and credit notes off the report inflates the balance you chase, and one call about an invoice already paid costs you the credibility you need for the next call.
- Running the report without tying it back to the debtors control account means the number you take into a board or bank meeting can be wrong by whatever was journalled straight to the ledger.
- Treating the 90-plus column as a write-off list abandons debts while they are still collectable, and leaves real losses on the books because nobody formally reviewed them.
- Adding a late payment interest line without checking the entitlement under local law produces a statement the customer can dismiss, which stalls the whole conversation.
Frequently asked questions
What is an aged receivables report?
A list of every unpaid customer invoice, grouped by customer and sorted into columns by how overdue each one is. It is also called an aged debtors report or an accounts receivable ageing. Its purpose is to turn one debtors figure into a shape you can act on: balances behaving normally, and older ones needing a call or a decision.
What are the standard ageing buckets?
Current, 1 to 30 days, 31 to 60, 61 to 90 and over 90 is the most common set, because it maps to monthly terms and monthly reporting. No rule requires it. If you sell on 14-day terms, columns of 14, 28 and 42 days tell you more. Choose buckets that match your terms and keep them consistent.
How do I work out days overdue?
Take the as-at date of the report and subtract the invoice due date. The due date is the issue date plus the agreed terms, so an invoice raised on 1 June with 30-day terms is due on 1 July and is 10 days overdue on 11 July. Where terms run to end of month following, calculate from the month end.
What is the difference between aged receivables and aged payables?
Aged receivables is money owed to you by customers and sits on the asset side. Aged payables, or aged creditors, is money you owe suppliers and sits on the liability side. The layout is nearly identical and both age from the due date, but they answer opposite questions: who is late paying you, and who you are late paying.
Should the balances include VAT or GST?
The report normally shows the gross invoice amount, because that is what the customer has to pay and the figure that ties to the debtors control account. Whether you can recover tax on an invoice that is never paid is a separate question, with its own conditions and timing under local VAT or GST rules. Confirm those with your accountant.
This page explains general practice and is not legal advice. Requirements differ between countries and, in some cases, between states — check what applies where the document will be used.