Example
A report showing $3,200 current, $1,800 at 1 to 30 days and $900 over 90 days tells you to spend the morning on the $900.
Also called an aged receivables report, an AR aging, or a debtor days report.
What it means in practice
An aging report groups what you are owed into buckets: current, 1 to 30 days late, 31 to 60, 61 to 90, and over 90. What matters is which invoices have slipped a bucket since last month. The AR aging calculator builds one from invoice amounts and dates.
Anything past 60 days needs a decision rather than another reminder: a payment plan, a stop on new work, or a claim. The longer an invoice sits, the less of it you tend to collect.
Covered in full in the guide to chasing an unpaid invoice.
Where it shows up on the paperwork
An aging report is an internal document rather than something a client sees. Each row is one unpaid invoice with its number, the client, the amount and the days since the due date, grouped into buckets of 30 days.
What goes wrong
- Running it monthly and acting on it quarterly. The report is only useful if something happens the day you read it.
- Sorting by amount rather than by age. The largest invoice is usually the one being processed; the oldest is the one nobody is dealing with.
- Keeping written-off invoices in the report so the totals look bigger than what is really collectable.
Common questions
What are the standard aging buckets?
Current, 1 to 30 days, 31 to 60, 61 to 90, and over 90. The bucket an invoice sits in is measured from its due date, not its issue date.
What should I do with invoices over 90 days?
Make a decision rather than send another reminder: a payment plan with dates, a claim, a collections agency, or a write-off. An invoice that has been in that bucket twice is unlikely to move on its own.