What it is
The ageing report answers a single question: how much is owed, and how old is it? It takes every unpaid invoice — issued, sent and overdue, net of any receipts applied — and splits the money into buckets by how far past its due date it sits today: not yet due, one to thirty days, thirty-one to sixty, sixty-one to ninety, and ninety-plus. A strip across the top totals each bucket and the grand total outstanding.
Below the strip, a table shows each client’s split, with the worst-aged money pulled forward so the riskiest debtors are obvious. This is the collections worklist: the further right a client’s money sits, the more urgently it needs chasing. From any client you can open their statement to see the invoices behind the number.
When to use it
- You want today’s total outstanding across all clients
- You need to know which debtors have money sitting past ninety days
- You are preparing the week’s collections worklist
- A cash-flow review needs the ageing split
- You want to open a client’s statement to chase specific invoices
How it works
Step by step.
- 1
Open the ageing report
Go to the debtor ageing view. The strip at the top totals each bucket and the grand total outstanding as at today.
- 2
Read the buckets
See how outstanding money splits across not-yet-due, one-to-thirty, thirty-one-to-sixty, sixty-one-to-ninety and ninety-plus days.
- 3
Find the worst debtors
The per-client table pulls the worst-aged money forward, so the clients needing the most urgent attention sit at the top.
- 4
Open a client statement
Drill into a client to see the open invoices behind their balance, with the running balance after receipts.
- 5
Hand off to collections
Use the worst-aged clients as the input to the collections worklist, where dunning reminders are matched to each overdue invoice.
Worked example
Follow it through.
The scenario
It is the start of the week and you need this week’s collections priorities.
- 1 Open the ageing report and read the grand total: 86,400 AUD outstanding.
- 2 See 9,200 AUD sitting in the ninety-plus bucket.
- 3 In the table, Summit Events tops the list with 6,500 AUD past ninety days.
- 4 Open the Summit Events statement to see the two invoices behind it.
- 5 Flag Summit Events as this week’s priority for collections.
The result
You have a ranked collections worklist, with Summit Events’ 6,500 AUD of ninety-plus debt identified down to the specific invoices.
Tips & notes
Good to know.
- Ageing is measured from each invoice’s due date, not its issue date — a long payment term shifts when money starts to age.
- Work right to left: ninety-plus money is the hardest to recover and the most worth your attention.
- The client statement is read-only — it is the document you send a client to show exactly what they owe.
- The same worst-aged clients drive the collections worklist, so treat the ageing report as its front door.
When you’re done
A clear, bucketed view of what is owed and how stale, ranked so collections can start with the riskiest money.