Key takeaways
What this article covers, in order:
- A report most owners open once and close again
- What the columns mean
- Hannah's report at 31 Oct 2026
- Reading it row by row
- Reading the totals
- What to do with each bucket
An aged receivables report (often called an aged debtors report in Australia) lists every unpaid customer invoice, grouped by how long it's been outstanding. It tells you who owes you, how much, and how late they are, so you know exactly who to chase this week. Here's how to read one properly and what to do with what it shows.
A report most owners open once and close again
Hannah runs a commercial cleaning company in Wollongong. Her invoices go out on 14-day terms. For months she checked the bank, saw money coming in, and assumed everyone was paying. Then a customer went quiet and she found $2,970 sitting there, some of it more than three months old.
Nothing was hidden. It was all on her aged receivables report. She just wasn't reading it.
What the columns mean
Most ageing reports split each customer's balance into buckets based on the invoice due date:
- Current: not yet due
- 1 to 30 days overdue
- 31 to 60 days overdue
- 61 to 90 days overdue
- 90+ days overdue
Some software ages from the invoice date instead of the due date. Check which yours uses, because a 30-day-terms invoice that's 25 days old is "current" by due date but sits in the "1 to 30 days" column by invoice date. Neither is wrong; you just need to know which you're looking at.
Hannah's report at 31 Oct 2026
| Customer | Current | 1 to 30 | 31 to 60 | 61 to 90 | 90+ | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harbour Dental | $2,420 | $2,420 | ||||
| Northside Gym | $1,650 | $1,650 | $3,300 | |||
| Coastal Realty | $2,860 | $1,430 | $4,290 | |||
| Bay Childcare | $3,080 | $3,080 | ||||
| Keira Motors | $990 | $1,980 | $2,970 | |||
| Illawarra Physio | $1,210 | $1,210 | ||||
| Total | $8,360 | $4,510 | $1,430 | $990 | $1,980 | $17,270 |
| % of total | 48.4% | 26.1% | 8.3% | 5.7% | 11.5% | 100% |
(These are illustrative businesses, not real ones.)
Reading it row by row
Harbour Dental, Bay Childcare and Illawarra Physio. Everything is current. No action needed beyond your normal reminder before the due date.
Northside Gym. One invoice current, one up to a month late. That's a pattern worth noticing. Maybe last month's invoice went to someone who's left. A friendly email asking whether it reached the right person usually fixes this.
Coastal Realty. $4,290 owing, with the older half more than a month late. This is the biggest balance on the report and none of it is current. It might be a dispute, a missing purchase order number, or a cash problem on their end. You need a phone call, not another automated email.
Keira Motors. All of it is 61+ days overdue, and $1,980 is past 90 days. Hannah is still cleaning their premises every week. That's the dangerous one, because she's adding new work to a debt that isn't moving.
Reading the totals
The bottom rows tell you about the health of your whole debtor book.
- 48.4% current is fine for a business on 14-day terms, but you'd like it higher.
- 26.1% in 1 to 30 days suggests customers are treating 14 days as 30. That's a terms and reminders problem more than a bad-debt problem.
- 17.2% over 60 days ($990 + $1,980 = $2,970) is the number to worry about. The older a debt gets, the less likely it is to be paid in full.
A rough rule many bookkeepers use: if more than 10% of your receivables are past 60 days, collections need attention.
What to do with each bucket
| Bucket | What it usually means | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Current | Not due yet | Send a polite reminder a few days before the due date |
| 1 to 30 days | Forgot, missed, or paid late out of habit | Email reminder on day 1, follow-up at day 7 |
| 31 to 60 days | Something's wrong: dispute, wrong contact or cash trouble | Phone call; confirm they have the invoice and ask for a payment date |
| 61 to 90 days | Real risk | Consider pausing work until paid; agree a payment plan in writing |
| 90+ days | Possible bad debt | Final notice, then talk to your accountant about whether to write it off or pursue it |
Write down what you did against each overdue invoice and when. When you call Coastal Realty in three weeks, you want to say "I spoke to Jen on 2 Nov 2026 and she said Friday", not "I think I emailed?".
Check the report is telling the truth
An ageing report is only as good as the payment matching behind it. Common reasons it's wrong:
- Payments received but not matched to invoices. The money's in the bank, but the invoice still shows unpaid. This is the most common cause of a scary-looking ageing report. Reconcile the bank account before you chase anyone.
- Part payments allocated to the wrong invoice. The customer paid the older invoice; you applied it to the newer one.
- Credit notes never applied. You issued a credit for a missed clean but didn't apply it against the invoice.
- Duplicate invoices. One job, invoiced twice.
Ringing a customer to chase an invoice they've already paid is embarrassing, and it happens all the time. Reconcile first, then chase.
What Hannah changed
After working through her report, Hannah did a few simple things:
- Set up email reminders for 3 days before due and the day after due
- Rang Coastal Realty and found the property manager needed a PO number on each invoice. Two days later, $4,290 arrived.
- Told Keira Motors she'd pause their cleans until the 61+ day balance was cleared. They paid $1,980 that week and agreed to pay the $990 the following week.
- Started checking the report every Monday, right after reconciling the bank
How often should you run it?
Weekly if you send a lot of invoices; fortnightly if you send only a handful. Always at month-end after reconciliation, because that's when it's most accurate. Your accountant will also want a copy as at 30 Jun 2027 (the end of FY2026-27) to check your debtors balance, and again at each year-end after that.
If you're still building collection habits, the invoice software guide covers terms and reminders in more detail.
How HelloBooks helps
AR (receivables) and AP (payables) ageing reports are included on the Free plan (A$0, no card, no expiry), alongside invoices, quotes and unlimited email payment reminders. When customer payments come in through your bank feed or a CSV import, the reconcile screen suggests a match for each line, with a confidence score and the reason it picked that match, which helps keep the ageing report accurate.
On Pro (A$30/month), AI Analysis runs on every report including ageing, and you can export to Excel. Your bookkeeper or accountant can also be invited into the same books to help with collections. More on bank reconciliation.
FAQs
What's the difference between aged receivables and aged debtors?
Nothing. They're two names for the same report. "Debtors" is the more traditional Australian term; "receivables" is common in software.
Should ageing be based on invoice date or due date?
Due date is more useful for chasing, because it shows how late the payment really is. Invoice date is useful for seeing how long money has been tied up. Just be consistent.
When should I write off a bad debt?
When you've made reasonable efforts to collect and genuinely don't expect to be paid. The accounting entry is simple, but the timing and any tax treatment are worth checking with your accountant.
Why does my report show invoices the customer says they've paid?
Usually the payment is in the bank but hasn't been matched to the invoice. Reconcile your bank account and match the payment, and the invoice will drop off the report.
Can I send the report to a customer?
Send them a customer statement instead. It shows only their invoices and payments, which is what they need to check against their own records.
Ten minutes with this report every Monday will save you far more than ten minutes of awkward phone calls later.
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