What an AR aging report is
An AR aging report lists every unpaid customer invoice and sorts the balances into columns, called buckets, based on how long they've been outstanding. Each row is a customer; each column is an age range; the total on the right is what that customer owes you in all.
Most accounting systems offer two versions:
- Summary: one row per customer, showing their balance in each bucket. Best for a quick overview.
- Detail: one row per invoice, with dates and numbers. Best when you're actually following up.
The aging buckets
The standard buckets, measured from each invoice's due date, are:
- Current: not yet due.
- 1–30 days past due: recently late. Usually an oversight, a missing PO or a payment-run timing issue.
- 31–60 days: clearly late. Worth a direct conversation if emails haven't worked.
- 61–90 days: needs personal attention and a clear plan.
- Over 90 days: the oldest balances, and generally the hardest to collect. Each one needs a decision.
Check whether your report ages by due date or invoice date. Aging by due date tells you how late things are; aging by invoice date tells you how long since you billed. Both are fine, as long as you know which one you're reading.
A worked example
Here's a small, made-up aging summary:
| Customer | Current | 1–30 | 31–60 | 61–90 | 90+ | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alder Supply | $12,400 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $12,400 |
| Bluebonnet Builders | $6,000 | $8,250 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $14,250 |
| Cedar Logistics | $2,100 | $0 | $4,800 | $0 | $9,600 | $16,500 |
| Dogwood Dental Labs | $0 | $0 | $0 | $3,150 | $0 | $3,150 |
| Total | $20,500 | $8,250 | $4,800 | $3,150 | $9,600 | $46,300 |
Example only. Customers and amounts are invented.
Reading it:
- Alder Supply is all current. Nothing to do.
- Bluebonnet Builders has one batch just past due. A polite reminder is the right first step.
- Cedar Logistics is the account to look at first: $9,600 is over 90 days, and they're still being invoiced. Is there a dispute on the old invoice? Are new invoices being paid while the old one is skipped? That pattern often points to a problem with that specific invoice.
- Dogwood Dental Labs has a single invoice at 61–90 days. Worth a call to find out what's going on.
How to read an aging report in five minutes
- Start at the right-hand columns. Look at everything over 60 days first. For each, ask: do we know why it's unpaid?
- Sort by total. Your largest balances deserve the most attention, even if they're only slightly late.
- Look for concentration. If one or two customers make up a big share of what you're owed, a single late payer can hurt your cash flow.
- Look for patterns. Customers who show up in the same late bucket month after month may need different terms, a deposit or a conversation.
- Watch for credits and negative balances. Unapplied payments and credits sitting on an account can make the report misleading. That's a cash application issue to clear up first.
- Compare with last month. Is more of the total moving into older buckets, or less? The trend tells you more than any single snapshot.
Turning the report into a weekly routine
An aging report only helps if someone acts on it. A simple weekly routine:
- Monday: run the aging detail as of today.
- Make sure payments are applied first, so you're not chasing invoices that have already been paid.
- Work the list from oldest and largest down: a reminder for recently late invoices, a call for older ones, a decision for the oldest. Our overdue invoice follow-up guide has templates for each stage.
- Write down what happened next to each invoice: replies, promised dates, disputes.
- Flag decisions for the owner: anything that might need a credit, a write-off, a payment plan or a pause on new orders.
Running the report in QuickBooks Online
In QuickBooks Online, go to Reports and search for A/R Aging Summary or A/R Aging Detail. You can change the "as of" date, customize the aging buckets, save a customized version and schedule it to be emailed to you each week. Exact menus vary by plan and change over time; Intuit's help center has current steps. More on what QuickBooks does and doesn't handle in our QuickBooks accounts receivable page.
Want us to read yours?
Mitt's free AR health check starts from exactly this report. Export your A/R aging from QuickBooks (customer names can be masked), email it to us, and we'll send a short report on where balances sit and where they're concentrated, plus the five invoices we'd follow up on first. No system access needed, and your file is deleted within 14 days.