Invoice aging report: how to use it to prioritise your chasing each week
Most people run the aging report at month-end, look at the total, and feel bad. Used weekly it does something more useful: it tells you exactly who to contact on Monday, and in what order.
The short answer
An invoice aging report groups your unpaid invoices by how far past due they are — typically current, 1–30 days, 31–60, 61–90 and 90+. Read weekly and sorted by value within each bucket, it converts a vague sense of “people owe us money” into a concrete, ordered list of who to contact today.
How to read the buckets
The bands aren’t arbitrary. Each one implies a different probable cause, and therefore a different action:
| Bucket | Usually means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Current | Nothing wrong yet | A courtesy note near the due date |
| 1–30 | Approval queue, payment run, oversight | Friendly reminder, assume good faith |
| 31–60 | An unraised problem, or deprioritised | Firm follow-up; ask directly what’s blocking it |
| 61–90 | Dispute, cash flow trouble, or avoidance | Phone call, then a formal notice in writing |
| 90+ | A collection problem, not a chasing one | Letter before action; decide escalate or write off |
The jump that matters most is 30 to 60. An invoice drifting past 30 days rarely gets there by accident, and another gentle nudge is usually the wrong response.
Turning the report into a weekly list
Fifteen minutes, same slot each week:
- Run it as at today, not as at month end. You want the live picture.
- Sort by value inside each bucket. Age sets urgency; value sets effort.
- Strike out anything already in conversation. If a client promised a date this week, they are not a chasing task — they are a diary entry.
- Take the top three from 31+ and give them a real message or a phone call, not a template.
- Let the 1–30 bucket run on standard reminders. It doesn’t need your attention individually.
What the report can't tell you
This is the important limitation, and it’s the reason an aging report alone leads people to chase badly.
The report knows how many days have passed. It doesn’t know anything about the conversation. An invoice at 40 days where the client emailed yesterday promising payment Friday looks identical to an invoice at 40 days of total silence — same bucket, same row, same red. One of them needs a firm follow-up and the other needs you to leave it alone until Saturday.
Chase strictly off the aging report and you will eventually send a firm reminder to someone who answered you two days ago. That is why the “already in conversation” step above isn’t optional, and why Grace Period tracks promised dates as their own thing: when a client names a date, the schedule holds to it, and the invoice comes back to your attention the day after it passes unpaid rather than on whatever day the bucket says.
Using aging to spot problems early
Beyond this week’s list, the report is a trend instrument. Two things worth watching month to month:
- The shape, not the total. A growing total is fine if you’re growing. A rising share of the balance sitting past 60 days is not.
- Repeat offenders. The same client appearing in the 31–60 bucket every single month isn’t having a bad month, that is simply how they pay. Fix it at the terms level — deposits, shorter terms, milestone billing — rather than by chasing harder each time.
Frequently asked questions
What is an invoice aging report?+
An invoice aging report (also called an accounts receivable aging report) lists every unpaid invoice grouped by how long it has been outstanding, usually in buckets of current, 1–30 days, 31–60, 61–90 and 90+. It shows you at a glance how much money is owed, by whom, and how stale each debt is.
How do I run an aging report in QuickBooks or Xero?+
Both include it as a standard report. In QuickBooks it is under Reports as "A/R Aging Summary" (or Detail for invoice-level lines); in Xero it is the "Aged Receivables Summary" or Detail report. Run it as at today's date rather than a month end if you are using it to decide who to chase this week.
What do the aging buckets mean?+
Each bucket is a band of days past the due date. Current means not yet due. 1–30 days is usually ordinary friction — approval queues and payment runs. 31–60 means something has gone wrong that a reminder alone may not fix. 61–90 and beyond indicates a real collection problem, where the probability of full payment starts to drop noticeably.
How often should I review the aging report?+
Weekly, at the same time each week, and act on it in the same sitting. A monthly review is a reporting exercise; a weekly one is an operational tool. Fifteen minutes on a Monday is usually enough to set the whole week's chasing.
Should I chase the oldest invoice or the largest one first?+
Largest first within each aging bucket. Age tells you how urgent something is, but value tells you what it is worth. Working strictly oldest-first means spending your best effort on a £200 invoice from four months ago while a £12,000 invoice sits at 40 days.
What is a healthy aging profile?+
There is no universal benchmark, and be sceptical of anyone who quotes one confidently — it varies hugely by industry and client type. The more useful test is your own trend: is the proportion of your receivables sitting past 60 days growing or shrinking quarter on quarter? Direction matters more than any absolute figure.
Related reading: how to reduce DSO · invoice reconciliation · the AR workflow for small teams.