The accounts receivable report provides a list of customers who owe money, the amount they owe and how old the debt is.
This report is a tool for collections management, providing contact information, the ability to email or print statements, add notes and contact tags.
Find the report at Customers > Accounts Receivable, or via Reports > Accounts Receivable.
Note: Accounts receivable is called Aged Debtors in the UK.
The report displays the customer company, name, email and telephone number - everything you need to quickly work your way through a collections list. If further information is needed then it is possible to drill down into the customer record and financial history.
The accounts receivable report will automatically list all customers which have an account balance, and by default displays all values in base currency. Customers with zero or negative account balances can be included or excluded using the filters.
Click on the column headers to sort the data - for example, sort by balance to view the customers with the largest debt at the top of the report and help with prioritizing debt collection.
Filtering the accounts receivable report
The accounts receivable report can be customized using the filters:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| As of invoice date |
Select the date on which to generate the report. It defaults to the current date. Changing the date will display a report relative to the date chosen, i.e. what the report looked like if it was generated on that date. |
| Detailed | Checking the 'Detailed' box will break the report down further, listing the individual outstanding invoices. |
| Hide zero balances |
Checking the 'Hide zero balances' box will hide any rows where the balance is zero. Zero balances occur when the customer's account balance is zero, but is made up of transactions which are not cleared off against each other. For example, they may have an invoice for $100 and a payment on account for $100, but if the payment is not specifically allocated to the invoice, both transactions are considered uncleared and the customer will appear on the report. |
| Hide negative balances | Checking the 'Hide negative balances' box will hide any rows where the balance is negative. These will likely relate to payments on account or credits, and so can be ignored for the purposes of debt collection. |
| Age from |
Choose between:
Choose what date to use when determining the aging. |
| Age by |
Customize the aging. Defaults to 30, 60, 90 and 120+ days by default. |
| Account owner | Filter the report based on staff members who are assigned to the contacts. |
| Customer's price list | Filter the report based on the price list associated with the customer. |
| Contact tags | Filter the report based on the contacts' tags. |
| Currency | Filter the report based on currency. See below for further information on foreign currencies on the accounts receivable report. |
| Filter by company name | Display only entries beginning with a specific letter of the alphabet. |
Accounts receivable is a filter first report. Learn more here.
Using the accounts receivable report
Record payments
If payment is received then a quick link takes you directly to the customer payment allocation screen.
Collections notes
If notes about conversations with the customer are needed, use the batch actions to add them to their timeline.
Tag customers
And contact tags can be used for numerous reasons, for example, monitoring the date a statement was sent, which dunning letter was sent with the statement or the account status.
Send statements
Select the customers you want to send a statement to, and click the send statement button. You will need to have filtered to show invoices for a single currency first.
Learn more about customer statements
Foreign currency accounts receivable
By default this report provides a complete view of all accounts receivable in base currency (matching the balance sheet value), but filtering by a currency will display the customer account balances held in that currency.
Revaluing foreign currency accounts receivable
Foreign currency accounts receivable are recorded in both the foreign currency and base currency.
The base currency valuation is calculated using the transaction exchange rate less the rate applicable at the time the transaction occurred, which is saved on the accounting journal. Exchange rates are always changing, so the value of those foreign currency transactions at today's rate may mean that the base currency value of those transactions has changed. For this reason accounts receivable will need to be revalued, particularly at year end.
How to revalue open accounts receivable
This will need to be done using a manual calculation and journal entry. The journal will most likely be a quick credit or quick invoice, in base currency, posting to an exchange rates gains/losses code, but please consult your accountant before posting any entries.