Aging reports: the collections engine
An aging report is a to-do list wearing a report's clothes. The buckets tell you the move: current is fine, 30 is a nudge, 60 is a conversation, 90 is a decision.
1. Run it weekly
Collections is a cadence. Weekly beats monthly because problems are two phone calls smaller.
2. Statements at 30
From the aging row, email the statement — polite, automatic, effective. Most 30-day balances are disorganization, not refusal.
3. Calls at 60
A human voice, a specific ask: which invoices, what date. Log the promise; follow up on the date.
4. Decisions at 90
Hold further credit (the limit field is right there), negotiate a plan, or write it off and claim the tax adjustment. The worst option is pretending the bucket is not there.
Age from the right date
Aging is only fair if each document ages from its own date. Bucketing everything from a statement date flatters suppliers with long terms and punishes those with short ones, which makes the report useless for deciding who to pay.
The same applies on the sales side: a customer on 60-day terms is not overdue at day 45, and treating them as such wastes a collections call.
The oldest bucket is the one that matters
Collection probability falls sharply with age, which is why the working order is oldest first — not largest first, which is the instinct. A $400 invoice from January is more urgent than a $4,000 invoice from last week.
Aging is a worklist, and a worklist that is not worked is just a report.
What SeroBooks does with this
Receivables and payables both age from each document's own date into current, 30, 60, 90 and beyond, live from the server. Each row carries its tools — statement out by PDF, email or WhatsApp, payment recorded on the spot, document history one tap deep.
Credit limits close the loop: a customer at their limit cannot buy, so collecting is often what makes the next sale possible.
See it in your own numbers.
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