Reporting Receivables

Accounts receivable are reported as a line item on the balance sheet and in a more detailed again report.

Learning Objective

Review the purpose of the accounts receivable aging report

Key Points

An accounts receivable aging report summarizes receivables based on their age—that is, how long they have been outstanding.
The accounts receivable age analysis, also known as the Debtors Book, is divided in categories—current, 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 120 days, 150 days, 180 days, and overdue—that are produced in modern accounting systems.
The aging report can help a business identify issues soon after they arise and prevent larger problems from occurring later on.

Terms

aging the accounts receivable
dividing the account receivable according the days until due ranging from current to overdue
General Ledger
General Ledger is the final repository of the accounting records and data. In modern accounting softwares, the general ledger works as a central repository for accounting data transferred from all sub-ledgers or modules like accounts payable, accounts recievable, cash management, fixed assets, purchasing and projects. General ledger is the backbone of any accounting system which holds financial and non-financial data for an organization.

Full Text

Accounts receivable are reported as a line item on the balance sheet. Supplementary reports, such as the accounts receivable aging report, provide further detail.

Balance sheet

Accounts receivable are a line item in a balance sheet.

The aging report, for example, shows how long invoices from each customer have been outstanding. Generally the accounts in an aging report are subdivided into categories based on how overdue the invoices are.

An accounts receivable aging report summarizes receivables based on their age—how long they have been outstanding. The accounts receivable age analysis, also known as the Debtors Book, is divided into categories for current, 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, 120 days, 150 days, 180 days, and overdue that are produced in modern accounting systems. For example, all the unpaid invoices posted in the past month are current, all the unpaid invoices from the prior month are over 30 days, the unpaid invoices from two months ago are over 60 days, etc. The aging report can help a business identify issues soon after they arise and prevent larger problems from occurring later on.

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