AR Aging Report Generator

What is an AR aging report and why does it matter?

An accounts receivable (AR) aging report organises your outstanding customer invoices by how long they have been unpaid — typically sorted into buckets: Current (not yet due), 1–30 days past due, 31–60 days, 61–90 days, and 90+ days. It gives your finance and collections team a clear picture of which customers are paying on time, which are slipping, and where you need to escalate. Most Australian businesses produce this report monthly, though high-volume AR teams review it weekly or daily during busy periods or when cash flow is under pressure.

The AR aging report is directly connected to your Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) metric — the longer invoices sit in older buckets, the higher your DSO and the greater the pressure on your working capital. For industrial businesses with large contract values, a single slow-paying customer in the 60+ day bucket can represent a material cash flow risk. Australian SMBs are also exposed to the cascading effect of late payment: if your customers pay you late, your own supplier obligations become harder to meet on time, which ages your AP in turn.

A common mistake is applying the same collections approach to every overdue bucket. Customers in the 1–30 day range typically respond to an automated reminder. Those in the 31–60 day range warrant a direct call and invoice re-send. Beyond 60 days, you should be assessing whether to put the account on hold pending payment, whether a formal demand letter is appropriate, and whether the debt may need to be provisioned as doubtful under AASB 9 (Financial Instruments) for reporting purposes.

How to use this generator

1. Enter your company name and report date at the top of the form.
2. Add each outstanding customer invoice: customer name, invoice number, invoice date, and amount owing. The tool auto-assigns each invoice to the correct aging bucket.
3. Review the bucket totals — identify which customers or invoice cohorts are concentrated in the 60+ day and 90+ day buckets and prioritise your collections calls accordingly.
4. Download as PDF to share with your credit manager, CFO, or external accountant as part of your monthly reporting pack.

What escalation thresholds should I set?

There is no single correct answer — escalation thresholds should reflect your industry norms, customer profile, and internal credit policy. A common starting point for Australian trade businesses is: automated reminder at 7 days overdue, phone call at 14 days, formal letter of demand at 30 days, account placed on hold at 45 days, and referral to a debt collection agency or legal at 60–90 days. For government or large corporate customers, timelines are often extended because the commercial risk of damaging the relationship outweighs the cost of waiting — but that assumption should be reviewed regularly.

How does overdue AR affect my tax position?

Under Australian GST rules, if you account for GST on an accruals basis (invoice basis), you have already remitted GST to the ATO on invoices you haven't yet collected. If a debt becomes genuinely bad and is written off, you can claim a bad debt adjustment on your BAS to recover the GST component. The ATO requires that you have taken reasonable steps to recover the debt and that it has been written off as a bad debt in your accounts before claiming the adjustment. Maintaining a clean AR aging report is part of demonstrating that process.

How often should I run an AR aging report?

At minimum, monthly — ideally weekly for businesses with more than 20–30 active debtors or where cash flow timing is tight. The report is most useful when reviewed consistently and acted on: a monthly report that sits unread is no better than no report at all. Building a weekly AR review into your finance team's standing agenda is one of the most effective ways to reduce average debtor days without additional headcount.