Aged Payables Report Generator (AP Aging)

What are aged payables?

Aged payables are the supplier bills you haven't paid yet, grouped by how far past their due date they are. An aged payables report, also called an accounts payable aging report, puts each bill into a bucket: Current, 1–30 days overdue, 31–60, 61–90 and 90+. It shows who you owe, how much and how late you are on one page. It's the payables side of an aged receivables report.

Run it before each payment run so bills get paid before they slip into the next bucket. Keep a copy with your month-end close papers.

Use the bucket totals to decide what to pay first. Key suppliers come first, along with any bill carrying an early-payment discount worth taking. Our payment terms calculator shows what a discount is worth. Lower-priority bills can wait until their due date to protect working capital. Bills in the 90+ column risk credit holds or stop-supply. Some suppliers' terms also charge interest on overdue accounts. The late payment interest calculator works out what that adds.

The report only helps if someone acts on it. Give each bucket an owner. Chase stuck approvals, query disputed bills and schedule current bills before they age. Teams that read the report without acting on it watch the balance drift into the older columns month after month.

How to read the aged payables buckets

Read the report from right to left. The oldest money is the most urgent. The reason it's stuck is rarely a lack of cash.

A healthy report has most of the balance in Current. If the 31–60 and 61–90 columns grow month on month, look at approvals before you look at cash. How the balance spreads across the buckets is one of the accounts payable KPIs worth tracking each month.

How to run an aged payables report in Xero and MYOB

Xero: open your reports and choose Aged Payables Summary. It lists each supplier with their balance split into ageing columns. Aged Payables Detail gives one line per bill. Its Ageing by setting lets you age bills by due date or invoice date. Run it after you've entered purchases and reconciled your bank transactions so the balances are current.

MYOB AccountRight: go to Reports > Index to Reports, click the Purchases tab and pick Aged Payables [Summary] or Aged Payables [Detail]. In MYOB Business, look in the Purchases reports. The summary gives one line per supplier. The detail lists each open bill in its ageing column. MYOB's aged payables report shows every current creditor whatever date you age it at, so for a balance as at a past date such as 30 June, use the Payables Reconciliation report instead.

This generator ages by due date, which matches your supplier terms.

Worked example: weekly ageing review for a building materials supplier

A Sydney building materials wholesaler with 85 active suppliers runs a weekly AP ageing review every Monday. The report for Monday 18 May shows:

Only 58% of the balance is current, so 42% is already overdue. The 31-60 day bucket at AU$68,200 is the first action item. Five of those nine invoices are stuck in internal approval because the project managers are busy and haven't signed off. The finance controller chases the project managers for sign-off the same day. The two 90+ invoices (AU$8,900) are under dispute with a timber supplier over a delivery shortage. Adding a note to the ageing report creates a paper trail if the dispute isn't resolved before the next review.

This review feeds directly into the week's cash flow forecast: AU$312,800 in current invoices falls due over the coming weeks on top of the AU$226,500 already overdue, so the team checks that expected customer receipts cover those bills plus payroll.

How to use this generator

1. Enter your company name and report date at the top of the form.
2. Add each outstanding supplier invoice: supplier name, invoice number, invoice date, due date and amount owing. The tool puts each invoice in the right ageing bucket by comparing its due date with the report date.
3. Review the bucket totals in the summary bar and identify which suppliers or invoice types are concentrated in the 60+ day and 90+ day buckets.
4. Download as PDF to share with your CFO, controller or external accountant, or to file as part of your month-end close documentation.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between aged payables and aged creditors?

None. Aged creditors is another Australian name for the same report, often asked for at year-end. This tool uses Current, 1-30, 31-60, 61-90 and 90+ day columns. Xero's default columns are monthly and can be changed with its ageing settings. MYOB uses its own ageing settings.

Should I age payables by due date or invoice date?

Use due date for the payment run, because that's what your supplier terms are measured against. A bill dated 1 March on 30-day terms isn't due until 31 March. Use invoice date when you want to see how long bills sit before anyone enters or approves them.

Which bucket does a bill on 30 days end of month terms land in?

Work out the due date first. On 30 days end of month (EOM+30), a bill dated 10 March is due 30 April: the end of March plus 30 days. It stays in Current until then, even though it's more than 30 days old. Ageing by invoice date would put it in an older column.

Should the aged payables total match the balance sheet?

Yes. The aged payables total should match the accounts payable balance on your Balance Sheet at the same date. Auditors usually check this at year-end. In MYOB, the Payables Reconciliation report shows any out-of-balance amount. If the two differ, look for journals posted straight to the payables account.

How does the aged payables report feed a cash flow forecast?

The aged payables report shows what you owe and when it falls due. The forecast shows whether the cash will be there. Put each bill into the week it falls due, add payroll, BAS and loan repayments, then check the lowest week against your bank balance and any overdraft limit.