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Accounts Receivable Aging Report Template (Free Excel & Sheets)
Do San (Justin) Myung
Expert Accountant & Former Consulting CFO
Last updated
November 13, 2026
Summarize this article
TL;DR
An AR aging report groups unpaid invoices by how overdue they are: Common buckets are Current, 1–30, 31–60, 61–90, and over 90 days.
The reporting date matters: A historical aging should show what was outstanding on the selected date, not simply today's open balances.
The report should reconcile to the general ledger: The total aging balance should agree with the accounts receivable control account before finance relies on it.
Older receivables usually carry more collection risk: Aging buckets can support collections priorities and estimates of expected credit losses.
AR aging is useful beyond collections: Finance teams can use the same data to monitor DSO, AR turnover, overdue concentration, and collection effectiveness.
An accounts receivable balance tells you how much customers owe. An aging report tells you how long that money has been outstanding.
By grouping unpaid invoices into Current, 1–30, 31–60, 61–90, and over 90-day buckets, an AR aging report shows which balances are still within their payment terms and which need attention.
Download the free Excel or Google Sheets template below, then follow the steps to prepare and read your AR aging report.
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Download the accounts receivable aging report template
To use the template, enter:
- the reporting date
- customer and invoice details
- invoice and due dates
- the balance still outstanding
It then separates each balance into Current, 1–30, 31–60, 61–90, or over 90 days.
A small allowance for doubtful accounts calculator sits underneath the aging report. The loss rates are editable, so you can replace the example percentages with rates supported by your own collection history and accounting policy.
For a historical report, use the balances that were still outstanding on the selected reporting date. An invoice that was open on January 31 but paid on February 2, for example, should still appear in a January 31 aging.
What is an accounts receivable aging report?
An accounts receivable aging report shows unpaid customer receivables grouped by how long they have been outstanding or overdue.
A typical report uses five buckets:
The total tells you how much customers owe. The buckets show how much of that balance is already overdue.
Finance teams use that view for collections, cash-flow planning, month-end close, credit reviews, and expected credit loss estimates.
Accounts receivable aging report example
Suppose a company has $100,000 of billed accounts receivable at month-end.
Start with the $10,000 in the 90+ bucket. Customers D and E make up that entire balance, so those are the first accounts to review.
That does not mean the $10,000 will go unpaid. It simply shows which balances have been overdue the longest.
AR aging report vs. aging schedule
The terms AR aging report and accounts receivable aging schedule are often used interchangeably.
In practice, "report" often refers to the summary finance teams review, while "schedule" can refer to the invoice-level detail behind it. Either way, the total should reconcile to the same accounts receivable balance.
Collections teams usually age invoices from the due date because that shows how far payment has moved past the agreed terms. If a company uses invoice-date aging instead, the report should make that basis clear and apply it consistently.
How to prepare an accounts receivable aging report
Whether you use an ERP, accounting software, Excel, or Google Sheets, the process is similar.
1. Gather outstanding customer invoices
Start with the receivables that were open on the reporting date. At minimum, you need:
- customer name
- invoice number
- invoice date
- due date
- remaining balance
Use the balance that was outstanding on the reporting date, after payments and credit memos applied up to that date, rather than the original invoice amount.
For a historical report, make sure the data reflects what was open at that point in time. An invoice paid on February 2 still belongs in a January 31 aging if it remained unpaid at January month-end.
2. Set the reporting date
Choose one as-of date for the report. For a month-end aging, that may be January 31 even if finance prepares the report several days later as part of the month-end close process.
A fixed reporting date also makes period-to-period comparisons more reliable.
3. Calculate how overdue each invoice is
Compare the invoice due date with the reporting date.
Days past due = reporting date − due date
If the reporting date is on or before the due date, the invoice is Current. From one day past the due date, the number of days overdue determines whether the balance belongs in 1–30, 31–60, 61–90, or over 90 days.
4. Summarize balances by customer
Once invoices are assigned to aging buckets, group them by customer.
The invoice detail tells collections what needs follow-up. The customer summary shows the broader exposure.
A $100,000 overdue balance spread across 200 customers is a different collection problem from the same $100,000 concentrated in two accounts.
5. Reconcile the aging report to the general ledger
Before using the report for analysis, make sure it ties to the books.
The total AR aging balance should agree with the accounts receivable control account in the general ledger. The AR subledger contains the customer-level detail, while the GL contains the summarized balance used in the financial statements.
If they do not agree, common causes include:
- unapplied customer payments
- credit memos posted in the wrong period
- invoices missing from the subledger or GL
- manual entries posted directly to the AR control account
- cutoff errors around the reporting date
A proper account reconciliation explains the difference before finance signs off on the balance.
How to read and analyze an AR aging report
Start with the oldest balances. A recently overdue invoice may only need a reminder. A large balance that has remained unpaid for more than 90 days deserves much closer attention.
A practical collections approach might look like this:
Age tells you how late the invoice is, but not why it is late. A disputed invoice may need the underlying issue resolved before it can be collected. An undisputed invoice may simply need another follow-up.
If total AR stays flat but more balances are moving from Current into 31–60 or 61–90 days, collections are getting slower even though total AR has barely changed.
Then look at concentration. One customer holding most of the 90+ balance creates a different collection risk from the same amount spread across dozens of accounts.
How to calculate the allowance for doubtful accounts using the aging method
An AR aging schedule can also support the allowance for expected credit losses.
ASC 326 does not require one specific estimation method. In ASU 2016-13, FASB includes an example (Example 5, ASC 326-20-55-37 through 55-40) of estimating expected credit losses on trade receivables using an aging schedule, with a different loss rate applied to each past-due bucket [1].
The basic calculation is: Aging bucket balance × estimated loss rate = expected credit loss
Using the $100,000 aging example above, suppose the company applies these illustrative rates:
These percentages are examples, not standard loss rates. Use your own historical loss experience and adjust it where relevant for current conditions and reasonable and supportable forecasts. For annual periods beginning after December 15, 2025, ASU 2025-05 lets a company elect to assume that conditions at the balance sheet date will not change over the remaining life of its current receivables, rather than building a separate forecast [2].
The $5,400 is the required ending allowance. It's not automatically the bad debt expense for the period.
Suppose the allowance for doubtful accounts already has a $3,900 credit balance. The additional adjustment needed is: $5,400 − $3,900 = $1,500
The adjusting entry would be:
If the company later writes off a specific $2,000 customer balance:
The write-off reduces both gross AR and the allowance. It does not create another $2,000 of bad debt expense if the expected loss was already provided for through the allowance.
Keep the invoice aging focused on amounts customers actually owe. Accrued or unbilled revenue may sit outside the invoice aging until the company has an unconditional receivable, depending on its right to payment [3].
Key metrics to track using an AR aging report
The aging shows where receivables sit at one point in time. These metrics help you see what is changing from one period to the next.
Days sales outstanding
Days sales outstanding, or DSO, estimates how long it takes a company to collect its credit sales. The standard formula uses average receivables:
DSO = Average accounts receivable ÷ Net credit sales × Days in period
A rising DSO can point to slower collections, but the number should be read against the company's payment terms and billing pattern. For a cross-industry reference point, APQC's Open Standards Benchmarking puts median DSO at 38.0 days across 12,170 organizations, using average gross receivables and gross annual sales rather than net credit sales [4].
A business that normally offers net-60 terms should not be assessed against the same collection cycle as one using net-15.
Percentage of receivables over 90 days
This shows how much of total AR sits in the oldest aging bucket: Receivables over 90 days ÷ Total accounts receivable × 100
Using the example above: $10,000 ÷ $100,000 × 100 = 10%
If the share of AR over 90 days keeps increasing, collection risk is building even if total receivables remain stable. For context, the Credit Research Foundation's Second Quarter 2026 National Summary of Domestic Trade Receivables put the median share of receivables more than 91 days past due at 0.40%, so the 10% in the illustrative example above would sit far above that median [5].
Accounts receivable turnover
AR turnover measures how often a company collects its average receivables during a period.
AR turnover = Net credit sales ÷ Average accounts receivable
A higher ratio generally means receivables are being collected faster [6]. Compare it with previous periods and the company's normal payment terms rather than treating one number as universally good.
Collection effectiveness index
The collection effectiveness index, or CEI, measures how much of the receivables available for collection were actually collected during the period. The Credit Research Foundation's standard CEI formula is [7]:
CEI = (Beginning AR + Credit sales − Ending total AR) ÷ (Beginning AR + Credit sales − Ending current AR) × 100
A result closer to 100% generally indicates stronger collection performance. The Credit Research Foundation's Second Quarter 2026 national summary reported a median CEI of 79.35 across its survey respondents [5].
Common accounts receivable aging report mistakes
A few mistakes can make an aging report misleading:
- Using today's date for a historical report: If you are closing January, use January 31 balances even if you run the report in February.
- Aging the original invoice balance: Use what the customer still owed on the reporting date, after payments and credit memos applied up to that date.
- Mixing invoice date and due date: Pick one basis and use it consistently. For collections, due date is usually more useful.
- Leaving paid invoices in the report: An invoice settled in full on or before the reporting date should not appear in the aging. An invoice paid after that date still belongs in it.
- Not reconciling the report to the GL: Find the difference before using the aging for collections, reporting, or the allowance calculation.
AR aging for SaaS and multi-entity companies
SaaS companies can have very different payment patterns sitting inside the same AR balance.
A customer paying by card may clear quickly, while an enterprise customer on net-60 terms can carry a large balance for weeks without being late. Annual billing can also create larger AR balances around renewal dates.
For multi-entity companies, it is useful to review AR by legal entity before looking at the consolidated total. That makes it easier to reconcile the balance and see which entity is owed the money.
Those balances eventually feed into the SaaS balance sheet, where accounts receivable is presented net of the related allowance for credit losses [1].
Automate accounts receivable aging reports with DualEntry
A spreadsheet works well when invoice volumes are manageable or finance needs a transparent report it can review line by line.
As the number of customers, invoices, entities, and currencies grows, maintaining the same report manually becomes harder.
DualEntry's accounts receivable automation keeps invoice data, payments, and the general ledger in the same system. Finance teams can generate AR aging reports with configurable aging periods, age balances by document date, transaction date, or due date, and drill from each customer's total to the open invoices behind it, without rebuilding the report from exports each month.
That keeps the invoice detail, customer balances, AR subledger, and general ledger connected to the same accounting record.
Accounts Receivable Aging Report Template FAQs
What is an accounts receivable aging report?
An accounts receivable aging report shows unpaid customer balances grouped by how long they have been outstanding or overdue.
How do I create an accounts receivable aging report in Excel?
List your open invoices, due dates, outstanding balances, and reporting date. Calculate how many days each invoice is overdue, assign it to the appropriate aging bucket, and total the balances by customer.
How do you calculate accounts receivable aging?
Subtract the invoice due date from the reporting date to calculate days past due, then place the outstanding balance into the corresponding aging bucket.
What is a good AR aging percentage?
There is no universal good percentage. Finance teams should compare overdue balances with payment terms, customer mix, historical collection performance, and prior periods.
What is the aging of accounts receivable method?
The aging method estimates credit losses by applying different expected-loss rates to receivables based on how long they have been outstanding or past due.
How often should you prepare an AR aging report?
Review AR aging at least monthly as part of the close. Our free month-end close checklist schedules it on day two. Teams with higher invoice volume or collection risk often review it weekly.
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Do San (Justin) Myung
Expert Accountant & Former Consulting CFO
Justin (Do San Myung) is Expert Accountant at DualEntry with 20+ years of hands-on experience managing general ledgers, financial close processes, and ERP implementations for mid-market and enterprise companies. As a former Consulting CFO and Controller, he has personally overseen month-end closes, SOX compliance programs, and multi-entity consolidations across technology, manufacturing, and services industries. Justin specializes in transforming manual accounting workflows into automated, AI-driven processes.
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