In the UK, Australia and New Zealand many people call it the debtors report. Xero calls it Aged Receivables. It's the same thing: who owes you money, how much, and how late it is. This guide covers where to find it in Xero, how to read it, the settings worth changing, and how to keep an eye on it without opening Xero every week.
Where to find the debtors report in Xero
Go to Reporting > All reports and open Aged Receivables Summary. Pick a date, or a preset such as "End of last month", and click Update. You'll see one row per customer and columns for each ageing period, with a total at the end.
Click a customer's name to see their invoices, or click an amount to open the Aged Receivables Detail report, which lists every invoice, credit note and overpayment behind the number.
How to read it
- Aged by due date, Current is money owed that isn't due yet. Nothing to chase.
- The ageing columns show how far past due each balance is. The further right, the more attention it needs.
- The total includes approved invoices that are still outstanding, plus any outstanding credit notes and overpayments, which reduce it. There's no option to hide credits.
- Amounts are shown as at the report date, so an invoice paid after that date still appears. Foreign currency balances are shown in your base currency.
Settings worth knowing
- Ageing by: choose Due Date (how late it is) or Invoice Date (how old it is). Due date is the more useful view for chasing.
- Ageing periods: set how many periods to show and how long each one is, for example shorter periods if you chase weekly.
- Columns: add useful extras such as credit limit, available credit or contact account number.
- Grouping: group by contact group, or by tracking category if you use them, to see debtors per branch or region.
- Customer credit limits: there's a ready-made layout for this in the left-hand panel.
The Detail report adds a few columns that help with chasing: invoice date, due date, an expected payment date if you've set one, and whether the customer has viewed the online invoice.
Debtors on the balance sheet
On the balance sheet your debtors sit in the Accounts Receivable account. It's a system account that always equals your outstanding approved invoices, and you can't post transactions or manual journals to it. If you need to adjust debtors with a journal, Xero's suggestion is a separate current asset account that you group with Accounts Receivable in your balance sheet layout.
In most cases the Aged Receivables total and the Accounts Receivable balance agree at the same date. If they don't, a few things to check: that both reports use the same date, whether some debtors sit in a separate account grouped with Accounts Receivable, any grouping or filters on the aged report, and payments dated before their invoice. If the gap still isn't clear, ask your accountant.
Other reports that help
- Receivable Invoice Detail: every invoice, credit note and overpayment for a period, with the last payment date and whether it was sent (deleted and voided items are included by default).
- Income by Contact: sales per customer over a period, excluding tax, paid and unpaid, which helps spot your biggest accounts.
- Customer statements: from your customers list you can send activity statements (everything in a period) or outstanding statements (just what's owed).
A weekly debtors routine
- Every Monday, look at the Aged Receivables Summary aged by due date.
- Anything newly overdue gets a friendly reminder. Use our reminder email templates or Xero's automatic invoice reminders.
- Anything more than 30 days overdue gets a phone call.
- Once a month, send outstanding statements to customers with several open invoices.
The step people skip is the first one, because it means logging into Xero. Reportpost can email the Aged Receivables Summary (and a list of unpaid invoices) to you or your credit controller every Monday morning, as PDF, Excel or CSV, straight from Xero. See emailing the aged receivables report weekly, or try the demo.
Related: a weekly list of unpaid invoices from Xero, which Xero customer report answers which question, sending reports to your bank or invoice finance provider and a Xero month-end checklist.
For a closer look at the report itself, with a sample, see the Xero Aged Receivables Summary explained.