As a business owner, getting paid in full and on time is crucial for a healthy cash flow. However, late payments and bad debts are a constant threat looming over an accounts receivables (AR) team. Accounts receivable reports are a key tool for businesses to manage their AR balances, forecast cash inflow, and stay on top of overdue payments.
AR reports have been evolving within small and medium-sized businesses as the business grows and progresses into a position of needing more in-depth data and quicker results. With modern software offerings, AR reports have morphed into real-time tracking, rather than the traditional reports that are printed on paper.
It gives owners and managers up-to-the-minute data so that decisions can be made using the most accurate information possible.
Accounts Receivable Reports to Help Stay On Top of Your Cash Flow
Receivables by Customer. This AR report is similar to an outstanding sales report, but it is broken down on a customer basis. The receivables by customer report will show customers based on name or ID number and can list line items such as unbilled invoices, unpaid invoices, and goods and services issued.
Businesses can use this report to help monitor their receivables collection process to help avoid outstanding invoices and really pinpoint any problem customers.
Aging Summary. An aging summary report will simply summarize the unpaid invoices and statement charges, grouped by the length of time that the invoice is past due. Periods in which the summary can break out invoices typically range across 30-day increments. It can start with standard 30-day periods, and then expand to 31-60 days, 61-90 days, and over 90 days.
This report will place the invoice in the period that the invoice fell due, so a report run in December will show an invoice from September in the over 90-days column.
Aging Detail. Similar to an aging summary report, the aging detail report will take it a step further by grouping unpaid invoices by the customer and showing a subtotal for each customer. The aging detail report will typically show the customer, transaction type, date, invoice/order number, due date, days past due, and total amount due.
Payments History by Invoice and by Payment. These AR reports provide a view of payment history organized by invoice or by payment, broken down by the customer. Both reports show how payments were applied to the invoices and how the invoices were settled. These are helpful when it comes to reconciling or tracing a customer's payment method through the billing process.
Accounts Receivable Register. The AR register is a list of all billing activities for a set period. Entries in an AR register report represent amounts that are owed by customers for the purchase of goods or services and include summarized data of the invoices.
The register report will also show any billing adjustments, credit memos, and inbound payments for an invoice. This report is home to generally all of the data related to the AR functions for the business where business owners and managers can take an overall look at the cash that is expected and that has come in.
Grow Your Business with AR Reports from an Accounting Software
Producing accounts receivable reports manually is a thing of the past for businesses as many software solutions are available to compile them easily. With NetSuite's automated accounting software, businesses can create such reports in real-time, giving AR teams the ability to match customer payments to invoices as they arrive and providing owners and managers instant insights into the receivables and general financial health of the company.
The accounts receivables dashboard within NetSuite gives managers the ability to see key performance indicators at a glance and hone in on the specifics with configurable, real-time receivables, aging, and history reports.
Cash flow is a key component to keeping a company afloat and accounts receivable reports are here to help manage cash inflow efficiently and minimize bad debts. Having a software solution in place to run these reports and more with ease will help a business deliver sustainable growth and consistently strong returns in the long run.
