Aged debtors report (aldersfordelt saldoliste)
Also known as aging report, ageing report, aged receivables, accounts receivable ageing, aldersfordelt saldoliste, debitorliste
The aged debtors report shows your outstanding receivables broken down by how long they have been overdue.
Key facts
- Shows
- Outstanding amounts per age bracket
In practice
The ageing report is the one tool that shows where the problem actually sits. A single DSO figure hides the fact that half the arrears typically sit with a very small number of customers.
The rule of thumb is brutal, but it holds: the probability of getting the money falls month by month. A claim that is 30 days old is almost always recovered. A claim that is 12 months old rarely is. The “over 90 days” bucket is not a line item — it is an alarm.
Where it commonly goes wrong
- The report is produced, but nothing is done about it. It is only worth anything if a fixed consequence is attached to each bucket.
- The list is read in total instead of per customer. A single 90+ figure hides that two customers usually carry the whole problem.
- The buckets follow accounting months instead of due dates. An invoice is then “30 days old” the day after it falls due, and the alarm comes too late.