Your Aged Receivables report details how much your customers currently owe you. When comparing your Aged Receivables report with the balance in your Accounts Receivable account, you may sometimes notice a discrepancy. This article explains the Aged Receivables report, the Accounts Receivable account, and covers some of the common reasons why these balances may not always match.
What is the Aged Receivables report?
Aged Receivables is a report in Wave that details the amount owed to you by your customers. This report is generated based on your invoices and the due date that you set for each invoice. The invoice amounts on the report are separated by customer name, and the number of days the invoice has been overdue. The Total Unpaid column on the report totals the unpaid invoices for each customer, and the overdue amount. At the bottom of this column, you will be able to see the total unpaid as well as the total overdue amount, from all your invoices.
What is the Accounts Receivable account?
Accounts Receivable is an asset account that represents the money your business is owed. When you create an invoice and approve the draft, the Accounts Receivable account is debited, increasing the balance in the account. When you record a payment for an invoice, the Accounts Receivables account is credited, decreasing the balance in this account. To see the list of all transactions under the Accounts Receivable account, follow these steps:
- Click on Reports on the left navigation menu.
- Select the Account Transactions (General Ledger) report.
- Select Accounts Receivables from the Accounts dropdown.
- Optionally, select a date range and report type.
- Click Update Report.
Should the Aged Receivables report always match the balance in the Accounts Receivable account?
The Total Unpaid amount on your Aged Receivables report may not always match the balance in the Accounts Receivable account. This may be due to one or more of the following:
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The Aged Receivables report only takes into account unpaid invoices. If you have recorded an overpayment on an invoice, this will not reflect on your Aged Receivables report. The overpaid invoice will not appear on the report anymore and the overpayment will not be reduced from the total unpaid amount. On the other hand, the Account Transactions report for the Accounts Receivable account will show you the exact payment made, even if the invoice is overpaid. This will result in different balances when comparing these values.
To check if you have an overpaid invoice, navigate to Sales & Payments > Invoices, click the All Invoices tab, and filter for paid invoices by selecting the filter Paid in the All statuses dropdown. If you see an amount in brackets for any invoice under the Amount Due column, the invoice was overpaid. We recommended following the steps in this article to account for overpayments when you have an overpaid invoice.
- You are able to manually categorize transactions to the Accounts Receivable account, and also use this account when creating journal transactions. If you have used this account in your transactions, it can then also be a reason for the balances being different. Use the Account Transactions report to review all the transactions under the account, so you can understand how the balance is calculated.
- The default date range for the Account Transactions report is always the current year, beginning January 1. The Aged Receivables report however calculates amounts owed up to the current date by default. This means, if you have an unpaid invoice from a previous year, it will not immediately appear on the Account Transactions report, but it will on the Ages Receivables report, resulting in a different balance. You can resolve this by changing the date range of the Account Transactions report to include the date said invoice was created.