Chase the right people.
In the right order.

An aging report groups everything your customers owe you by how long it has been outstanding. Instead of one lump “accounts receivable” figure, it splits the money into age bands — typically current (not yet due), 1–30 days late, 31–60, 61–90, and 90+ days. At a glance you can see not just how much you're owed, but how old that debt is — and old debt is far less likely to ever be paid, which is why the report matters so much.

• Current — within terms, nothing to chase yet.
• 1–30 days — recently overdue; a friendly reminder usually clears these.
• 31–60 days — needs a firmer follow-up and a direct conversation.
• 61–90 days — a real risk; escalate and consider pausing further work.
• 90+ days — seriously overdue; these rarely self-resolve and may need a final demand or collections.

The shape of your buckets tells a story. A healthy business has most of its receivables in the current and 1–30 bands. A growing pile in 60+ is an early warning that your credit control — not your sales — is where the problem lies.

DSO is the average number of days it takes your customers to pay you. It's one of the most important cash-flow metrics a business can track: a rising DSO means money is coming in more slowly, even if sales look fine. Watching DSO over time turns the aging report from a snapshot into a trend — you can see a slowdown building weeks before it hits your bank balance, and tighten terms or chase harder in response.

The power of the aging report is that it tells you who to chase, and in what order. Don't chase whoever comes to mind — work the list from oldest and largest down, because that's where the most recoverable cash sits and where the risk is highest. Pair the report with a reminder schedule so follow-ups go out consistently, agree payment plans on the worst accounts rather than letting them drift, and stop extending new credit to clients who are already deep in the 60+ bands. Consistent, ranked follow-up recovers far more than sporadic, emotional chasing.

A common and damaging flaw in receivables reporting is chasing money that's already been settled by a credit note. If a client returned goods or received a discount, the credited amount is no longer owed — but a naive report still shows it as overdue, so you chase a client for money they don't owe and damage the relationship. BillRyt's aging report nets out issued credit notes before bucketing, so every figure is what's genuinely still due. Currencies are kept separate, too, so a multi-currency debtor book is never blended into a nonsense total.