How to use the Aged Creditors report in Sage Accounting.
Description
Use the Aged Creditors report to show you how much you owe your suppliers at any point in time. Use the report to keep track of:
- How much you owe your suppliers
- How long you’ve owed your suppliers
- Which of your suppliers you owe the most money to
- Due dates for purchase invoices (in the Detailed report)
- The credit limit your suppliers are giving you
Resolution
The aged creditors report shows you a totalled list of all the invoices that you haven’t yet paid, less any credit notes you’ve received but not yet had refunded.
It helps you find out how much money you need to pay to a supplier, and the total amount that you have to pay by a specific date. Don’t forget, if you’re registered for VAT, the report totals include the VAT because that’s how much money you will need to pay your suppliers.
Ageing periods by days
The total of unpaid transactions show in each period based the numbers of days past the invoice date.
| < 30 days | The age of the transaction is between 0 – 29 days. |
| < 60 days | The age of the transaction is between 30 – 59 days. |
| < 90 days | The age of the transaction is between 60 – 89 days. |
| < 120 days | The age of the transaction is 90 – 119 days. |
| Older | The age of the transaction is 120 days or older. |
For example, if today's date is 10 July, invoices dated between 11 June and 10 July show in the < 30 days column, invoices dated 11 May to 10 June show in the < 60 days column.
Ageing periods by calendar month
The total of unpaid transactions shows in each column based on the month. The first column is the current month. Subsequent columns show outstanding transactions for the previous months.
For example, if today's date is 10 July, invoices dated anytime in July show in the Current column, invoices dated anytime in June show in the 1 Month column.
| Current | transactions dated in the current month |
| 1 month | transactions dated last month |
| 2 months | transactions dated 2 months ago |
| 3 months | transactions dated 3 months ago |
| Older | transactions are older than 3 months |
Change your ageing periods
Choose whether to age your transactions by calendar months or days.
- From Settings, then Business Settings, choose Record and Transaction Settings.
- Choose by ageing, by days, or by calendar months.
Why is it important
The aged creditors report helps you track the health of your business. Use the report to:
- Understand how much money you owe at one time and how long the amount has been outstanding
- Identify which suppliers you need to pay first and when you need to pay
- Identify which suppliers offer the best credit terms to help you make the best purchasing decisions
- Tell potential investors how long it usually takes your business to pay invoices
For all suppliers
- From Reporting, choose More.
- Select Aged Creditors.
- Choose how to sort the report
- By Name to see the amount you owe each supplier alphabetically
- By Outstanding amount to see who you owe the most money to first
- Click Calculate.
For a single supplier
- Enter the supplier name in the Search box
Up to a specific date
You may want to run the report to show the total amount you owe at a point in time in the past. This is often required by your Accountant for auditing purposes.
Comparing the aged creditors report with the trial balance at a point in time also confirms that all the transactions have been entered correctly.
When you run the report retrospectively (for a date in the past), any payments received after that date are not included, so invoices that have been paid subsequently will show as outstanding.
- Enter the required date and choose Calculate
Include details of unpaid invoices
- To include a list of unpaid invoices as well as the total amount outstanding, choose Detailed
Per group of suppliers or other analysis type
If you have set up Analysis Types to group transactions together, you can run the filter report to just show your aged creditors by each type.
For example, you might have grouped your suppliers by their location, or grouped your purchases by department or cost centre.
- From More, choose the Analysis Type and Category
- Select Calculate
Read more about Analysis Types
- Select Export and then select CSV or PDF.
- The report is ready when a notification displays on the main navigation bar, to the left of Profile. Select the notification bell to open the report.
A negative amount shows on the report when you have an outstanding credit note that's not yet been used to pay to an invoice, or not refunded.
If the credit note should be used to pay off an outstanding invoice, go to Contacts to apply it to the correct invoice.
The aged creditors report only shows the gross value of your debt. Some businesses like to see the net and VAT amount separately so they can check their net expenses.
To find this in Accounting, use the purchase invoice list and filter it to show outstanding invoices only. Once filtered, select all the invoices and export the list to PDF or CSV file.
- From Purchase, choose Purchase Invoices.
- Set the date range to match your aged creditors report.
- From More, change the Status to Outstanding.
- Select the settings icon on the left of the column headers, and select Net, VAT. Click Save.
- Click Search.
To print the list
- Select the check box at the top of the list to select all invoices.
- Choose the Print, PDF or CSV icon from the toolbar.
Many people use the aged creditor report to check that the balance on the supplier record is also correct. In most circumstances, the two figures should match.
When the figures don't match, this is usually because your supplier balance includes all invoices, payments and credit notes, including those dated in the future. Your aged creditors report only shows transactions up to the date specified on the report.
Check that you have chosen the correct date for the aged creditors report. If the date is in the past, the report may not include some more recently dated transactions.
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