QuickBooks A/R Aging Report

How to run it and read the columns

Go to Reports, then Standard reports, and look in the Who owes you section for Accounts receivable aging summary or Accounts receivable aging detail. Customize report opens the options, and the Aging setting under General options controls how balances are grouped into aging periods. Save as keeps a customized version for next month.

The columns are where people misread the report. Intuit defines Current as a balance that "is not yet due. The due date is in the future of the report date and the aging is based on the due date of a transaction." The 1 - 30 column and those after it hold balances "past due by the number of days that passed after the due date."

So an invoice dated 1 June with 30-day terms is Current until 1 July, and sits in 1 - 30 from 2 July. The invoice date doesn’t decide the column. The due date does.

The exception is an invoice with no due date at all. Intuit says it "is considered due upon receipt and is driven by the transaction date, once a day has elapsed, the transaction will be noted as past due." An invoice that should have had 30-day terms but went in without them will look overdue from its second day.

Why it disagrees with the balance sheet

The aging total and the Accounts Receivable line on the balance sheet should be the same number on the same date. Intuit’s help article on matching the two gives the usual reason they aren’t: the aging report defaults to the Current aging method.

The fix Intuit gives is to open Customize report, go to General options, and under Aging choose the Report date option, so the aging is measured against the report’s own date. Then run the Balance Sheet or Trial Balance with Accrual as the accounting method, for the same date. A cash-basis balance sheet and an aging report are measuring different things and will not tie.

If they still differ after that, work through the ordinary causes: different dates on the two reports, comparing the wrong line, or a payment recorded after the date you are looking at. Anything left is a transaction that touches Accounts Receivable but isn’t sitting on a customer’s open balance the way you expect, and the detail version of the report is where to hunt for it.

Stripe invoices on an aging report

Stripe invoices come in two collection methods, and they age very differently once they reach QuickBooks.

An invoice set to charge automatically is paid from the customer’s saved payment method. Stripe’s API reference says its due date "will be null for invoices where collection_method=charge_automatically." Stripe attempts the charge itself, so a successful one spends little time open. When one stays open, the usual reason is a payment problem rather than a slow customer: Stripe’s docs say that if payment fails or the invoice isn’t fully paid, it remains open.

An invoice sent for payment emails the customer and waits. These carry a real due date, and they are the ones that age in the ordinary way, moving from Current to 1 - 30 and onward if the customer doesn’t pay.

Stripe’s statuses map onto the report cleanly. An open invoice is "finalized and awaiting payment", so it belongs on the aging report. A paid invoice doesn’t. A void invoice is canceled and "treated as zero-value for reporting purposes." An uncollectible invoice is one where "the customer is unlikely to pay", which Stripe says you "normally" treat as bad debt. None of the last three should be sitting on your aging as money you expect to collect.

Using it to check QuickBooks against Stripe

Once a month, put the two lists side by side. In Stripe, filter invoices to open. In QuickBooks, run the A/R aging detail for the same date with the Report date aging method, and filter to the customers you bill through Stripe.

The totals should match. When they don’t, the difference usually falls into one of three shapes.

On QuickBooks but not open in Stripe. The invoice was paid, voided or marked uncollectible in Stripe, and the matching change never reached QuickBooks, or reached it without being applied to the invoice. A payment that exists in QuickBooks but isn’t linked to its invoice leaves the invoice open on the aging report and the payment sitting as a credit on the customer.

Open in Stripe but not on QuickBooks. The invoice was never created in QuickBooks, or was recorded as something other than an invoice.

On both, with different amounts. Look at partial payments, credit notes, and any customer credit balance Stripe applied to the invoice.

Work the largest differences first. One invoice explained is usually a pattern explained.