Aged debtors and creditors

To protect your cash flow and chase debts efficiently you need to know who owes you money and how old the debt is. Similarly, to help you to decide which suppliers to pay and when, you need to know who you owe money to and for how long.

Managing the length of time your customers have to pay you, and the length of time you have to pay your suppliers is called ageing. In Sage Accounts there are three ageing methods you can choose from and you can set your ageing periods to suit your business. You can then produce aged debtors and creditors values to give you the information you need to manage your debts and cash flow effectively.

The ageing methods available in Sage Accounts

Calendar monthly ageing

This method ages transactions on a calendar basis, rather than by the number of days the transaction is outstanding. This means that all of a month's transactions are classed as outstanding on the first day of the following month.

For example, an invoice is entered with a transaction date of 15 January 2013. The following table shows the ageing period in which the transaction appears when you run the Aged option for a selection of dates.

Date you run the Aged option	Period the transaction shows in
Prior to 14 January 2013 (inclusive)	Future
15 January 2013 to 31 January 2013	Current
1 February 2013 to 28 February 2013	Period 1
1 March 2013 to 31 March 2013	Period 2
1 April 2013 to 31 April 2013	Period 3
1 May 2013 onwards	Period 4

Period ageing

This method ages transactions according to a certain number of days per accounting period. The default periods are 30, 60, 90 and 120 days but you can change this if required.

For example, if the ageing periods are 30, 60, 90 and 120 days and you post an invoice dated 15 January 2013, the following table shows the ageing period in which the transaction appears when you run the Aged option for a selection of dates.

Date you run the Aged option	Period the transaction shows in
Prior to 14 January 2013 (inclusive)	Future
15 January 2013 to 13 February 2013	Current
14 February 2013 to 15 March 2013	Period 1
16 March 2013 to 14 April 2013	Period 2
15 April 2013 to 14 May 2013	Period 3
15 May 2013 onwards	Period 4

Start period ageing on the first day of the month after transaction dates

This starts ageing transactions from the first day of the month following the transaction date.

For example, the ageing periods are 30, 60, 90 and 120 days and the Start Period Ageing on first day of month after Transaction date check box selected. When you post an invoice dated 15 January 2013, the following table shows the ageing period in which it appears when you run the Aged option for a selection of dates.

Date you run the Aged option	Period the transaction shows in
Prior to 14 January 2013 (inclusive)	Future
15 January 2013 to 1 March 2013	Current
2 March 2013 to 31 March 2013	Period 1
1 April 2013 to 30 April 2013	Period 2
1 May 2013 to 30 May 2013	Period 3
31 May 2013 onwards	Period 4

To choose your ageing method

To run an aged debtors or aged creditors report

The aged reports show which customers owe you money, and which suppliers you owe money to. The values are broken down into periods based on the ageing method you are using.

Modules > choose Customers or Suppliers as required > Reports.
Select the Aged debtors or Aged creditors folder.
Select the report you want to print.
Click Preview, Print, Export, Excel or Email as required. Find out more

Enter any required criteria > OK.

View criteria

Transaction Date	Enter the transaction date range that you want to run the report for.
Inc Future Tran	If you want to include transactions dated after the report date, select this check box.
Exc Later Payments	If you want to produce a retrospective aged report, select this check box. This excludes payments dated after the report date, so you can see how much was owed on a particular date.