Aged debtors and aged creditors
An aged debtors report lists what every customer owes, split by how long it has been outstanding — typically current, 30, 60, 90 and older. An aged creditors report does the same for what you owe suppliers. Both turn a list of balances into a list of actions: who to chase, and what has to be paid next.
Also called Debtor ageing, Creditor ageing, Aged trial balance
How the ageing bands work
Each unpaid item is placed in a band by its age, which is counted either from the invoice date or from the due date. Which of the two is used changes the report materially, and it is worth knowing which your system does: ageing by invoice date on 60-day terms will show everything as a month overdue when nothing is.
Ageing is per item, not per customer. A customer can have an invoice in the current band and another at 90 days at the same time, and the report has to show both rather than netting them to an average.
Why allocation decides accuracy
Ageing is only as good as the allocation behind it. If receipts and payments are posted but not matched to specific invoices, balances stay correct while the ageing quietly becomes fiction — old invoices sit in the 90-day band although they were settled, and the chasing list is wrong.
What each report is used for
- Aged debtors drives credit control — the chasing sequence, the decision to put an account on stop, and the provision for doubtful debts at year end.
- Aged creditors drives the payment run — what falls due, what can wait, and whether early-settlement discounts are worth taking.
- Together they are the working-capital picture: what is coming in, what is going out, and the gap between the two.
What this looks like in an accounting system
Ageing is only useful if something acts on it. On the debtor side that usually means banded chasing: several age bands, each with its own letter template, so the first is a reminder and the last is a pre-legal warning, and accounts move between bands as the debt ages rather than being chased by hand.
On the creditor side the ageing feeds the payment run directly — select what is due, produce the BACS file, and post the payments back against the invoices they settle in the same operation, so the ageing is correct the moment the run finishes rather than after someone remembers to allocate.
Aged debtors and aged creditors questions.
What is the difference between aged debtors and aged creditors?
Aged debtors is what customers owe you, aged by how overdue it is. Aged creditors is what you owe suppliers, aged the same way. One drives collection, the other drives payment.
What is an aged debtors report used for?
Deciding who to chase and in what order, whether to stop supplying an account, and how much to provide for debts unlikely to be collected. It is also one of the first things a lender or auditor asks to see.
Should ageing run from the invoice date or the due date?
Either is valid, but they answer different questions. Ageing from the due date shows what is genuinely overdue and is the more useful basis for credit control; ageing from the invoice date shows how long the money has been tied up regardless of terms.
What is an aged trial balance?
Another name for an aged debtors or aged creditors report — the ledger balances broken down by age rather than shown as a single figure per account.
Trade Ledgers
See ageing that stays accurate: allocation built into cash entry, banded chasing letters on the debtor side, and BACS payment runs that allocate as they post.
Explore the Trade LedgersNext in the glossary.
What is a sales ledger?
A sales ledger is the record of everything each customer has been invoiced and everything they have paid, kept account by account.
Read the definition →What is a purchase ledger?
A purchase ledger is the record of everything each supplier has invoiced you and everything you have paid them, kept account by account.
Read the definition →What is a nominal ledger?
A nominal ledger is the central accounting record that holds every financial transaction a business makes, summarised by account.
Read the definition →