Ageing Report: How to Read Outstanding Dues Like a Pro

An ageing report lists what every customer owes you and splits it by how old the dues are, normally into buckets such as 0 to 30 days, 31 to 60 days, 61 to 90 days and above 90 days. It tells you where your money is stuck and who needs a call first, which the single total on your khata cannot do.

Imagine two retailers who each owe ₹40,000. One bought this week, on 15-day terms. The other has not paid for ten weeks. The total is the same, but the risk is completely different. This guide explains how to prepare an ageing report, how to read it and what to do with the results.

What an ageing report looks like

For each retailer, you place each unpaid bill into a bucket based on how many days it has been outstanding. The age can be counted from the invoice date or from the due date. Choose one and stay with it. Counting from the due date shows how late dues are; counting from the invoice date shows how long money is stuck.

An example, with made-up numbers:

Retailer	Not yet due	1-30 days overdue	31-60 days	61+ days	Total
Shop A	₹18,000	0	0	0	₹18,000
Shop B	₹6,000	₹9,500	₹4,000	0	₹19,500
Shop C	0	0	₹7,000	₹21,000	₹28,000
Total	₹24,000	₹9,500	₹11,000	₹21,000	₹65,500

Shop A is fine. Shop B is slipping. Shop C has most of its balance older than 60 days and needs action now.

How to read the buckets

Not yet due

This is money on normal terms. It is working capital that will come back, so no action is needed other than reminders as the date nears.

1 to 30 days overdue

Usually forgetfulness or a short cash crunch. A polite reminder fixes most of these. See our payment reminder message templates.

31 to 60 days overdue

A pattern is forming. Call the shop, ask why, check for an unresolved dispute and agree a payment date. Consider pausing new credit orders until the oldest bill moves.

61 days and above

The chance of smooth recovery falls as dues get older. Escalate: senior person to visit, clear plan for payment, credit restricted. Treat it as a serious account even if the amount is small.

How to prepare your own ageing report

You can do this with a spreadsheet in about 20 minutes a week.

1. List open invoices. For each unpaid or part-paid bill, note the retailer, invoice number, date, due date and balance.
2. Apply payments to the oldest bills first. This is called FIFO allocation and keeps ageing honest. If payments are not matched to bills, old dues look newer than they are.
3. Calculate days overdue. Today's date minus the due date. Zero or negative means not yet due.
4. Put each balance in a bucket. A simple formula or a pivot table does it.
5. Total by retailer and by bucket.
6. Mark action items. Anything over 30 days gets a name beside it and a date by which someone will follow up.

What to do with the report

• Prioritise calls. Start with the highest amounts in the oldest bucket.
• Review credit limits. A shop with growing 31-plus-day balances should not have a high limit. See how to set a credit limit for retailers.
• Spot disputes. Old dues often hide a disagreement over a short delivery or damaged goods. Resolve those first.
• Watch the trend. Is the overall share of dues older than 30 days rising or falling month to month? That is the real measure of your collection health.
• Plan your own cash. If a big share of your capital is stuck beyond 60 days, you may need to slow down credit growth. For the wider picture, read working capital for kirana and wholesale.

A worked example of acting on the report

Take Shop C from the table above. Its ₹21,000 above 60 days is three-quarters of its balance, so the first step is a phone call from the owner, not another message. Ask whether any bill is disputed. If a short delivery is behind it, issue the adjustment and ask for the undisputed part. If it is a cash problem, agree a dated plan, for example ₹7,000 each week for three weeks, and write it down. Until the first instalment arrives, supply against cash or UPI. Shop B needs only a friendly reminder and a watch on whether its 31-60 bucket keeps growing. Shop A needs nothing at all. Five minutes of reading has told you exactly where your time should go.

Common mistakes with ageing

• Mixing unallocated payments. A payment sitting "on account" makes old bills look unpaid and the report unreliable.
• Using different age rules every month. Pick invoice-date or due-date ageing and stick to it.
• Only looking at totals. Totals hide the problem accounts.
• Treating all overdue the same. Five days late and 70 days late need different responses.
• Reviewing too rarely. A monthly review means a problem can run for a month unnoticed.

How MaalMitra helps

MaalMitra's khata does the hard part of an ageing exercise: keeping accurate dues and due dates for every retailer. Based on what the app provides:

• Khata with outstanding, due and overdue amounts. For each retailer connected to you, you see what is owed in all, what is due and what is overdue, with the number of days overdue.
• Due dates from payment terms. Credit entries carry due dates based on the payment terms you set for that retailer.
• FIFO or manual allocation. When you record a payment, allocate it to the oldest bills first or choose the bills manually, so old and new dues stay separate.
• Append-only ledger. Entries are corrected with adjustments, not erased, so your numbers can be trusted.
• Reminder schedule. Reminders before the due date, on it and every N days after are shown to retailers in the app and as push notifications. MaalMitra does not send WhatsApp or SMS.
• Dashboard and analytics. Collection rate and top and declining retailers support your weekly review.

The app shows overdue amounts and days per retailer; if you want bucketed 0-30 / 31-60 / 61-90 / 90+ columns, take those figures into a spreadsheet and group them there.

The bottom line

The ageing report turns "kitna baaki hai" into "kitna, kiska aur kitne din se". Build it weekly, read it from the oldest bucket first and let it drive who you call, who gets credit and how much stock you can afford to buy.

Want accurate dues and overdue days for every retailer in one place? Get started with MaalMitra and bring your khata online.