An accounts receivable aging report breaks down what customers owe you by how far past due each invoice is. It helps you prioritise collections, forecast cash flow and spot bad-debt risk early. Most reports use four overdue periods: 0–30, 31–60, 61–90 and over 90 days, often alongside a current column for invoices not yet due. Age is measured from the due date, not the invoice date.
Two documents are easy to confuse. The aging report is your internal view of all customers. The aging statement is the customer-facing version for a single account, the one you send when you ask for payment.
How do you read the buckets?
Read them from left to right, and treat each step as a stronger signal.
- 0–30 days: slightly overdue. A routine reminder is usually enough.
- 31–60 days: the invoice is slipping. Check for a dispute or a missing document before you chase.
- 61–90 days: needs active follow-up, ideally a call and a confirmed payment date.
- Over 90 days: the highest risk of not being paid. This is where bad-debt decisions start.
The older an invoice gets, the less likely it is to be collected in full. Start with the oldest buckets and the largest balances, and watch whether the same customers keep moving from one bucket to the next. A jump in the 31–60 bucket this month usually shows up in 61–90 next month. The report's total should also match your accounts receivable balance; if it does not, reconcile before you rely on it.
What does an aging statement look like?
The point of an aging statement is to show how long each amount has been overdue. A list of invoices and a total does not do that. Here is an illustrative statement as of 30 September 2026, with invoices grouped by currency:
Each open amount sits in the period that matches its days overdue. Because the customer is invoiced in two currencies, a single grand total would be meaningless, so each currency has its own total. The statement should also carry the account name, document number, document date and due date.
Why do forwarder receivables get harder to chase?
Freight invoices have features that make late payment more likely:
- Many small invoices. Each shipment or job is usually invoiced on its own, so one customer can have dozens of open items.
- Charges you have already paid. Forwarders often advance carrier charges, duties or taxes and then bill them on, so a late payment affects your cash directly.
- Disputed charges. Items such as demurrage, detention or storage are a common reason customers hold back an invoice, so check for a dispute before you chase.
- Several currencies. Different shipments are often billed in different currencies, so totals must be kept separate.
- Different credit terms. Each customer can have its own payment terms, so "overdue" starts on a different day for each.
How do you turn the report into a collections routine?
- Open the report and start with the oldest bucket.
- Open the list behind each amount to see which invoices make it up.
- Send the customer the statement together with a clear payment request.
- Review the report again at the same interval, so you can see which buckets shrink.
A practical follow-up ladder, matched to the buckets:
- 0–30 days: friendly reminder with the statement attached.
- 31–60 days: confirm there is no dispute or missing document, then send a firm request.
- 61–90 days: call, and agree a payment date in writing.
- Over 90 days: final notice, and decide whether to pause new work for the account or escalate.
A good payment request is short: the account, the overdue amount per currency, the oldest due date, the statement attached, and a clear ask for a payment date.
The step that usually slows teams down is the third one: exporting the list, writing the request from scratch, finding the right e-mail address and attaching the file by hand, then doing it all again for the next company.
How do DSO and bad-debt estimates relate to the aging report?
Days sales outstanding (DSO) shows how long it takes on average to collect payment: accounts receivable divided by credit sales, multiplied by the number of days in the period. For example, €120,000 receivable against €360,000 of credit sales over 90 days gives a DSO of 30 days (illustrative figures).
The aging report also feeds the bad-debt allowance. In the aging method, a higher expected loss percentage is applied to each older bucket and the results are added up. As an illustration, if your history suggests 2%, 10%, 25% and 50% for the four buckets, the EUR amounts above (1,200, 3,500, 0 and 2,800) give 24 + 350 + 0 + 1,400 = 1,774 EUR. The percentages come from your own collection history, and the accounting treatment is for your finance team to decide.
How it works in Modaltrans
In Modaltrans, open Reports, then Aging Report, and click the icon next to an amount in the Grand Total column. This opens the list of invoices behind that amount. Your customers can also see their invoices and statements themselves in the client portal.
The export follows the report's layout. The PDF and Excel exports show Account Name, Document No, Document Date, Due Date and Currency, followed by the 0–30, 31–60, 61–90 and over 90 day periods and the Grand Total. Each invoice's open amount sits in the period that matches its days overdue, and a total row closes the list. The Excel is sorted by due date, oldest first.
Send Mail opens a ready payment request. The download menu above the list has a Send Mail option:
- The recipient is the company's information e-mail, or its financial e-mail when no information e-mail is set. The addresses of the company's contacts are offered as alternatives.
- The subject and body are written as a payment request, and the aging PDF is attached automatically.
- In the attached PDF, invoices are grouped by currency with a total for each currency.
- The attachment is listed on the mail screen before sending and on the sent mail page afterwards, so you can see exactly what went out.
- Recipient, subject and body can all be changed before the mail is sent.
The mail follows the customer's country. The text, the PDF and its file name are in the language of the company receiving the mail. Turkish, English, German, French, Slovak and Chinese are supported, and every other country receives English.
What stays manual: you still open the list and send the mail one company at a time, and you review the pre-filled text before it goes out. There is no bulk or scheduled sending from this screen.
What to ask before choosing a platform
If you compare freight software on collections, a few questions tell you more than a feature list:
- Does the exported statement show the overdue periods, or only a list and a total?
- Are amounts in different currencies totalled separately?
- Can you send a payment request from the report itself, or do you export and attach the file by hand?
- Does the request go out in the language of the company receiving it?
