Accounts receivable (A/R) aging
A/R aging is a report that buckets outstanding accounts receivable by how long each balance has been unpaid, used to spot at-risk revenue and prioritize collections.
Updated
Accounts receivable (A/R) aging is a financial report that organizes outstanding receivables into time buckets based on how long each balance has been unpaid — commonly 0–30, 31–60, 61–90, 91–120, and over 120 days. The buckets show where money is tied up and how long it has been waiting, which is what makes aging the standard way to triage collections work.
Aging is reported as both dollar amounts and percentages of total A/R by bucket. The shape of the distribution — how much sits in the older buckets — is read alongside a target (often keeping the oldest buckets below a defined share) to decide which claims to work and which to escalate or write off.
In practice
Aging is an operational signal, not a verdict: an old balance can still be collectable or it can be uncollectable, and the bucket alone does not say which. Aging drives prioritization (the older a balance, the higher the collection risk), and a build-up in the over-120 bucket is the classic warning sign that the denial or write-off process is not keeping up with the inflow of new A/R.
Commonly confused with
- Days in accounts receivable: Days in A/R is a single number summarizing how long it takes to collect on average; A/R aging is the distribution of balances across time buckets. The two are complementary — one is a ratio, the other is a breakdown.