Overdue invoices in Xero: who owes what, and since when
An overdue balance is a snapshot of what is still unpaid at the latest sync. Payments that arrived late are a different measure. Keeping the two apart avoids counting the same problem twice or missing part of it.
By Manny Sidhu · Practical guide · Published · Updated
Start with what is still open
Outstanding invoices are sales invoices with a balance still unpaid, including tax. Every open invoice counts, whatever the date it was issued.
Unallocated credits, deposits, and other account balances are not netted against these invoices. A customer with a credit on account can still show an overdue invoice.
Age each balance from its due date
Age is the number of days between the balance date and the invoice due date. An invoice due on that day is not yet overdue.
AirCEO groups each customer's balance into not yet overdue, 1 to 30 days overdue, 31 to 60 days, 61 to 90 days, and over 90 days. Invoices without a due date sit in their own group instead of being guessed into one.
Rank customers by the overdue amount
Total outstanding mixes invoices that are not yet due with invoices well past due. Ranking customers by the overdue part alone shows where unpaid money has already passed its terms.
Illustrative example, not customer data: three customers owe A$58,000 between them. A$40,000 is not yet due. One customer has A$12,000 overdue by 31 to 60 days, and another has A$6,000 overdue by more than 90 days. Ranked by overdue amount, the A$12,000 customer comes first, even though the A$6,000 balance is older.
Current balances, not past ones
These balances describe the latest sync. Current invoice balances cannot show what was overdue on an earlier date, so AirCEO does not offer a historical overdue balance.
If open invoices are in more than one currency, AirCEO does not add them into a single total.
Late payments are a separate measure
For a chosen period, AirCEO can list customers whose invoice payments arrived after the due date, with the amount received late, the number of invoices involved, and the longest delay in days.
Partial payments count only the part allocated to each invoice. Invoices that are still unpaid do not appear in this list; they appear in the overdue balances. Payments with no recorded due date are counted separately because they cannot be classed as on time or late.
What the records cannot tell you
Neither measure explains why a customer paid late or has not paid. Each Ask Alex answer lists its source, the date of the balances, its assumptions, and its calculation, along with the Xero invoices and payments behind each figure.