10 Essential Accounts Receivable Reports Every CFO and AR Leader Should Know

Every CFO understands that numbers tell a story, but without the proper reports, you read it as one with blank chapters. You can get a view of the revenue last month, but you still cannot get the invoices that are overdue, the time it takes to collect the money or changes in the collection patterns.

Those gaps cost money. Delays in payments increase DSO, bad debt, and finance leaders become reactive rather than proactive. The solution?

Go beyond balances to provide actionable information to leverage accounts receivable reports. These tools provide CFOs and AR leaders with visibility to enhance cash flow, optimize receivables, and enhance financial planning due to ageing schedules, collections reports, and other tools.

What is an Accounts Receivable (AR) Report?

An accounts receivable (AR) report is a financial reporting tool which indicates the amount of money that customers owe to a company, the duration of outstanding payments, and the invoices that are likely to become bad debt. To CFOs and finance managers, these reports are not just numbers; they are a pulse check of business liquidity and customer payment behaviour.

AR reports bring together invoice tracking, credit management, and cash flow statements data in a format that shows business performance metrics. They are used by finance teams to track the efficiency of collection, determine overdue invoices, and strategize on financial planning initiatives. In the absence of these insights, organizations experience increased credit risks and poor management of the revenue cycle.

Why They Matter for CFOs?

CFOs require proper AR reports so that they do not make decisions based on obsolete or incomplete information. They provide an insight into the reliability of customers and can be used to monitor trends before they turn into cash flow crises.

Important contribution to Business Cash Flow

AR reports also contribute directly to optimizing business cash flows by mapping outstanding payments. When checked on a regular basis, they enable finance leaders to identify red flags such as customers falling into bad payment habits before the balance sheet takes the blow.

Financial Visibility Building Blocks

AR reports provide the basis to enhance financial visibility throughout the organization. They get finance managers, AR leaders, and executives on the same page of the truth, so that all are on the same page of receivables and risks.

Accounts Receivable Reports.

• Aging reports
• Customer reports
• Monthly sales report-based DSO.
• Aged trial balance
• Customer credit reports
• Transaction reports
• Payment reports
• Cash reconciliation statements.
• Sales reports
• Productivity reports

AR reports do not all have the same purpose. A mix of various reporting tools is used by finance leaders to gain a comprehensive view of payment performance and maximize receivables.

1. Aging reports

These are the most popular accounts receivable reports. Ageing reports give you information about the amount of your revenue outstanding and the amount due to customers. The report divides outstanding receivables into various ageing buckets by the number of days outstanding (less than 30 days, 30 -60 days, 61 -90 days and over 90 days).

The AR ageing report can be used to determine the working capital problems, customer credit quality, and credit policy.

When a significant proportion of receivables are in buckets that reflect long-term accounts outstanding (e.g. > 60 days), a business should reconsider its collections policy and redesign its credit policy. It will assist in reducing risks and enhancing its collection policies in order to receive payments on time.

• Customer reports

AR teams keep track of critical customer accounts and customer payments using a number of reports. The following are some of the types of customer reports in AR management:

• Customer list: This report may provide you with all the information about the customers such as credit limits, salesperson assigned to the account, payment details, currency choice, geography, discount category, etc.
• Revenue by customer: This report will group customers by how much they bring in to your business (< $1M, $ 1M – $5M, etc.) This gives you an idea of your best customers and where you need to be providing personalized services as opposed to custom services.
• Customer transaction report: The Customer transaction report gives you an overview of all the interactions with the customer(s) over a certain period of time. As an example, you might use the report to see all the instances of invoices sent to customers between January 1 – March 31, 2023. You might also check customer accounts with overdue receivables, unapplied cash, etc., during the given time period.

• DSO on a monthly sales report

A monthly sales report, Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), is an important measure of any business that provides credit to customers. It is computed by taking the accounts receivable and dividing it by the average daily sales of the month.

DSO is the average number of days that a business takes to collect payment on goods or services sold, and it affects cash flow and liquidity. Monitoring DSO monthly will help businesses evaluate their efficiency in handling accounts receivable and determine if they have cash flow issues.

An increase in DSO means that it is taking customers a longer time to pay their bills, which may be an indication that credit policies or collections processes need to be reviewed. On the other hand, a declining DSO may reflect a better cash flow and better accounts receivable management.

• Aged trial balance

An old trial balance is a list of accounts receivable balances of customers over a period, so that you can see what is outstanding. It may be printed in any date range and includes columns of credit balances, customer contact information, codes, etc.

• Customer credit reports

Customer credit reports give comprehensive information on the creditworthiness of the customers. AR automation solutions such as NCRI create credit reports that integrate information across various credit agencies, such as D&B, Experian, etc., to give you 360-degree visibility of your credit risk.
The credit reports are automatically updated to show the news and information about the customer accounts. The reports assist AR managers in making appropriate decisions regarding the extension of credit lines and minimize the exposure to credit risk by the business.

• Transaction reports

Transaction reports give information about AR activities that were performed within a time frame. These reports contain error reports, batch listings, journal entries, etc. Transaction reports are an important component of your accounts receivable audit trail.

• Payment reports

These reports provide payment information such as invoices paid, invoices outstanding, part payments, dates of payment, mode of payment, etc., per customer. These reports can be filtered to help you track payments by currency, date range, invoice number, etc.

• Cash reconciliation reports

Cash reconciliation report provides a summary of the payments received, cash applied, unapplied cash, credit remaining and refunds. It gives you a summary of the financial activity in your business and assists in giving you a picture of your cash position.

• Sales reports

The item sales report assists in monitoring the revenue, product returns, costs and profit margins of a specified period. This report assists you in determining the products with the highest returns or complaints and the most profitable products.

1. Productivity reports

Productivity reports contain reports on exception handling productivity, user productivity based on time spent, collection effectiveness index reports, payment committed vs. payment collected by the collector, etc. These reports assist AR managers to understand how efficiently their operations are running and implement corrective measures where necessary.

Advantages of Accounts Receivable Reporting Automation

Manual reporting is sluggish, prone to errors and is not always as comprehensive as CFOs require. Automation will turn AR reporting into an actual-time, trusted source of truth that will lead to strategic action.

• Greater Precision and Productivity.

Through automation, information is directly retrieved through invoice tracking systems and ERP systems, eliminating the chances of human error. Less time is wasted by finance managers in preparing spreadsheets, and more time is spent on analyzing insights.

• Greater Cash Flow Management.

Automated reports provide leaders with a real-time perspective of receivables turnover ratio, DSO, and customer payment trends. This data will make it easier to optimize cash flow, minimize late payments, and optimize receivables.

• Improved Strategic Financial Planning.

CFOs can incorporate them into larger strategic financial planning when reports are produced on a regular basis. This would make collections and credit management consistent with revenue objectives, eliminating surprises in the forecasting process.

What is the Way to Automate Accounts Receivable Reporting?

Automation is not merely a software thing–it is a process that is reliable and involves people and strategy combined with finance technology.

• Choose the Right AR Platform

The initial one is to choose a system that will help with automated AR ageing schedules, collection reports, and customer payment tracking. The appropriate platform must also be able to connect with your current ERP and accounting systems.

• Identify Important Business Performance Measures.

Automation is effective when the appropriate metrics are monitored. To ensure reports provide actionable information, CFOs and AR leaders need to specify the KPIs that are the most important, including DSO, bad debt analysis, and receivables turnover ratio.

• Automate Collections.

Automated AR tools can also facilitate collections by sending reminders on outstanding invoices, high-risk accounts, and assist in monitoring outstanding payments. This enhances the knowledge of the finance managers and relieves teams of manual repetitive work.

Ready to move beyond spreadsheets and blind spots?

NCRi helps finance leaders transform their receivables process with automated reporting, real-time cash flow visibility, and actionable insights on customer payment trends. Whether you need to cut DSO, reduce overdue invoices, or strengthen strategic financial planning, our solutions give you the clarity and control to lead with confidence.