Dear CFO by Phoenix Strategy Group

Cash & working capital

Accounts payable aging (AP aging)

An accounts payable aging report groups unpaid supplier bills by how long they are past due, so you can see what you owe, to whom, and how late.

Formula

Each open bill is placed in a bucket by days past its due date: current, 1–30, 31–60, 61–90 and over 90 days.

Worked example

Current$100,000
1–30 days past due$40,000
31–60 days$15,000
61–90 days$5,000
Over 90 days$0

$20,000 of $160,000 (12.5%) is more than 30 days late, and those suppliers are the ones most likely to hold orders or add fees.

Why it matters

Paying on time protects supplier terms and pricing; paying early spends cash you may need. Aging shows which bills can wait and which are putting a relationship at risk.

Common mistakes

Where it misleads

Aging from the bill date instead of the due date, which makes long-term bills look late.

Forgetting vendor credits and unapplied payments, so a supplier you have paid still looks overdue.

Reading a clean aging as healthy cash when it is clean only because bills have not been entered yet.

Stop calculating it by hand.

Dear CFO keeps your statements, forecasts and metrics current from the systems you already run.