Usefulness of the Aging Report - Utility Billing
The Aging Report in Utility Management displays all unpaid balances and puts them into different aging "buckets" depending on how long the balances have been unpaid. There are several options you can change so that the report provides the information you desire. The following are some of the options you can change along with explanations:
- Aging Days - Selecting Based on billing periods will display how much is due from a customer for each billing period. Let's assume our last three billing dates were 10/31, 9/30, 8/31 and a customer owes $60.00. The report will show, for example, that the customer owes $25.00 from the 10/31 billing, $17.00 from the 9/30 billing, and finally $18.00 from the 8/31 billing. Selecting Based on the days specified will display how much is due from a customer using the aging specified. 30, 60, 90, etc. is typically the aging most organizations will utilize. The aging will be based on the Report date specified in the upper left.
- Include active customers - Checking this box will display active customers on the report. Unchecking this box is useful if you would like to see the aging of inactive customers.
- Include inactive customers - Checking this box will display inactive customers on the report. Unchecking this box will exclude inactive customers.
- Include customers with a credit balance - Checking this box will include customers with a total credit or negative balance on their account. Unchecking this box will exclude these customers.
- Summarize by service category - This option won't affect the initial display of the report but will affect what appears when you drill-down on a balance from the report. If you check this box and you then click on a Balance for a customer on the report, the subsequent report will show a breakdown and aging of the customer's balance by Service Categories. To learn more about Service Categories, click here. Unchecking this box will simply show the breakdown and aging of the customer's balance by service when you drill-down.
- Services - Located on the Additional Options tab, you have the ability to pick and choose which services you would like to appear on the report. By default, all services are checked. However, if you would like to generate a report only for the water fund, you can deselect all services not related to the water fund. Make sure you save this report and title it appropriately so that you can utilize this report again in the future.
Feel free to go to the Columns tab and add or remove columns not needed.
There are different uses for the aging report. Here are a couple and how to generate that report:
- Calculate Allowance for Uncollectible Accounts - You may have an account titled Allowance for Uncollectible Accounts or something of the like on your balance sheet. This account is an estimate of how much of your outstanding balances will never be collected. Running the Aging Report will help you to identify the average age of receivables and identify potential losses from customers. This in turn can assist in calculating your allowance for uncollectible accounts. You can utilize any of the Caselle Master reports to generate this information. If you would like to get a breakdown by service, you can utilize the Aging Report - Service Summary. This report is a great in providing an aging by service in a summarized format.
- Identify potential write-offs - By unchecking Include active customers and unchecking Include inactive customers, a report will generate to provide you with a list of inactive customers who have not paid and how old their outstanding balances are. You may have a policy to write-off balances over a certain age or to send them to collections.
- Identify cash flow problems - The Aging Report can assist in identifying when a cash flow problem might occur. Again, the report helps you to identify the average age of receivables. If your receivables are disproportionately older in age, this may be indication that future cash flow problems are lurking. Typically, you will want to see this by fund. Some funds have more of a cash flow problem than others. As a result, the Aging Report - Service Summary report will provide this breakdown by service in a nice summarized format.