How to Run and Export the Accounts Receivable Aging Report in Xero

Unpaid invoices are the default, not the exception. Intuit’s 2025 data found 56% of small businesses are owed money on overdue invoices, and the fastest way to see your own exposure in Xero is a report the platform already ships: the Accounts Receivable Aging report.

In Xero, go to the Reporting menu, select All reports, and open the Accounts Receivable Aging Detail report (called Aged Receivables Detail outside the US). Pick a date or preset period, click Update, then use the Export button to download Excel, PDF, or Google Sheets. The whole run takes about two minutes.

This guide covers both versions of the report, the aging options that change what the numbers mean, the one column most teams overlook, and how to turn the export into a collections list that recovers cash. If your books live in QuickBooks instead, we wrote the same guide for QuickBooks.

What Is the Aged Receivables Report in Xero?

The report answers the core collections question: who owes you money, and how long has it been outstanding?

Xero ships two versions, and they answer different questions. The Summary shows one row per customer with totals split across aging periods, which is right for sizing the problem and briefing leadership. The Detail lists every individual unpaid invoice, credit note, and overpayment with its dates and amounts, which is the version collections actually works from.

Per Xero’s own documentation for the Accounts Receivable Aging Detail report, the report shows outstanding transactions as at the report date, and multicurrency amounts appear in your base currency. Any user with the administrator, standard plus reports, sales and purchases, sales, or viewer role can run it.

Run it weekly. Compare where your totals sit against DSO benchmarks by industry to know whether you are looking at a problem or a crisis.

How Do You Run the Report?

• In the Reporting menu, select All reports.

• Find and open Accounts Receivable Aging Detail. The search field in the top right corner is the fastest route.

• Select a Date, or click the arrow next to the date for a preset reporting period such as End of last month or End of last quarter.

• Choose the options you want the report to show (see below).

• Click Update.

You can click any cell on the report, an invoice number, a date, a total, to open the underlying invoice or credit note directly. That makes the on-screen version genuinely useful for spot checks before you ever export.

Which Report Options Actually Matter?

Xero gives this report more configuration than most teams ever touch. Five settings change what the numbers actually say.

Aging by due date, not invoice date

Xero can age transactions by Due Date or Invoice Date. For collections, age by Due Date: it shows overdue transactions in the period they were due, which is what “past due” means to your customer. Invoice Date aging answers a different question (how long since you raised the invoice) and will overstate lateness for anyone on longer terms.

Aging periods that match your terms

The default periods suit Net 30 books. If most of your invoices carry Net 60 terms, widen the periods to match, otherwise your early columns manufacture false urgency. You can display periods by period number or by date range, and choose whether transactions dated on the report date itself land in the Current column.

Columns: add contact and date detail

Add the columns collections will need: Due Date, Invoice Date, and Contact Account Number where you use them. An export without the detail your team needs to act is a spreadsheet, not a work queue.

The Invoice Seen column, the one most teams miss

If you send online invoices from Xero, the Invoice Seen column shows whether the contact has actually viewed the invoice. That single column resolves the most common standoff in collections: “we never received it.” A customer who has seen the invoice three times and not paid gets a different next touch than one who has never opened it, where the fix is confirming the right billing contact, not sending a firmer reminder.

Grouping and saved layouts

Group or summarize by Contact so multiple invoices from one customer collapse into a single conversation. Then save the layout as a custom report so next week’s run takes one click instead of ten.

How Do You Export the Report?

• With the report on screen and updated, click the Export button at the bottom.

• Choose Excel or Google Sheets for working data, PDF for a board pack.

• Open the file and sort by days overdue, then by amount within each aging bucket.

Google Sheets export is worth a special mention: it gives a shared, always-accessible copy your whole team can work from without emailing attachments around, and it is the format that downstream tools ingest most cleanly.

What Do You Do With the Export?

The export is a starting gun, not a result. The work queue logic is the same regardless of accounting platform:

• Collapse rows by customer, and discuss every open invoice in one conversation.

• Work oldest first within each aging period; the top of the 61-90 band is the most urgent recoverable money.

• Give every segment a defined action: friendly reminders while current, firmer contact plus phone calls as age climbs, an escalation decision at 90 plus.

• Log every promise to pay with a date, and re-run the report weekly to see whether the buckets are actually draining.

Two numbers tell you if it is working: the percentage of A/R past 60 days, and DSO. The rest of the scorecard is in 9 accounts receivable KPIs worth tracking.

Where Automation Picks Up the Export

Everything after the export is repetitive, rules-driven follow-up, which is exactly the work that slips the moment the person who owns it gets busy.

That handoff point is where Abivo’s AI employee takes over. Kate connects to Xero directly, so the aging data syncs without manual exports, then works the list: calling, texting, and emailing customers about overdue invoices on a cadence that never slips, logging every outcome, and escalating to your team only when a customer disputes, pushes back, or needs a judgment call. In our experience roughly 86% of collections activity runs autonomously and about 14% genuinely needs a human. The integration detail is covered in how Abivo works with Xero.

Practical Takeaways for Xero Users

• Run the Aging Detail report weekly, aged by Due Date, with periods matched to your terms.

• Add the Invoice Seen column and let it pick the next touch: firmer reminder for seen-and-unpaid, contact check for never-opened.

• Group by Contact, save the layout as a custom report, and export to Excel or Google Sheets.

• Work oldest first within each period, one conversation per customer, every promise logged with a date.

• Watch percent of A/R past 60 and DSO week over week; if the cadence keeps slipping, automate the follow-up rather than adding headcount.

FAQ

What is the difference between the Aged Receivables Summary and Detail reports in Xero?

The Summary shows one row per customer with totals split by aging period; use it for reporting. The Detail shows every unpaid invoice, credit note, and overpayment individually; use it for collections work.

Should I age receivables by due date or invoice date?

For collections, by Due Date, because it reflects when the customer was actually obligated to pay. Invoice Date aging is useful for measuring total invoice-to-cash time, but it overstates lateness on longer-terms accounts.

Can I tell if a customer has opened an invoice in Xero?

Yes, if you send online invoices. Add the Invoice Seen column to the aging report and it shows whether the contact has viewed each invoice, which tells you whether your next step is a firmer reminder or a billing-contact check.

How do I automate the report so it runs on a schedule?

Save your configured layout as a custom report so the settings persist, then re-run it on a weekly rhythm. For fully hands-off collection follow-up on the same data, connect a tool that reads from Xero directly rather than emailing exports around.

Why do amounts on the report differ from what my customer owes in their currency?

If you use multicurrency, the report shows outstanding transactions converted to your base currency. Check the individual invoice for the customer-currency amount before quoting a balance.

Ready to turn the aging report into recovered cash without adding headcount? Get Started.

Curious what this sounds like in practice? Here’s a 98-second sample call: https://abivo.ai/#live-demo