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The receivables aging report, and what a funder does with it

An aging report turns your receivable balance into a real number. Here is what an underwriter reads on it, how to pull a clean one, and what shrinks your advance rate.

6 minute readUpdated 2026-07-29Written by the Exp Capital desk

An accounts receivable aging report lists every unpaid customer invoice and sorts them by how long they have been outstanding. It is the document that turns the receivable number on your balance sheet into something a funder is willing to lend against, and it usually turns it into something smaller.

The logic is straightforward. A $340,000 receivable balance sounds like $340,000 of value. Once the aging report shows that $42,000 of it is more than ninety days old and $118,000 of it belongs to one customer, the funder is looking at a different asset entirely. Age predicts collectability, and concentration predicts what happens if one relationship goes wrong.

Who asks for it and when

Any product where receivables are the collateral asks for it first, not last. Invoice factoring, accounts receivable financing, and asset based lines cannot be quoted without one, because the aging report is what sets the advance rate. Bank lines of credit ask for it monthly once the facility is open, as a reporting condition rather than an approval condition.

It also shows up on ordinary term loan files when the balance sheet shows a large receivable, and it is standard in industries that live on net terms: staffing, construction, trucking, wholesale, and commercial services. If you invoice and wait, expect to be asked.

The four things read on an aging report, in order

What the underwriter reads on it

The bucket distribution. Current, 1 to 30 days past due, 31 to 60, 61 to 90, and over 90. Funders expect the shape to match your stated terms. A book on net 30 terms where a quarter of the balance sits past 60 days means either your customers are slow payers or your collections are not being worked, and both change the price.
Customer concentration. The percentage of the total owed by your largest account, then your top three. Most funders begin trimming the advance rate once one customer passes twenty percent of the book, and many will cap or exclude a customer entirely above forty or fifty percent. See how concentration limits are applied.
Who your customers are. A receivable from a national retailer, a hospital system, or a government agency is worth more than the same dollar amount owed by three small contractors. Factors underwrite your customer's ability to pay, not yours, which is why a young business with strong customers can factor when it cannot borrow.
Anything over ninety days. Most facilities exclude it outright. Not discounted, excluded, meaning it counts as zero when the borrowing base is calculated. This is the single largest reason owners are surprised by the funded amount.
Contra accounts and offsets. If a customer on your aging report also appears on your payables aging, they can net one against the other and you cannot collect the difference. Funders look for this specifically.
Related party balances. An invoice to a company you or a family member owns is not an arm's length receivable and gets removed from the borrowing base every time.
Credit balances and unapplied payments. Negative lines on the aging usually mean cash was received and never applied. It is a bookkeeping issue, not a fraud issue, but it makes every other number on the page suspect.

A $340,000 receivable book broken into the buckets a funder prices

Run the borrowing base on the figures above and the gap becomes obvious. Of $340,000 in total receivables, the over ninety bucket of $42,000 is excluded, leaving $298,000 eligible. At a typical eighty five percent advance rate, that is about $253,000 available, not $340,000. Nothing improper has happened. It is simply the difference between a balance and a borrowing base.

That distinction is worth internalizing before you take a first offer, because it explains most of the disappointment in receivable based financing. Funders do not quote a percentage of what you are owed. They quote a percentage of what they believe they can collect if you stop operating tomorrow. Every exclusion on the aging report is them answering that question in writing.

How to pull a clean one

01Run the detail version, not the summary
In QuickBooks, open Reports and choose A/R Aging Detail. The summary shows only totals per customer. The detail shows every invoice number, invoice date, due date, and amount, which is what an underwriter needs to verify anything.
02Set the as of date to match your other financials
Same date as your balance sheet. The total on the aging must equal the accounts receivable line on the balance sheet. If it does not, one of the two documents is wrong and the whole package slows down.
03Clean up before you export, not after
Write off the invoices you know will never be collected. Apply the cash sitting in unapplied payments. Remove duplicate invoices. Every one of these creates a question if it stays on the page.
04Attach the backup for the largest invoices
For factoring especially, expect to provide the signed rate confirmation, delivery receipt, purchase order, or signed timesheet behind the biggest invoices. Have them ready before you are asked.
05Send a customer contact list if you are factoring
A factor will verify invoices directly with your customers. Providing accurate accounts payable contacts up front removes days from the funding timeline.

Clean versus a report that shrinks your offer

The same receivable balance, read two ways
What the report shows	How it reads
Detail version, tied exactly to the balance sheet	Verified in minutes, borrowing base calculated immediately
Eighty percent of the balance inside sixty days	Healthy book, standard advance rate
Largest customer at fifteen percent of the total	No concentration adjustment
Largest customer at fifty five percent of the total	Rate cut, a cap on that customer, or a decline
A quarter of the balance past ninety days	That portion excluded entirely from the borrowing base
Summary only, no invoice numbers or dates	Cannot be used, expect an immediate document request
Invoices dated before the work was completed	Treated as a serious problem, not a timing preference

The mistakes that cost real money

Sending a stale report. Aging reports go out of date in days. If yours is three weeks old at submission, half the balance has probably been collected and replaced, and the funder will simply ask for a fresh one.
Leaving dead invoices on the books. Carrying a four year old $19,000 invoice does not preserve a claim, it just tells the underwriter your reported receivable balance includes money you already know is gone.
Mixing unbilled work into the report. Work in progress and progress billings on a construction file are not receivables until they are invoiced under the contract terms. Keep them on a separate schedule.
Ignoring the collectability question. If your days sales outstanding is running at 68 days on net 30 terms, expect that to be the first thing you are asked about, and have an answer that is not a shrug.
Assuming factoring and a bank line can coexist quietly. If a bank already holds a blanket lien on receivables, a factor cannot take them without a subordination agreement. Deal with that before you sign anything.

What we do with this

Exp Capital Solutions is a broker, not a lender. We do not set advance rates and we do not verify your invoices. What we do is run your aging the way a funder will, calculate the realistic borrowing base before anything is submitted, and tell you the number you should actually expect rather than the number on your balance sheet. If your book is concentrated in a way that makes factoring expensive, and a line of credit or term loan serves you better, we will say so even though it pays us less.

Questions people actually ask

What is an accounts receivable aging report?

It is a report listing every unpaid customer invoice grouped by how long it has been outstanding, usually in current, 1 to 30, 31 to 60, 61 to 90, and over 90 day buckets. Lenders use it to judge how collectable your receivable balance really is and to calculate how much they will advance against it.

How recent does the aging report need to be?

As of the last month end at minimum, and for factoring often within the last few days. Receivables turn over quickly, so a report more than two or three weeks old gets refreshed before funding. Once a facility is open, expect to submit an updated aging monthly, sometimes weekly.

Why do lenders exclude invoices over ninety days?

Because collection rates fall sharply after ninety days, and a funder advancing against an invoice needs it to convert to cash. Most facilities exclude that bucket entirely rather than discounting it, so it counts as zero in the borrowing base. This is the most common reason a funded amount comes in below expectations.

How much customer concentration is too much?

Advance rates typically start getting trimmed once one customer passes about twenty percent of the total book, and many funders cap or exclude a customer above forty to fifty percent. It is not an automatic decline. It usually means a lower advance rate on that customer's invoices or a concentration limit written into the facility.

Do I need the detail version or is a summary enough?

The detail version. A summary shows only totals per customer, which cannot be verified. Underwriters need invoice numbers, invoice dates, due dates, and amounts so individual invoices can be confirmed with your customer and matched to backup documents such as delivery receipts or signed timesheets.

Will my customers know I am factoring my invoices?

In standard notification factoring, yes. The factor sends a notice of assignment and your customers remit payment directly to them. Non notification arrangements exist but generally require stronger financials and a longer operating history. Ask which structure an offer uses before you sign, because it affects your customer relationships.

Keep reading

Invoice factoringSelling the receivable outright, and what it really costs.Accounts receivable financingBorrowing against the book instead of selling it.Balance sheetThe receivable total your aging report has to tie to.