We collect.
You grow.

If you are running a small business and you are not looking at your AR aging report at least twice a month, you are flying blind. Revenue numbers feel good. Aging reports tell you the truth.

What is an AR aging report?

It is a simple breakdown of all the money your customers owe you, sorted by how long it has been outstanding. Typically you will see buckets: current, 1 to 30 days past due, 31 to 60 days, 61 to 90 days, and 90 days plus. That last column is where cash goes to die.

Why most small businesses ignore it

Because the invoices went out and the revenue got booked. On paper things look fine. But "booked" and "collected" are very different things, and that gap is where cash flow problems live.

What it actually costs you

• Outstanding invoices tie up your working capital. You cannot use money that is sitting in someone else's account.
• The older a receivable gets, the less likely you are to collect it in full. After 90 days, collection rates drop significantly.
• You may be paying vendors on time while your own customers are not paying you. That is a silent cash crunch building up.

What to do about it

Review your aging report every two weeks. Set up a follow-up sequence for anything that hits 15 days past due. Do not wait until 60 days to make your first call. A polite reminder at day 16 collects more than an aggressive demand at day 60.

If managing AR is taking time away from actually running your business, that is a sign it is worth handing off. That is exactly what we do at WeAccounted.

Paying vendors late feels like a cash management strategy. Sometimes it even works short term. But over time, it costs you more than you save.

Your terms get worse

Vendors talk. And even if they do not, they remember. When you are consistently late, suppliers quietly adjust. Net 30 becomes net 15. Discounts disappear. In some cases you get moved to prepayment. You may not even notice it happening until your cash position is already strained.

You lose negotiating power

The best vendor deals go to the customers who pay reliably and on time. Volume helps, but payment behavior matters more than most business owners realize. If you want better pricing, better terms, or priority treatment during supply crunches, your payment track record is your leverage.

Late fees add up quietly

Even a 1.5 percent monthly late fee on a few invoices adds up to real money over a year. More importantly, it signals that your AP process is reactive rather than managed.

The fix is simpler than it sounds

Most late payments happen because no one is watching the AP inbox closely enough. A structured process where invoices get reviewed, approved, and scheduled for payment on intake, not when someone remembers, changes everything. That is what we set up for every client we work with.

Most small business owners handle their own books longer than they should. Here are five clear signs it is time to hand it off.

1. You are reconciling last month at the end of this month

If you are always a month behind, your financial data is always a month stale. Decisions made on old numbers are risky decisions. A dedicated bookkeeper keeps you current.

2. You do not know your actual cash position right now

Not an estimate. Not what your bank account says. Do you know what your true available cash is after accounting for outstanding payables and uncollected receivables? If the honest answer is no, that is a problem.

3. Tax time is painful every single year

If your CPA spends the first few hours of every tax engagement cleaning up your books, you are paying CPA rates for bookkeeping work. That is an expensive way to do it. Clean books throughout the year make tax time fast and straightforward.

4. You have invoices you forgot to send

It happens more often than people admit. A job gets done, life moves fast, and the invoice goes out two weeks late or not at all. That is direct revenue loss, and it is completely preventable.

5. Bookkeeping takes more than two hours a week of your time

Two hours a week is 100 hours a year. What would you do with 100 extra hours? For most business owners, that time is worth a lot more than the cost of handing the books off to someone who does it faster and better. That is the math we are happy to walk you through.