Building Better Business Finances: The QuickBooks Collections Report

Tucked inside the report menus of QuickBooks, you'll find the collections report.

I find this report to be quite helpful when it comes to managing your accounts receivable on a regular basis. In fact, I like to call it the "dialing for dollars" report, since it provides all the information needed to make those calls on overdue accounts.

To access the QuickBooks collections report for your accounts receivable, click Reports > Customers and Receivables > Collections Report. You'll see a report that looks like this sample (click the image for a larger view):

Once you pull up the report, you will find:

• Customer name, phone number, invoice information - including creation date, due date and days overdue.

Everything you need to be informed when picking up the phone to get the status of overdue invoices!

Now that you have the necessary information, it is just a matter of scheduling time for your collection activities. Remember, every dollar you have in accounts receivable is a dollar that isn't working hard within your business!

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• Average sale per invoice - a key (and easy to calculate) metric for your business
• Sales by customer reports - comparing this year to last year

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