[coldrick]

We have most of our customers set up on 30 day terms with monthly ageing, but to us this means 30 days from end of month. However, when we run a 202 Customer Balances report, or when we run overdue letters using the template OVERDUE.STY May invoices are appearing as overdue.

We tried changing the customer to 60 day terms and running automatic repairs, recalculating the customers and recalculating invoicing. This had no effect on the ageing.

We then changed the due dates on the individual May invoices to 01/07/08. Again we ran the automatic repairs, recalculated customers and invoicing. Again this had no effect on the ageing.

How can we get our existing customer invoices to age correctly?

If we change them to 60 days for new invoices will this make them all age correctly in future?

Also, the default account total field on overdue.sty was sometimes giving strange account balances that didn't match up with the customer's actual balance. Replacing the field with GTOTAL solved the problem.

[COBS Tech Support]

When you give a client 30 day's credit based on calendar month ageing, the transaction falls due at the end of the next month. This is the 30 day grace period in addition to the transaction date up to the end of the month. If you raise an invoice on the 30th of the month it does not fall due on the 31st of the month (1 day later), as this then represents 1 day's credit, not 30.

In practical terms, a 30 day calendar period averages 45 days of credit. An invoice raised at the beginning of the month may provide nearly 60 days credit and an invoice raised at the end of the month, 30 days.

You can age based on due date or alter the terms, however if you do so it is likely you will confuse your customers as the system described is the conventional accounting practice in this country.

[coldrick]

Which is exactly as we described our accounting terms, and doesn't explain why the reports weren't ageing correctly.

For new users wondering how to get the reports to age correctly it is important that you don't leave the "Period of Statement" date as the default date (todays date). Make sure the "Period of Statement" date is entered correctly and your reports will age correctly in accordance with that period.