Your company’s sales are basically money in the proverbial bank, right? Not necessarily.
If you make sales to customers on credit, your Accounts Receivable is money that’s legally owed to you, but it’s not cash on hand. In fact, if you don’t manage your accounts receivables, you could find yourself facing a cash flow crisis even though sales are strong.
An Accounts Receivable Template can help you keep track of what your customers owe you in a consistent, simple format.
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Pre-defined Microsoft Excel Template
What Is Accounts Receivable?
Accounts receivable refers to money due to your organization from buyers who have not yet paid for their purchases. When you send invoices or bills to debtors, they become part of your accounts receivable until it’s paid.
Accounts receivable are assets and appear on your company’s Balance Sheet.
Accounts receivable can also refer to the process of collecting those receivables. This can include:
- Establishing credit practices for your company
- Invoicing customers for products delivered or services rendered
- Tracking accounts receivable in an organized format
- Ensuring payments are collected promptly
How to Use Accounts Receivable Template
Using an accounts receivable template helps you stay on top of credit sales to customers and track payments made.
Each time you make a sale to a customer on credit and send an invoice, enter the date, invoice number, and amount into the worksheet. When a customer makes a partial payment toward their balance, enter the payment date and amount into the template. Our template includes Excel formulas that automatically update the outstanding balance on each invoice. This template becomes your accounts receivable ledger.
Periodically, review your accounts receivable ledger, noting any unpaid receivables that are nearing the due date or already past due. Then you can remind customers when payment due dates are drawing closer and follow up on late payments to avoid having to write off the amount due with journal entries to bad debt.
At some point, your small business may outgrow managing your accounts receivable on a basic Excel spreadsheet. At that point, you can invest in a comprehensive accounting software solution that automates and streamlines your accounts receivable process and generates receivable aging reports.
Components of Accounts Receivable Excel Template
Our free template includes several essential components that can help keep you organized and make it easy to manage your receivables. This includes:
- Invoice date. This is the date shown on your invoice. When following up with customers on outstanding sales invoices, it’s helpful to have the invoice date at hand. Also, knowing the invoice date is vital if your payment terms specify that payments are due Net 15 or Net 30.
- Invoice number. Each invoice should have a unique number. This unique number makes it easier for you and your client to track the invoice.
- Customer name. Including the customer name makes knowing which customer owes you money a breeze.
- Invoice amount. This is the total invoice amount, net of discounts, but before applying any partial payments.
- Due date. Including the invoice due date on your accounts receivable ledger makes it easy to spot upcoming and delinquent accounts.
- Payment date. Record the payment date in this column when a customer makes a full or partial payment.
- Payment amount. Record the full or partial payment amount in this column. If your customers routinely make partial payments, you may want to customize your template to include multiple columns for payment dates and payment amounts.
- Outstanding balance. Our accounts receivable template automatically calculates the outstanding balance by subtracting the payment amount from the invoice amount. It also calculates the total amount of all outstanding balances, and the result appears in the ‘Total Receivables’ section at the top of the ledger.