Accounts Receivable Collections Template
Ranks the book by what the money costs and how many dated promises the account has actually kept, then runs the sequence that chases them.
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Aging Worklist
[Company] — receivables at [date], ranked by what is at risk
Two columns decide the order, and neither of them is the age. The age rank stays on the row so you can see what moved.
| Column | Where it comes from | Why it is here |
|---|---|---|
| Balance | Aging export | Size, which the bucket view flattens |
| Days past due | Original due date, never re-aged | Kept for reference, not for ranking |
| Age rank | Calculated | Where the aging report would have put it |
| Settled promises | Promise-to-Pay Log | Dated commitments whose date has passed |
| Promises kept | Cleared cash against the log | Behaviour, not sentiment |
| Carrying cost per month | Balance at the borrowing rate | What the balance costs to hold |
| At risk per month | Carrying cost times share broken | The sort key |
| Open promise | Promise-to-Pay Log | Suppresses the send until its date passes |
| Next step and owner | Dunning Schedule | A queued send, not a suggestion |
The three rules the ranking runs on
| No settled promises | Weighted at half. Untested is not the same as reliable |
| Partial payment | Broken for the shortfall, and the shortfall rolls forward once |
| Open and inside its date | Excluded from the keep rate, and the sequence holds |
Fill it from your own aging export and contact history, or open the pack and let the agent build both from the source exports.
An aging report sorts by how old the money is, which is the one fact about a receivable nobody can act on. Corriden Industrial carries 8,940,000 across seventy accounts at 75.7 days. Its aging report opens every week with Threlfall Bros Contracting at 133 days past due, and Threlfall costs 3,448.75 a month to carry. Halbrook Fabrication sits forty-seventh day past due and sixth on that same report, and it costs 8,654.17 a month, which is more than double.
This pack prices every balance at the rate the business actually borrows at, then joins the aging export to a promise-to-pay log built from your own contact history. Every dated commitment anyone has ever made becomes a scored row carrying the amount, the date, the name and role of whoever gave it, and what actually cleared. That gives each account a keep rate. Halbrook has made four commitments and kept none of them. Weatherby Plant Services, second oldest on the book at 112 days, has kept both of its.
Rank on carrying cost multiplied by the share of commitments broken and eight of the ten accounts change position. Half of what the book costs to carry, 29,066.53 a month, sits behind an account that has broken a dated promise. Every message names the last commitment by amount, date and person, and an account that misses its date resumes at the escalation call rather than the first reminder it ignored. Promises that land become dated receipts in the 13-week cash forecast pack, and the same squeeze from the other end is the payment prioritization memo.
What's in the pack
Aging Worklist sheet
Every account priced at your borrowing rate, with settled promises, promises kept, carrying cost, carrying cost at risk, and the rank the aging report would have given it sitting on the same row. Sorted on the at-risk column.
Promise-to-Pay Log sheet
Thirty-one worked rows. Amount, promised date, the name and role of whoever gave it, the message that referenced it, what cleared, how late, and one sentence on what broke it. This is the join key the whole pack runs on.
Dunning Schedule sheet
A send queue with a date, a channel and an owner on every row. Holds are shown with the reason and the date they lift, so an account you are deliberately not chasing looks different from one you forgot.
DSO Trend sheet
Seven months on one definition, with days over target, cash over target and annual interest beside each row, plus a note naming the accounts that moved the number. The closing balance ties to the receivables you substantiate in the monthly close pack.
Collections Policy
How accounts are ranked, what counts as a promise, what stops a send, how disputes are recorded, and where authority sits for holds, plans and write-offs. Written to be tested against the sheets rather than interpreted. The limit that let the balance get this large is set in the customer credit policy pack.
Dunning Sequence
Five dated messages with full drafts, from a courtesy notice five days before the due date to a final notice at day forty-five with the promise log attached. Each one states its own job in a sentence.
Escalation Script
The call after a break. Openings for an account with a history and one without, the three questions that produce a date that holds, and what to do when the answer is a dispute or a refusal.
Carrying Cost Basis
The one rate the whole ranking derives from, with its source, the date it was read, and the spread over it. Also holds the DSO definition and the rule for federal customers who owe interest by statute.
Five agent prompts
Rank the Worklist, Log a Promise, Queue the Next Sends, Escalate a Broken Promise and Report the DSO Trend, each one wired to the sheets so the ranking recalculates as commitments are made and broken.
How to use it
- 1
Open in River, or download it
Open the pack in River and let the agent build the worklist from your own aging export, or download the blank Word documents and CSV sheets and fill them in yourself. Both routes are free.
- 2
Set the rate before anything else
Write the borrowing rate, its source and the date you read it into Carrying Cost Basis. Every ranking in the pack derives from that one number, and the comparison only holds while every row is priced off it.
- 3
Mine the contact history for promises
This is the step people skip. Notes in a spreadsheet, a folder of sent emails, a shared inbox: every dated commitment buried in there becomes a scored row, and the scoring is what reorders the list.
- 4
Queue the sequence and hold the line
Approve the send queue, let steps one to three run automatically, and take the calls yourself. When a committed date passes unpaid, resume at the call, never at the first reminder.
Frequently asked questions
Is this template free?
Yes, all of it. The documents come as Word files and the sheets as CSVs, with no signup and no card, the same as everything in the template library. Edit with AI is a separate optional route that opens this pack in River and builds it from your own aging export and contact history.
Why rank by carrying cost instead of days past due?
Because age says nothing about size and nothing about intent. In the worked book, the oldest account costs 3,449 a month and the sixth oldest costs 8,654. Ranking on cost times the share of promises broken moves eight of ten accounts out of the order the aging report gives you.
Where does the discount rate come from?
The marginal cost of the money, which for most businesses is the revolver. The worked example uses the bank prime loan rate published in the Federal Reserve's H.15 release plus the 100 basis point spread in the credit agreement. Substitute your own and record the source.
What counts as a promise?
An amount, a date, and the name and role of the person who gave it. Two out of three is a conversation, not a commitment, and it never gets logged as one. A partial payment against a commitment is a break for the shortfall, and the shortfall rolls into the next commitment rather than being counted twice.
Does this work for consumer receivables?
No, and the policy says so. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act defines a debt as a consumer obligation for personal, family or household purposes and attaches a statutory regime to it, per the Act as published by the FTC. Consumer balances get flagged, held out of the sequence, and routed to counsel.
What about customers who owe us interest anyway?
Federal agencies do, by regulation. Under the Prompt Payment rule an agency paying a proper invoice late owes an interest penalty at a Treasury-published rate, and section 1315.10 requires it to be paid without the vendor asking. Calculate it and put it on the account.
Does the sequence actually send?
Steps one to three do, automatically, on their offsets from the due date. Steps four and five are a call and a controller-signed letter, so they land in a person's queue with the promise log already attached. Cleared funds, a live commitment or a recorded dispute suppresses any of them.
Stop working the oldest invoice first
Download the blank pack as Word and CSV files, or open this exact pack in River and let the agent price your book and score every promise in it.
Edit with AI