How long your clients take to pay

Every invoice you send has two dates that matter: the day it went out and the day the money arrived. The Getting paid report puts them together, so instead of a feeling that some clients always pay late you have the number:

Clients typically pay in 9 days. 31 of 35 paid by their due date.

Read the report

Reports → Getting paid. It covers the last twelve months unless you choose other dates, and counts each invoice in the month it was paid.

• The headline — how many days your clients typically take, from the day an invoice is first sent to the day it is paid in full, and how many of the invoices with a due date were paid by it.
• Month by month — whether that is getting better or worse. A month nobody paid in is shown empty, not skipped.
• Client by client — slowest first, each with how many of their invoices were paid on time. Open one to go to that client.
• The invoices — every invoice behind the figures, with its sent, due and paid dates and the days between. Slowest first; open one to go to the invoice.

Export CSV downloads the invoices as listed, for your bookkeeper or a spreadsheet of your own.

See who owes you now

The second half of the report, Still owed, is everything your clients owe you today — whatever dates you chose for the first half:

• The total, and how many invoices make it up — the same figure as Outstanding on your dashboard.
• By how late: not yet due, 1–30, 31–60, 61–90 and over 90 days past the due date. An invoice due today is not late. One billed with no due date is on its own line, with how long ago it was sent.
• Who owes you, largest first, with the part that is more than 30 days late. Open one to go to that client.
• Every open invoice at what is left to pay — a part-paid invoice at its balance, not its total — the latest first. Open one to go to the invoice and send a reminder.

Export what is owed downloads the open invoices as listed, dated today.

See it where you work

• On your dashboard, under Outstanding: Clients typically pay in 9 days, over the last twelve months. It opens this report. There is no line until five invoices have been paid.
• On a client’s page, How they pay: Usually pays in 6 days · 4 of 5 on time, and what they owe you now with the part that is late. With fewer than five paid invoices it gives the count instead — Paid 2 invoices, typically in 5 days — so one quick payment is not mistaken for a habit.

Ask the assistant

On Professional, the assistant answers from the same figures:

• How long do my clients take to pay? — the typical days over the last twelve months, how many were paid by the due date, and the slowest payers.
• How long does Harriet take to pay? — that client’s habit, as their page says it, and what they owe now.
• Who owes me money? and what’s more than 60 days late? — what you are owed, the part past due and who owes the most, or only the invoices past that many days.

Each answer opens the report or the record it came from. See Ask about your own business.

How the days are counted

• From the first time an invoice was sent. Sending it again as a reminder does not restart the count. Marking an invoice as sent counts the same as emailing it.
• To the day it was paid in full. An invoice paid in parts is paid on the day the last of it came in.
• By the payment’s own date. A cheque you record a week after it arrived counts on the date you give it. A payment you voided by mistake and put back counts on the day it was received.
• Calendar days, on your business’s own clock. A payment taken before the invoice went out counts as the same day.

Typically is the middle of the invoices’ days, not the average, so one invoice that took four months does not move it much. The report lists the slow ones instead of hiding them in the number.

What is left out

Deposits — a proposal’s deposit, or a fee a customer paid when they booked online — and invoices paid by an agreement’s automatic card charge are not counted. Each is paid the moment it is issued, so counting them would make every client look prompt. Invoices that are not yet paid in full are not counted either.

When there is not much history yet

The typical time needs at least five paid invoices to mean anything. When the dates you chose hold fewer than five, the headline uses all your paid invoices and says so. With fewer than five ever, it tells you how many have been paid so far, and the invoices that have been are still listed.

Who can see it

The owner and managers. Field workers do not see invoice amounts, and are sent to their day.