A.4.7b Current vs. Date of Report

Scenario: Craig likes to track the historical A/R status each month to keep an eye on what is owed to him. He just ran an A/R Aging Summary report for the end of the previous month. On the same day, after running the report, he receives a check payment (#0934) from Red Rock Diner for an overdue invoice. He processes the check payment, then refreshes the report and sees it's still showing as outstanding on the report. What could he be doing wrong?

15 steps

QuickBooks

Akadian

Start in the Sample company.

To complete this exercise, you must be in the Sample company. From your QBOA account, click on the Gear icon on the top right corner of the screen, then select Sample company.

Note that you will be logged out of your current account. If you are sure, click "Continue" to confirm.

Now let's get started with the exercise.

From the left navigation bar, click "Reports".

In the Favorites section, click "Accounts receivable aging summary".

In the Date field, click the calendar icon, then select the last day of last month. *Note: your date will be different than what is selected in the screenshot below.*

Click "Run report".

Here you can see a summary of all outstanding invoices, broken down by customer.

After running the report, Craig took a break to check the mail. He received a check (#0934) from Red Rock Diner for their outstanding $156 invoice. He needs to receive payment for it. Since the report is still up, he can process this directly from the report.

On the Red Rock Diner line, click "156.00".

To go to the invoice directly, click "1024".

When the invoice appears, click "Receive payment".

When the Receive Payment transaction appears, in the Payment method field, select "Check".

In the Reference no. field, type "0934".

Click the down arrow next to Save and new, then select "Save and close".

Now with the Red Rock Diner payment processed, he wants to see the full summary again.

Click "Back to report summary".

The summary looks the same, with the $156 invoice showing as outstanding, so Craig decides to run the report again.

Click "Run report".

The summary still looks the same. Craig looks at the report settings and realizes that the report is still running as of the last day of the last month, not current. This means anything processed after that date, like the Red Rock Diner invoice, will not show as the report is not in current, real time. Craig needs to change the settings.

In the Aging method section, click the button next to "Current".

Click "Run report".

That was it! Now Craig is looking at a current, up-to-date view of outstanding invoices. The $156 invoice for Red Rock Diner no longer shows on the report.

As a final note, the Current View is best to use when wanting to see the current status of outstanding invoices. This can be helpful if your client needs to decide if follow-up reminders, sending to collections, or write-offs need to happen. Report View is best to use when looking at historical analysis or in preparation of financial statements.

🎥 Video

Want to follow along? [Click here](https://youtu.be/bdUdymat0-I) for our video walk-through.

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