Receivables Ageing Report Preparation: Format, Buckets

Receivables ageing report preparation looks like a ten-minute export from the accounting software, until the same ledger has to serve a collections team, a statutory auditor and a lender. Each of them reads the report differently. The collections team needs days past due by customer, the auditor needs the trade receivables ageing schedule prescribed under Schedule III to the Companies Act, 2013, and the lender needs a clean split between current and overdue balances. This guide sets out the working format, the bucket design, the preparation steps, and the provisioning and tax consequences of what the report shows.

How do you prepare a receivables ageing report?

List every open customer invoice from the receivables sub-ledger at a fixed cut-off date, tie the total to the control account, count days past each invoice’s due date, group the days into buckets, and tag disputed and doubtful items. Management usually reads buckets of 1 to 30, 31 to 60, 61 to 90 and over 90 days past due. Companies also need the Schedule III schedule (MCA notification dated 24/03/2021).

Which receivables ageing report format works for day-to-day collections?

A working receivables ageing report has one row per customer, one column per bucket of days past due, a total, and four tags: credit terms, disputed amount, collector and last contact date. Keep the summary to one page for the finance head and push invoice-level detail into a drill-down for the collector. Anything beyond that belongs in the monthly pack, which our guide to monthly MIS reporting services covers.

The summary layer tells the finance head which customers hold money that should already have arrived. The drill-down tells the collector which invoice, due when, and why it is late.

The summary layer carries these columns:

• Customer name and GSTIN
• Agreed credit terms in days
• Balance not yet due
• Balance in each past-due bucket
• Total outstanding, tied to the ledger, with unapplied credit notes and on-account receipts shown as negative lines
• Disputed amount, shown in its own column
• Named collector and last contact date

Table 1: Working receivables ageing report, illustrative figures in ₹ lakh at 30/09/2026

Customer	Terms (days)	Not due	1-30	31-60	61-90	91-180	Over 180	Total	Of which disputed
Customer A	45	18.0	6.0	2.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	26.0	0.0
Customer B	60	12.0	4.5	3.0	1.5	0.0	0.0	21.0	0.0
Customer C	30	5.0	3.0	2.5	4.0	6.0	0.0	20.5	6.0
Customer D	90	9.5	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	2.5	12.0	0.0
Total		44.5	13.5	7.5	5.5	6.0	2.5	79.5	6.0
Share of book		56.0%	17.0%	9.4%	6.9%	7.5%	3.1%	100.0%	7.5%

Figures above are illustrative and not drawn from a client ledger. Shares are rounded. Reading the sample, ₹35.0 lakh, or 44% of the book, is past due, but the exposure sits in two places. Customer C holds ₹15.5 lakh past due with an open dispute on the 91 to 180 day invoices. Customer D’s ₹2.5 lakh sits alone in the oldest bucket and needs a write-off decision, not another reminder. Customers A and B carry small past-due balances that a normal reminder cycle should clear, though Customer B’s ₹1.5 lakh in the 61 to 90 bucket deserves a call.

Which fields does the invoice drill-down need?

The drill-down is the working document for the collector, so each row needs fields that let one call close one invoice:

• Invoice number, invoice date and due date
• Gross amount including GST, with credit notes and receipts applied
• Dispute flag and the stated reason
• Promise-to-pay date and who gave it
• Collection notes: dated record of calls, promises and disputes, which also serves the auditor
• Original currency and amount, for export invoices

Payment terms policy, who gets 30, 60 or 90 days, and days sales outstanding sit outside this report. Our guides on net 30/60/90 payment terms and accounts receivable cover those.

How do receivables ageing buckets work, and from which date should days be counted?

Count days from the due date, not the invoice date, and bucket the result as not yet due, 1 to 30, 31 to 60, 61 to 90 and over 90 days past due. Invoice-date ageing overstates overdue balances for customers on 60 or 90 day terms. Schedule III also measures from the due date of payment, and falls back to the date of the transaction only where no due date is specified.

Take an invoice raised on 01/08/2026 on 60-day terms. It falls due on 30/09/2026. At a 30/09/2026 cut-off it is 60 days old by invoice date but zero days past due. Invoice-date ageing drops it into the 31 to 60 bucket and sends a collector after a customer who is on time. Keep the invoice date as a reference column, and age on the due date.

Table 2 works four invoices at the 30/09/2026 cut-off, so the two bases can be compared line by line.

Table 2: Day count at 30/09/2026 for four invoices, illustrative

Invoice	Invoice date	Terms (days)	Due date	Days since invoice	Days past due	Management bucket	Schedule III period
INV-101	15/06/2026	45	30/07/2026	107	62	61-90	Less than 6 months
INV-102	01/08/2026	60	30/09/2026	60	0	Not due	Not due
INV-103	03/03/2026	30	02/04/2026	211	181	Over 180	Less than 6 months
INV-104	20/12/2025	30	19/01/2026	284	254	Over 180	6 months to 1 year

INV-103 shows why the statutory view cannot be built by regrouping the management buckets. It is 181 days past due, so it sits in the over-180 management bucket, but only five months and 28 days have passed since its due date, so Schedule III places it in less than 6 months. The six-month boundary is a calendar test, not a 180-day test.

The management buckets and the statutory periods are not the same grid. Table 3 sets them side by side.

Table 3: Management buckets and Schedule III periods compared

Feature	Management report	Schedule III schedule	Practical effect
Days counted from	Due date, with invoice date as a reference column	Due date of payment; date of transaction if no due date is specified	One invoice extract serves both if both dates are held
Periods	Not due, 1-30, 31-60, 61-90, 91-180, over 180 days past due	Less than 6 months, 6 months to 1 year, 1-2 years, 2-3 years, more than 3 years	Map to calendar months for the statutory view, not to 180 days
Disputed items	Often pulled into a separate column	Separate rows for undisputed and disputed	Hold a dispute flag at invoice level
Credit quality	Collector’s judgement	Considered good or doubtful (Division I); significant increase in credit risk or credit impaired (Division II)	Tag at invoice level, with a stated basis
Unbilled dues	Usually left out	Disclosed separately	Pull from the contract asset ledger, not the debtors ledger
Frequency	Weekly or monthly	Each balance sheet date	Build the statutory view from the month-end report

How wide should each bucket be?

Keep four to six buckets in the summary. More than that buries the collector, and fewer hides the point at which an overdue balance becomes a credit question. Three rules hold for most ledgers:

• Split the over-90 range into 91 to 180 and over 180 days, because the six-month boundary matters to Schedule III and to loss rates in an expected credit loss matrix
• Show not yet due as its own column, never inside a 0 to 30 bucket
• Keep the bucket edges identical month to month, so movement between months is a like-for-like comparison

Receivables ageing report preparation: the seven steps from ledger to sign-off

Fix the cut-off date, extract open invoices from the sub-ledger, reconcile to the control account, apply credit notes and receipts, bucket by due date, tag disputes and credit risk, then review and sign off. The order matters. Tagging before reconciliation carries ledger errors into the provision, and bucketing before applying receipts overstates overdue balances.

1. Fix the cut-off date and basis. Use the month-end that matches the trial balance, and freeze the period so backdated entries do not change a report already circulated.
2. Extract open items at invoice level. Customer balances are not enough. Each row needs invoice number, invoice date, due date and amount, because the schedule cannot be built from balances.
3. Reconcile to the control account. The extract total must equal the receivables line in the trial balance. Differences usually come from journals posted straight to customer accounts and from opening balances that were never loaded bill by bill when the software was changed.
4. Apply credit notes and receipts. Allocate each to a specific invoice. A receipt that cannot be allocated stays visible as an on-account item. An advance from a customer is a liability, and netting it against an invoice needs a legal right of set-off and an intention to settle net (Ind AS 32, paragraph 42).
5. Bucket by days past due at the cut-off. Hold not-yet-due and unbilled amounts in their own columns.
6. Tag each invoice. Mark disputed or undisputed, good or doubtful (significant increase in credit risk or credit impaired for Ind AS companies), related party, and export.
7. Review and sign off. Compare the top ten balances to customer statements, run a roll-forward, and have the finance head sign. The roll-forward is opening balance plus billing, less collections, credit notes and write-offs, equal to closing balance, bucket by bucket.

Steps 3 and 7 are where reports fail. A report that has not been reconciled and rolled forward is a list of invoices, not a control.

Where does the extract break in Tally Prime and Zoho Books?

Both packages produce a base report, Tally Prime through its outstanding receivables report with ageing by due date, and Zoho Books through its AR aging summary and details reports. The base report is only as good as the entries behind it. Check these before running it:

• Bill-wise tracking is switched on for every customer ledger
• Due dates are captured on each bill, not defaulted to the invoice date
• Receipts are allocated to bills, not left as on-account entries
• Foreign currency invoices carry original currency and closing-rate value
• The period is locked after sign-off

Where the ledger itself is unreliable, fix the books first. Our guide to books reconstruction before a statutory audit sets out how.

How do you read the finished receivables ageing report?

Read the shape first, then the concentration, then the movement. A healthy book is weighted to the left, with most of the value not yet due or in the first bucket. There is no statutory benchmark for a healthy profile, so judge each test against the credit terms you granted and set your own trigger levels from your terms and collection history. Target ranges tied to a payment terms policy sit in our payment terms guide.

Table 4: Five reading tests for a receivables ageing report

Test	Calculation	A poor reading points to	Check first
Past-due share	Past-due balance divided by total receivables	Slow collection, or terms not enforced	Whether the terms on the invoice match the contract
Over-90 share	Balance over 90 days past due divided by total	Stalled collection, or disputes nobody raised	Dispute flags, and receipts parked in suspense
Concentration	Top five customers’ balances divided by total	One customer’s delay can move a quarter’s cash	Credit limit and any security held
Weighted average days past due	Sum of balance times days past due, divided by total balance	Gradual drift that bucket totals hide	Invoice-level due dates
Month-on-month roll	Share of each bucket that moved into the next bucket since last month	Falling collection rates, which feed loss rates	Receipts applied to the right invoice

Cut-off timing distorts all five. If most billing falls in the last week of the month, a report run early in the next month shows invoices as past due that are paid days later. Run the report at the same point in every close, after cut-off entries, and print the cut-off date on the page.

How do you build the report in Excel when the software extract is not enough?

Export open invoices at invoice level, add a due date column, calculate days past due against a cut-off cell, and bucket with a formula. Use live formulas, not typed buckets, so the sheet recalculates when the extract refreshes, and finish with a check cell that compares the total to the control account.

Table 5: Excel columns and formulas, cut-off date in cell B1, invoices from row 5

Column	Formula	Purpose
Due date (F5)	=C5+E5	Invoice date in C plus terms in E
Days past due (G5)	=$B$1-F5	Above zero means overdue, zero or below means not due
Management bucket (H5)	=IF(G5<=0,"Not due",IF(G5<=30,"1-30",IF(G5<=60,"31-60",IF(G5<=90,"61-90",IF(G5<=180,"91-180","Over 180")))))	Bucket by days past due
Schedule III period (I5)	=IF(G5<=0,"Not due",IF(DATEDIF(F5,$B$1,"m")<6,"Less than 6 months",IF(DATEDIF(F5,$B$1,"m")<12,"6 months to 1 year",IF(DATEDIF(F5,$B$1,"m")<24,"1-2 years",IF(DATEDIF(F5,$B$1,"m")<36,"2-3 years","More than 3 years")))))	Calendar-month period from the due date
Customer by bucket grid	=SUMIFS($D:$D,$A:$A,$A20,$H:$H,B$19)	Summary layer, amount in D, customer in A
Control check	=SUM($D$5:$D$500)-ControlAccount	Must equal zero before the report is shared

These formulas return the Table 2 results for the four sample invoices. Add dispute and credit-risk tags as further columns, then pivot by tag to fill the Schedule III rows. Retest in your own spreadsheet package, because date functions differ across tools.

What does Schedule III require in the trade receivables ageing schedule?

Schedule III to the Companies Act, 2013, as amended by MCA notification dated 24/03/2021 and effective 01/04/2021, requires an ageing of trade receivables outstanding for less than 6 months, 6 months to 1 year, 1 to 2 years, 2 to 3 years and more than 3 years from the due date of payment, split between undisputed and disputed, good and doubtful. Unbilled dues are shown separately.

The two documents differ in name as well as format: the ageing report is the management tool, and the ageing schedule is the statutory note. Where no due date of payment is specified, the disclosure runs from the date of the transaction. The schedule applies to companies under all three divisions of Schedule III, so a small private company is not exempt. Division I companies, which follow the Accounting Standards, classify each line as considered good or considered doubtful. Division II companies, which follow Ind AS, use the categories significant increase in credit risk and credit impaired, as published annual reports of Ind AS companies show. The Ind AS columns are worth confirming against the notification text with your auditor.

Two placement points catch first-time preparers. The schedule appears under trade receivables, and a second schedule covers long-term trade receivables, which sit under other non-current assets in the notification’s amended text. Also, a “not due” column is widely used in published schedules, but the prescribed periods start at less than 6 months, so treat the not-due column as practice, not text.

Table 6: Schedule III trade receivables ageing schedule (Division I), worked from the Table 1 population, illustrative in ₹ lakh at 30/09/2026

Category	Not due	Less than 6 months	6 months to 1 year	1-2 years	2-3 years	More than 3 years	Total
Undisputed, considered good	44.5	26.5	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	71.0
Undisputed, considered doubtful	0.0	0.0	2.5	0.0	0.0	0.0	2.5
Disputed, considered good	0.0	6.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	6.0
Disputed, considered doubtful	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Total	44.5	32.5	2.5	0.0	0.0	0.0	79.5

The classification in Table 6 is an assumption for the example: Customer C’s 91 to 180 day invoices are disputed but considered good, and Customer D’s over-180 day balance, eight months past due, is undisputed and doubtful. The total ties to Table 1, and that tie-out is the first test an auditor runs.

Items that sit beside the schedule and often get missed:

• The allowance for doubtful debts, disclosed separately under the relevant head, as current published annual reports show
• Debts due from directors, officers and firms or private companies in which a director is interested, stated separately, or a nil statement, as current published annual reports show
• Related party balances, under Accounting Standard 18 or Ind AS 24
• Unbilled revenue on Ind AS 115 contracts, which is a contract asset and not a trade receivable. Our guide to Ind AS 115 revenue recognition for SaaS and subscription businesses covers the split

Need your Schedule III ageing schedule built and tied out? Let’s talk.

How does the ageing feed an expected credit loss provision under Ind AS 109?

For Ind AS companies, trade receivables without a significant financing component carry a lifetime expected credit loss allowance, and a provision matrix built on the ageing is the usual method (Ind AS 109, paragraphs 5.5.15 and B5.5.35). Non-Ind AS companies have no prescribed matrix and judge doubtful debts invoice by invoice. Neither provision is deductible for tax; only a write-off is.

The matrix takes the ageing as its grid. Group receivables that share credit risk characteristics, such as customer segment or geography. Apply a loss rate to each bucket, derived from your own collection history and adjusted for current conditions and forecasts. The allowance is the sum of bucket balance times loss rate.

Table 7: Provision matrix on the Table 1 ageing, illustrative loss rates, ₹ lakh at 30/09/2026

Bucket	Gross receivable	Illustrative loss rate	Allowance
Not due	44.5	0.5%	0.22
1-30 days past due	13.5	2%	0.27
31-60 days past due	7.5	5%	0.38
61-90 days past due	5.5	10%	0.55
91-180 days past due	6.0	25%	1.50
Over 180 days past due	2.5	60%	1.50
Total	79.5		4.42

The loss rates in Table 7 are placeholders and are not benchmarks. Replace them with rates from your own history before use. Allowance figures are rounded to two decimals.

A flat percentage per bucket is a fixed allowance. It is not an Ind AS 109 matrix, because the rates are not derived from your own loss history or adjusted for forecasts.

Four build rules keep the matrix defensible:

• Derive rates from realised collections, not from the finance head’s view of the customer, using either cohort collection history or the roll rate between buckets (the share of each bucket that moves to the next, from the month-on-month roll test in Table 4)
• Add a forward-looking adjustment and record the reasoning, because a matrix on history alone is a common audit query (Ind AS 109, paragraph 5.5.17(c))
• Refresh rates at each reporting date, and keep the rate history
• Keep the Division II tags consistent with the matrix. Companies commonly start from the presumptions of 30 days past due for a significant increase in credit risk and 90 days past due for default (Ind AS 109, paragraphs 5.5.11 and B5.5.37), a starting point to agree with the auditor

Ind AS 109 was amended by the Companies (Indian Accounting Standards) Amendment Rules, 2026 (G.S.R. 725(E), 12/08/2026). The amendments do not touch paragraphs 5.5.15 or B5.5.35. For annual periods beginning on or after 01/04/2026, paragraph 5.1.3 now says trade receivables without a significant financing component are first measured at the Ind AS 115 transaction price.

Ind AS applies by company class (Rule 4, Companies (Indian Accounting Standards) Rules, 2015). Companies outside it follow the Accounting Standards, which prescribe no credit loss model, so management sets a written policy and the auditor tests it.

What happens in tax when an aged receivable is written off?

Tax relief follows the write-off, not the ageing. Under section 31 of the Income-tax Act, 2025, in force from 01/04/2026, a bad debt written off as irrecoverable in the accounts is deductible, while a provision for doubtful debt is not, except for specified lenders. GST works separately: a section 34 credit note must be declared by 30 November following the financial year of supply, which is 30/11/2026 for FY 2025-26 supplies.

For tax years up to FY 2025-26, section 36(1)(vii) and section 36(2) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 continue to apply. From FY 2026-27 the rule sits in section 31(2), and section 31(3)(a) states that a bad debt written off does not include a provision for bad and doubtful debt. Section 31(3)(b) adds a deeming rule linked to the income computation and disclosure standards, which your tax adviser should read before assuming the whole provision is disallowed. The Supreme Court held in TRF Ltd v CIT (2010) 323 ITR 397 that, after the 1989 amendment, an actual write-off in the accounts is enough and the assessee need not prove the debt became irrecoverable. The debt must still have been taken into account in computing income earlier.

Table 8: Event, book entry, income tax and GST position for aged receivables

Event	Book entry	Income tax	GST
Expected credit loss or doubtful debt provision created	Debit profit and loss, credit allowance	Not deductible (section 31(3)(a), Income-tax Act, 2025)	No effect
Debt written off as irrecoverable	Debit allowance or bad debts, credit customer account	Deductible in the year of write-off, subject to section 31 conditions	A credit note under section 34 is not available for non-payment; commentary treats the GST as unrecovered [Verify with GST counsel]
Goods returned, excess value charged, or post-sale discount	Credit note against the invoice	Reduces income	Section 34 credit note reduces output tax only if declared by 30 November after the financial year or the annual return date, whichever is earlier, and the recipient has reversed the matching input tax credit (proviso to section 34(2), from 01/10/2025). Post-sale discounts are named in section 34(1) from 01/11/2026
Recovery after write-off	Credit to recoveries	Taxable in the year received, to the extent the recovery exceeds the difference between the debt and the amount allowed (section 38(1)(d), Income-tax Act, 2025; section 41(4), Income-tax Act, 1961 for earlier years)	Output tax already paid, no further effect

Document the write-off before the year closes: customer-wise approval, record of recovery steps, and the entry removing the debt from the debtors figure.

What should be checked before an invoice is provided for or written off?

Five checks stop the common errors, and each leaves a record the auditor and the assessing officer can read:

1. Bank reconciliation: confirm the money has not arrived and sits unmatched in suspense or on account
2. Credit notes and short-supply claims: confirm no return, rate difference or deficiency claim explains the balance
3. Dispute file: confirm the correspondence, the stated reason and who owns the resolution
4. Customer status: record evidence of insolvency, closure or untraceability, and the recovery steps taken
5. Approval: record who authorised the write-off, the date, and the entry that removes the debt from the debtors figure

Unsure how to provision or write off aged receivables? Let’s talk.

Common mistakes in receivables ageing report preparation that cost founders time and money

Most errors come from five habits: ageing from the wrong date, netting advances, working from balances instead of invoices, treating provisions as deductions, and missing the GST credit note window. Each has a direct cost in chasing the wrong customers, a qualified audit schedule or tax paid on a loss already booked.

1. Counting days from the invoice date for collections. It happens because the software default is the document date. The cost is a collector chasing customers who are on time. Age from the due date and keep the invoice date as a reference column.
2. Netting advances and unapplied receipts against invoices. It happens because it makes the report look cleaner. The cost is an understated exposure and a schedule that does not agree to the ledger. Show on-account items separately, and net only where a legal right of set-off exists (Ind AS 32, paragraph 42).
3. Building from customer balances, not open invoices. It happens after a software migration with opening balances loaded as one line per customer. The cost is that Schedule III cannot be built and old balances default to the oldest bucket. Rebuild bill-wise opening balances from source invoices.
4. Treating the provision as the tax claim. It happens because the profit and loss charge looks like a bad debt. The cost is a disallowance in assessment. Claim only what is written off in the accounts (section 31, Income-tax Act, 2025).
5. Missing the GST credit note window. It happens because the commercial settlement is agreed after the financial year closes. The cost is output tax paid on a price you later reduced. Decide returns and price reductions before 30 November following the financial year, and confirm the recipient has reversed the input tax credit (section 34(2), CGST Act, 2017, as amended from 01/10/2025).

FAQs on Receivables Ageing Report Preparation

Q: Is the provision for doubtful debts tax deductible?
A: No. Section 31(3)(a) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 excludes a provision from a bad debt written off, and only specified lenders get a provision deduction. For years up to FY 2025-26, Explanation 1 to section 36(1)(vii) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 says the same. A deduction needs a write-off in the books.

Q: Can GST be recovered when a customer’s debt is written off?
A: Commentary treats it as not recoverable by credit note, because section 34(1) of the CGST Act, 2017 covers excess value, returns, deficient services and, from 01/11/2026, post-sale discounts, not non-payment [Verify with GST counsel]. A credit note must be declared by 30 November following the financial year of supply, or the annual return date if earlier, and the recipient must have reversed the matching input tax credit (section 34(2)).

Q: What does outsourced receivables ageing report preparation cost?
A: It depends on invoice volume, number of entities, and the state of the ledger. Treelife scopes the fee after seeing a sample extract and the control account reconciliation. We do not quote a figure without that review.

Q: How long does the first report take to build?
A: The extract takes hours. Reconciliation and tagging decide the timeline, and a first run on an unreconciled ledger takes longer than later months.

Q: Which documents do we need to prepare the report?
A: A closed trial balance, the receivables sub-ledger at invoice level with due dates, credit note and receipt registers, customer contracts showing credit terms, a list of disputed invoices with correspondence, and the prior year schedule.

Q: How are export receivables aged?
A: From the due date, in original currency and at closing-rate rupee value. Export proceeds must generally be realised within 9 months, with 12 months where invoiced or settled in INR, under regulation 5(1) of the Foreign Exchange Management (Export and Import of Goods and Services) Regulations, 2026, in force from 01/10/2026 as amended by FEMA 23(R)/(1)/2026-RB dated 22/09/2026. The period changed more than once between November 2025 and September 2026, so confirm on rbi.org.in.

Q: How are receivables from group or promoter-linked companies shown?
A: Age them in the same buckets, tag them as related party, and state them separately in the disclosures (Accounting Standard 18 or Ind AS 24). Debts due from directors and firms in which they are interested also need separate statement under Schedule III, as current published annual reports show.

Q: Does DPIIT recognition change the ageing requirement?
A: No. DPIIT recognition under Startup India affects tax and compliance benefits, not Schedule III presentation. The ageing schedule applies by company class under the 24/03/2021 notification.

Q: What if a customer disputes the invoice or becomes insolvent after sign-off?
A: Update the dispute tag, re-test the provision, and write off when the debt is irrecoverable. A suit for recovery of money generally carries a limitation of three years under the Limitation Act, 1963, and a written acknowledgment extends it (section 18) [Verify per claim]. If insolvency proceedings start, file the claim in the manner the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 prescribes.

Q: How do investors and lenders read the ageing?
A: They test the overdue share, customer concentration, disputed balances and whether the report agrees to audited accounts. Our financial due diligence checklist for startups covers the full list.

Q: How are unbilled revenue and retention money shown?
A: Unbilled dues are shown separately and, on Ind AS 115 contracts, are contract assets. Retention money is not due until its release date, so it sits in the not-due column, and amounts released beyond twelve months sit under other non-current assets.

Q: Does an LLP need the Schedule III schedule?
A: Schedule III is part of the Companies Act, 2013 and applies to companies. The LLP Act, 2008 and the LLP Rules, 2009 do not prescribe it [Verify with the auditor], but a monthly ageing report is still the working control.

Q: How often should the report be prepared?
A: Run the working version weekly for collectors and the full reconciled version at each month-end. Build the Schedule III schedule at each balance sheet date, and for each interim period where Ind AS interim reporting applies.

Q: Is there a standard benchmark for a healthy ageing profile?
A: No statute or accounting standard sets one. Set trigger levels from your credit terms and collection history, and apply the five reading tests in Table 4.

Putting receivables ageing report preparation into one monthly routine

Receivables ageing report preparation holds up when one reconciled invoice extract feeds three outputs: the collector’s drill-down, the Schedule III schedule and the provision matrix. Build the extract once, with due dates and tags at invoice level, tie it to the control account, and roll it forward. The tax position then follows from what is written off in the books, not from what the ageing suggests.

Regulatory references

• Companies Act, 2013: Schedule III, Divisions I, II and III, as amended by MCA notification dated 24/03/2021, effective 01/04/2021
• Companies Act, 2013: section 129 (financial statements giving a true and fair view and complying with Schedule III)
• Companies (Indian Accounting Standards) Rules, 2015: Rule 4 (applicability of Ind AS)
• Companies (Indian Accounting Standards) Amendment Rules, 2026: G.S.R. 725(E) dated 12/08/2026 (Ind AS 109, paragraph 5.1.3)
• Ind AS 109 Financial Instruments: paragraphs 5.5.11, 5.5.15, 5.5.17, B5.5.35, B5.5.37
• Ind AS 32 Financial Instruments: Presentation: paragraph 42
• Ind AS 115 Revenue from Contracts with Customers
• Income-tax Act, 2025: section 31 (deduction for bad debt and provision for bad and doubtful debt) and section 38(1)(d) (recovery of bad debt), in force from 01/04/2026
• Income-tax Act, 1961: sections 36(1)(vii), 36(2) and 41(4), for tax years up to FY 2025-26