Complete the privacy-safe review in sequence
Printable receivables review
- Lock the review date, currency, tax basis and privacy boundary. (not complete)
- Reconcile the ledger and receivables control total to bank receipts; stop on an unexplained difference. (not complete)
- In private records only, retain the invoice reference, amount, due date, expected date and evidence state. (not complete)
- Separate paid/reconciled, committed, expected, uncertain and disputed receipts. (not complete)
- Map each material aggregate receipt to its cash week and run a later-date downside. (not complete)
- Assign a follow-up owner and date under the business’s lawful process; stop for disputed rights. (not complete)
- Only after reconciliation, enter aggregate annual credit sales and collection-day assumptions in the planner—never customer-level data. (not complete)
- Record the completion outcome, first affected week, action owner and escalation trigger. (not complete)
Prioritise review with evidence and dated cash checkpoints
| Checkpoint | Question to answer | Action or stop point |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Verify due and dispute state | Is the balance reconciled, due under the private record and undisputed? | Stop ordinary prioritisation for an unverified or disputed balance; use the approved local escalation path and obtain qualified advice where rights are unclear. |
| 2. Check the promised date | Is there current evidence for a promised receipt date, and how reliable is it? | Keep promised, expected and uncertain dates distinct; add a later downside date instead of predicting payment. |
| 3. Compare amount with dated cash need | Which forecast week and user-defined cash boundary would the delay affect? | Prioritise the decision consequence, not the largest invoice automatically; rerun the dated aggregate scenario. |
| 4. Apply relationship and escalation constraints | What contract, service, relationship, approval or lawful-process constraint affects the next contact? | Do not infer a collection tactic. Stop when the action needs legal, credit, accounting or insolvency judgement. |
| 5. Record the next action | Who owns the action, when is it due and what evidence or cash trigger starts the next review? | Record one approved action and review date in the private system; no automated customer ranking is produced. |
Prepare baseline and downside totals from fictional rows
| Fictional local reference | Amount | Evidence state | Baseline treatment | Downside treatment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record A | 4,000 | Paid and reconciled | Actual bank receipt; not open | Actual bank receipt; not open |
| Record B | 6,000 | Committed | Expected Week 2 | Expected Week 2 unless evidence changes |
| Record C | 5,000 | Expected | Expected Week 3 | Move to Week 5 |
| Record D | 3,000 | Uncertain | Show separately in Week 4 | Exclude from available receipts until evidence improves |
| Record E | 2,000 | Disputed | Exclude and escalate | Exclude and escalate |
| Open total | 16,000 | 6,000 committed; 5,000 expected; 3,000 uncertain; 2,000 disputed | 11,000 dated baseline plus 3,000 shown separately | 6,000 dated; 5,000 moved later; 5,000 excluded pending evidence/right |
Record the completion outcome
Completion box
- Review date, currency and tax basis recorded. (not complete)
- Control total and bank receipts reconciled, or review stopped. (not complete)
- Baseline and downside aggregate receipts mapped to weeks. (not complete)
- Uncertain and disputed totals excluded or shown separately. (not complete)
- First affected week and buffer effect recorded. (not complete)
- Promised date, dated cash need and relationship or escalation constraint reviewed; invoice size was not used as the sole priority. (not complete)
- Lawful action owner, action date and escalation trigger assigned. (not complete)
- Only aggregate, non-identifying inputs prepared for the receivables planner. (not complete)
Prepare evidence before comparing waiting with financing
| Checkpoint | Evidence to enter | Stop point |
|---|---|---|
| Expected collection timing | A verified baseline date and a labelled downside date for the reconciled aggregate amount | Stop when the receivable is disputed, unreconciled or its enforceability is unclear. |
| Entered financing terms | Advance, fee, retained balance and collection assumptions copied from reviewed business records | Stop when provider terms are unidentified or cannot be compared on the same scope. |
| Wait-versus-finance cost | Entered waiting, funding and opportunity-cost assumptions on the same period and currency basis | Do not claim financing is cheaper, suitable or available without the entered evidence and appropriate review. |
Compare only the reconciled entered scenario
- Invoice Financing Comparison
Compare financing fees with the cash and opportunity cost of waiting
Receivables review questions
- Should a disputed invoice enter the cash baseline?
- Do not treat it as committed cash. Keep the amount and issue in private records, exclude or isolate it in the scenario and seek qualified advice where the right or process is unclear.
- Which data belongs in the receivables planner?
- Only reconciled aggregate annual credit sales, collection-day, funding and bad-debt assumptions on the stated basis. Customer names, invoice identifiers and contract details stay outside Margin101.
- What is a normal collection period?
- This checklist provides no universal benchmark. Compare a consistently defined internal baseline and scenario, then retain the customer, contract, cash and operating trade-offs.
Sources and methods
- Margin101 Receivables Collection Impact methodology — Margin101: Aggregate inputs, collection-days arithmetic and limitations.
- Margin101 Invoice Financing Comparison methodology — Margin101: User-entered advance, fee, retained-balance and wait-cost comparison boundaries.
- Set up a cash flow statement — business.gov.au: Realistic debtor-receipt timing and estimated-value labelling.
- Manage your finances — U.S. Small Business Administration: Accounts-receivable, available-cash and reconciliation context.