30 Day Balance Aging in Timeslips and February

We are gearing up for March billing for February time, and it seems like a great time to discuss the issue with aging balances in Timeslips, and the strict interpretation of 30 days.  This trips a few folks up every year, so I thought I’d offer up some suggestions, or perhaps just a heads up regarding this phenomena.

By default, Timeslips ages Account Receivable balances in 30 day intervals.  To determine this date period it calculates from the date of the bill that created the A/R.  Lots of folks like to date their bills the 1st day of the month and 11 out of 12 times, that works out just fine as there are at least 30 days between the 1st day of every month, but March is a little different.  Since February does not have at least 30 days in it, the aged balances table that some folks print on their bills, and their Aged A/R Balances Report won’t put their February 1st bill’s A/R balance in the 30 day column, nor will it consider the balance ‘overdue’ yet.  It is literally 30 days, not one month.

This year, we are a little better off in that it is a Leap Year, so we get at least one more day in the aging giving us 29 days between February 1 and March 1.  But still, it isn’t 30, and that’s the rub.

So, what can we do about it?  You really only have two options.

Option 1: Just continue billing on March 1, and let it ride.  After 4 months your February 1st A/R will have either been paid, or worked it’s way through the aging table (Current, 30, 60, 90) to the 120+ column and have resolved itself. If you know it is going on, sometimes it is easier to endure.

Option 2: This one cycle, date your bills March 2.  This will give you 30 days since your February 1st billing, so that A/R balance will be 30 days old.  In April, due to the 31 days in March, you can go back to billing on the 1st day of the month and still have 30 day intervals between your bills/balances.

N.B, in non-Leap Years you will need to alter the date on TWO bill cycles to correct for the effects of the short February, using March 3 and April 2 as your billing dates.

Hope this helps.  Let me know in the Comments below if you have any other suggestions about this issue.