QuickBooks 2011 – New Average Days to Pay Report

The Average Days to Pay report was first introduced in QuickBooks 2011, however, also available in QuickBooks 2012, 2013, and 2014 As the name implies, the Average Days to Pay Report shows you the average number of days that it took each customer to pay the invoices that you sent them.

To find this report, from the Report menu in QuickBooks Pro and Premier 2011 and Enterprise 11.0 -> choose Customers & Receivables -> Average Days to Pay.

The report lists all paid invoices and statement charges; grouped together by customer and job.  For each invoice (transaction) the report shows the number of days that it took the customers to pay the invoice.  QuickBooks will calculate the number of days to pay as the difference between the date of the invoice or statement charge and the date that you received the payment.

By default, the report displays the transaction type, the due date (based on the terms you chose for the transactions), the transaction number, any memo that you entered at the bottom of the invoice, the account (usually Accounts Receivable), the class that you assigned to the transaction,  the Amount of the original invoice, the Date of the original transaction, Paid Date, and then the Avg Days to Pay.

Personally, I would modify this report to make it more meaningful.

To do this, I would begin by clicking on the Modify Report button and from the Display tab; in the Columns scroll box, I would uncheck:

• Memo (unless I kept penitent notes in the memo field of my transactions)
• Account (unless I had multiple Accounts Receivable accounts), and
• Class (unless having class information is pertinent)

In addition to leaving the Type, Due Date, Num(ber), Amount, Date, Paid Date, and Avg Days to Pay columns, let’s also check Terms.

To make this report even more meaningful, I would move the Date column between the Type and Terms columns.  This will show the information in a more logical and meaningful way; by Type, Original transaction Date, Terms, Due Date based on payment terms, the transaction Number, Amount, Paid Date, and then Average Days to Pay.

As the last step, I would memorize the report (so I wouldn’t have to make these same modifications each time I ran the report).  To perform this final step, click on the Memorize button (located at the top of the report), which launches the Memorize Report window.  I wouldn’t change the report Name, but I would choose to Save in Memorized Report Group for Customers.

From this point forward, whenever I wanted to generate this report I would do so by going to the Reports menu -> choosing Memorized Reports -> Customers -> Average Days to Pay.

I can see that the Average Days to Pay Report would be a useful tool in helping all businesses, not just contractors, determine their projected cash flow.

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