The ledger

Which unpaid invoices do we chase this week, and which customer do we stop quoting for?

Hands-on · Work the Simply late list: mark a line rung, or promised when a date comes back. The other three sections carry no chase control at all — this ledger argues you should not ring about retention, so it does not offer you a button that does. Kept for this tab.

Why there are no ageing buckets on this page

1Every unpaid invoice is classified by why it is unpaid, and only one of the four reasons is chaseable.
2Retention is earned money held under the contract. It is stated separately, never inside an overdue figure, and it is diarised rather than chased.
3A disputed invoice is ours until we answer it. The figure that matters is days since we last replied, not days since we invoiced.
4A queried invoice belongs to them from the moment we answer — so the clock on it starts at our reply.
5Terms are per contract. Vantage's forty-five days is their offer and it is priced into the quote, so day forty is not late there and is late everywhere else.

The four categories were made by reading a year of “overdue” calls. Two thirds of them were made to customers who owed nothing yet, and about one in six was made to somebody waiting on an answer from us.

What an ageing report would have said this morning

$232,900 outstanding, $152,550 of it past sixty days, one invoice at 214 days. Three true statements that together produce a completely false impression, and a call list that starts with the customer who owes us nothing until November.

The real answer is $84,400 across 5 invoices, and it fits on a Post-it.

Simply late · 5 invoices · $84,400

Ring these

Undisputed, unqueried, past terms. The only category on this ledger that a phone call moves.

Simply late invoices with the customer, project, amount, age in days, the terms that apply, how far past those terms it is, and any note.
Invoice	Amount	Age	Terms	Past terms	Note
Cordell Group25-0311 · Silverbow mezzanine	$31,200	88 d	30 d	58 d	Fourth invoice from this customer past sixty days this year.
Pemberton Construction25-0468 · Northgate — phase one	$26,400	41 d	30 d	11 d	Nothing on file.
Loxley & Frame25-0419 · Riverwalk gantry	$14,600	49 d	30 d	19 d	Their accounts clerk is on leave until the 11th. Known, and still late.
Kestrel Interiors25-0356 · Union Street balustrade	$6,800	71 d	30 d	41 d	Nothing on file.
Ashgrove Developments25-0472 · Bay Eleven handrail	$5,400	36 d	30 d	6 d	Nothing on file.

Queried · 3 invoices · $33,450

Do not ring

They have asked us something and we have answered. The ball is on their side of the net, and the clock started when we replied — not when we invoiced.

Queried invoices with the customer, project, amount, age in days, the terms that apply, how far past those terms it is, and any note.
Invoice	Amount	Age	Terms	Since we replied	Note	Why not
Cordell Group25-0388 · Silverbow warehouse	$22,400	61 d	30 d	24 d	They asked for the mill certs on 10 Jul. Sent the same day. Nothing since.	Waiting on them
Ashgrove Developments25-0455 · Bay Eleven stair core	$7,900	33 d	30 d	6 d	Asked which purchase order it goes against. Answered Friday.	Waiting on them
Kestrel Interiors25-0470 · Union Street fitout	$3,150	27 d	30 d	3 d	Nothing on file.	Waiting on them

Disputed · 2 invoices · $22,900

Do not ring

They say the work or the paperwork is wrong. Until that is answered it is our problem, and chasing it is asking somebody to pay for a mistake we have not fixed.

Disputed invoices with the customer, project, amount, age in days, the terms that apply, how far past those terms it is, and any note.
Invoice	Amount	Age	Terms	Since we replied	Note	Why not
Ashgrove Developments25-0402 · Bay Eleven mezzanine	$18,700	52 d	30 d	19 d	They say four beams were delivered undrilled. They were. The drawing was ours and it was wrong.	Ours to answer first
Vantage Civil25-0441 · Fairmount handrail	$4,200	38 d	45 d	11 d	Variation was verbal and is not on a signed instruction. We will probably lose this one.	Ours to answer first

Retention · 4 invoices · $92,150

Do not ring

Held back under the contract until the defects period ends. Earned, invoiced, and not yet askable — asking is how you look like you cannot count.

Retention invoices with the customer, project, amount, age in days, the terms that apply, how far past those terms it is, and any note.
Invoice	Amount	Age	Terms	Past terms	Note	Why not
Pemberton Construction24-0611 · Cascade Ridge — frame	$41,800	214 d	30 d	184 d	Defects period ends 14 Nov. Diarised, not chased.	Diarised, not chaseable
Vantage Civil25-0104 · Fairmount transfer station	$28,600	141 d	45 d	96 d	Twelve-month period. Releases February.	Diarised, not chaseable
Pemberton Construction24-0688 · Cascade Ridge — stairs	$12,400	188 d	30 d	158 d	Same contract, same release date.	Diarised, not chaseable
Loxley & Frame25-0219 · Riverwalk canopy	$9,350	96 d	30 d	66 d	Nothing on file.	Diarised, not chaseable

Nothing on this screen sends anything. Every chase is a person ringing a person, and the note left afterwards is the only record — an automated reminder to a customer who is waiting on a drawing from us is how a forty-day query becomes a ninety-day dispute.

Chaseable this week

$84,400

5 of 5 chaseable invoices, out of 14 unpaid worth $232,900 — the rest cannot be rung about

An ageing report would put the whole outstanding figure on this line.

Retention held

$92,150

4 invoices, all past terms and none of them late — earned, invoiced, contractually not askable

It ages every day and it is not a receivables problem. It is a release date.

Waiting on us

$22,900

disputed, and both of them are our paperwork rather than their reluctance

Chasing these is asking somebody to pay for a mistake we have not fixed.

Oldest invoice

214 days

Pemberton Construction · $41,800 · retention — top of any ageing report ever printed, and nobody may ring about it