How do you track collections and due dates?

Money that has been sold but not collected is money that doesn’t show in the cash box. The job of collection tracking is to keep it visible — from whom, how much, since what date.

Collection and due-date tracking in five steps

1. Write the due date at the time of sale

The due date is written when you issue the invoice or process the credit sale — it isn’t remembered afterwards. If the customer says “end of the month” or “30 days,” convert it to an exact date and record it. A receivable with no due date doesn’t stand out in any list; it just sits there as a balance, and whether it’s overdue can’t be told. All collection tracking rests on this one field.

2. Split receivables into three groups: overdue, today, upcoming

Sorting all receivables in one list by amount hides the most urgent one. Split the list into three by due date: overdue, due today and coming due in the next 7–30 days. Write each group’s total separately; the real answer to “how much am I owed” is not the third group but the first.

3. Among the overdue, start with the largest amount

Within the overdue group, sort by amount and call the first three items that day. Letting a large receivable wait another week while you deal with many small overdue amounts is the costliest mistake for cash flow. During the call, keep the account’s current balance in front of you as well: if a partial payment has been made, the due item and the balance differ, and asking for the wrong figure prolongs the conversation.

4. Send the reminder before the due date

For upcoming due dates, send a short heads-up message a few days before the due date: the amount, the date and which invoice it belongs to. For an overdue account, send the same three details and attach the account statement, so there is no debate about what is being paid. We explain how to prepare and read the statement on the what is an account statement page.

5. Record the payment the same day and note which invoice it belongs to

If an incoming payment is not entered as a credit on the customer account the same day, you end up making an embarrassing mistake: calling a customer who has already paid. In the description field, write which invoice the payment closes; for a partial payment, also note the remaining amount and the new promised date. If the balances of the two sides don't match at period end, this is the first place to look — details on the how to do account reconciliation page.

Example: the due list on the morning of September 15

This is the list of a wholesaler who has made sales on credit to six customers. If the same records were sorted by amount, the 12,000 ₺ due in 25 days would sit at the top; grouped by due date, the three accounts to call today come to the front:

Total overdue: 18,400 + 7,250 + 3,100 = 28,750 ₺; due today: 4,800 ₺; coming due in the next 30 days: 9,600 + 12,000 = 21,600 ₺. Today's call order is A, B, C — days overdue and amount point in the same direction. A short reminder to D in the morning is enough; for E, a heads-up message is scheduled a few days from now.

How do you track due dates in Excel?

Write each receivable on one row: customer, document no., amount, due date. If the due date is in column E, the days remaining and the status come from two formulas:

Kalan gün :  =E2-BUGÜN()
Durum     :  =EĞER(E2-BUGÜN()<0;"GECİKTİ";EĞER(E2-BUGÜN()=0;"BUGÜN";"VADESİ VAR"))

Sort the list by Status first, then by Amount; use conditional formatting to color the OVERDUE (GECİKTİ) rows red. When a payment arrives, don't delete the row — write the collection date and amount in an adjacent column, so the remaining balance on a partial payment stays visible. A ready-made version of this setup is in the free customer account tracking template, which marks overdue rows automatically; if you want to track collections and remaining amounts per invoice, the invoice tracking Excel template is a better fit.

The limit of Excel is that the list doesn't refresh itself: every morning you have to open the file and filter it, send reminders from somewhere else and match partial payments by hand.

Tracking collections and due dates with software

When you record a sale or purchase in the Account Ledger: Debt & Credit app, in the due date field you pick one of the preset terms of 15, 30, 60 or 90 days, or set an exact date from the calendar. The Due Date Tracking screen splits these records into amounts to be collected (customers) and amounts to be paid (suppliers); in each, overdue items, items due today and upcoming items are listed in separate blocks, with their totals. You can switch the window to 7, 30 or 90 days, call the customer with a single tap from any row, or jump to WhatsApp and send a reminder. If the due item and the account's current balance differ, both are shown together. If a receivable is tied to a cheque or promissory note instead of an open account, the way you track it changes — we explain how cheques and notes received and issued are tracked in separate portfolios and how a bounced one is written back to the customer account on the how to track cheques and promissory notes page; cheques and notes nearing their due date are also collected in a separate due date report in the panel.

If you want to manage stock and sales in the same program, Ofisx, and if you keep a credit ledger (veresiye) in retail, Veresiye Takibi may be a better fit; the comparison is on the which one suits me page. We explain the debit-credit logic itself on the what is a customer account (cari hesap) page.

Frequently asked questions

Last updated: 2026-09-19

Don't compile the due list by hand every morning

Open a free account and enter sales with their due dates; overdue ones are gathered at the top automatically.