What Is the AR Aging Dashboard?
The AR Aging Dashboard is a built-in dashboard in BuildOps that gives you a real-time view of every open customer balance, organized by how long each invoice has been outstanding. Think of it as your collections dashboard — it answers one of the most important cash flow questions in field service: how much money is out there, how old is it, and who's sitting on it?
Every balance is tied back to its source — whether that's a service job, a project, or a service agreement — so you're not just seeing accounting numbers, you're seeing the full operational picture.
If your business does construction work, the dashboard also separates retainage (money contractually held back on projects) from your collectible AR, so you always know what you can go collect today versus what you're waiting on a GC or owner to release.
Where to find it
Go to Dashboard → click the dropdown (top right) → AR Aging Dashboard - New
Start with the ReadMe
Every AR Aging Dashboard page includes a built-in ReadMe tab at the bottom of the screen. This 2-page guide walks through what data is included, how the calculations work, and how the dashboard is structured — in plain language, specific to this dashboard. If something in your numbers doesn't look right, this is the fastest place to check before reaching out to support.
Heads up on data freshness: This dashboard refreshes approximately every 40 minutes — it is not a live feed. Always check the Last Data Refresh timestamp in the top-right corner before acting on the numbers.
If you're managing cash flow, chasing collections, or keeping tabs on project retention — this dashboard is for you. Here's how you'll use it depending on your role
Role | How You'll Use It |
Business Owner / Principal | Run your weekly cash flow check — see what's outstanding, how old it is, and who's slow-paying. |
Office Manager / AR Coordinator | Prioritize your collections. Filter to a specific customer, export the flat table, and take action. |
Project Manager | Spot-check retention on active projects and confirm pay applications are flowing correctly. |
Key Metrics You'll See
Before diving in, here's a quick reference for the terms you'll come across:
Term | What It Means |
Aging Buckets (A–E) | The five time-based columns your open balances fall into: A – Current, B – 1–30 days overdue, C – 31–60 days, D – 61–90 days, E – 90+ days. Bucket assignment is based on your As-of Date minus the Invoice Due Date. |
Adjusted Outstanding Balance | The real balance owed per transaction: Invoice Total − Payments Applied − Write-off Adjustments Applied. Note: invoice status (Posted, Closed, Exported) does not affect this calculation — a closed invoice with no payment recorded is still outstanding. |
As-of Date | The most important filter in the dashboard. Every balance, every bucket assignment, and every days-aged calculation is based on this date — not necessarily today. Set it to any past date to see your AR exactly as it looked at that point in time. |
Retainage (Column F) | Money contractually held back on construction jobs — typically 5–10% of each progress billing — that hasn't been released yet. This sits in its own column and is not included in aging buckets A–E. |
Retainage Billed (Column G) | Retainage formally billed back to the customer (typically at substantial completion). Unlike held retainage, this is included in aging buckets A–E because it's now a receivable with a due date. |
Net Retainage (Column H) | The held retainage that hasn't been billed yet. Formula: H = F − G. This is the money still sitting in retention that you can't yet collect. |
Total AR (Column I) | Available in the With Retainage view. The sum of columns A–E plus Net Retainage (H). Answers: what is your full financial exposure from this customer right now? |
Total Active AR | Available in the Without Retainage view. The sum of columns A–E only — no retainage. Answers: what can you actually go collect today? |
Unapplied Payments | Payments received and recorded in BuildOps but not yet applied to a specific invoice. These appear as negative amounts in the dashboard and reduce your total AR balance. |
How to Use the Dashboard
When you open the AR Aging Dashboard, you'll see three pages at the bottom of the screen:
Page | What It Shows |
ReadMe | The built-in reference guide — covers data rules, calculations, and how the dashboard is structured. Worth a read the first time you open the dashboard. |
AR Aging — With Retainage | The full AR view, including retainage columns. Use this if your business holds retainage on construction work. |
AR Aging — Without Retainage | Strips retainage out entirely and shows only your collectible AR. Use this to answer: what can we go collect right now? |
Each data page also has two views — scroll down to switch between them:
View | Best Used For |
Pivot Table | Reading data inside BuildOps, drilling into a specific customer or job, presenting in a review or walkthrough. |
Flat Table | Exporting to Excel, sharing with your finance team, or building a collections call list. |
Setting Your Filters
At the top of both data pages, you'll find three filters that apply to all data simultaneously:
Filter | What It Does |
Customer | Filters to a single customer or multiple customers. Leave blank to see your full AR picture. |
Transaction Number | Filters to a specific invoice, payment, or adjustment by transaction number. Useful when tracing a document a customer is questioning. |
As-of Date (Required) | Sets your point-in-time snapshot date. Defaults to on or before today. Change this to any past date — like a month-end or quarter-end — to reconstruct AR as it looked at that point in time. |
Reading the With Retainage View
This is the default landing page when you open the dashboard. Here's how to work through it:
Check the data freshness timestamps in the top-right corner. These show when data was last refreshed (in UTC) — always check this first if a customer is questioning accuracy.
Set your As-of Date. The default is on or before today, which works for most use cases. For a month-end or period-specific review, change this before reading anything else.
Apply any Customer or Transaction filters if you're focused on a specific account or invoice. Leave blank to see everything.
Read at the customer level first. Each row in the pivot table represents a customer. The amounts across columns A–I show their total outstanding balance by aging category.
Drill down with the + expander. Click the + next to any customer row to see their jobs, projects, and service agreements. Click again to see individual transactions with issue date, due date, and days aged — this is where you find the specific invoice driving a problem balance.
Read the retainage columns (F, G, H, I) separately from the aging buckets. These are contractually held amounts, not overdue balances. If a customer's Total AR (Column I) looks much higher than the aging buckets suggest, net retainage is usually the explanation.
Reading the Without Retainage View
Navigate to AR Aging — Without Retainage at the bottom of the screen. Everything works the same as the With Retainage view, with two differences:
The retainage columns (F, G, H, I) are removed.
The final column is Total Active AR — the sum of columns A–E only.
Use this view when you want to focus on collections — it shows you what you can actually pick up the phone and go collect today.
Exporting and Scheduling
You can export any view to Excel or PDF, or set up automated scheduled exports delivered straight to your inbox — daily, weekly, or monthly.
Click the folder icon in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
Click Export... to download the current view immediately.
Click Schedule export... to set up a recurring automated delivery to any email address.
Export tip: Always export the flat table, not the pivot table. The flat table exports cleanly as a row-per-transaction spreadsheet. The pivot table includes subtotal and grand total rows that can complicate any downstream Excel work.
What Data Is Included (and What Isn't)
The dashboard only shows finalized, actionable transactions. Here's what that means:
What's Included | Why |
Posted, Exported, Closed, and Bypassed transactions only | Draft and Void records aren't finalized — including them would inflate your AR with amounts that may never be owed. |
Payments with an outstanding unapplied balance | Fully applied payments have nothing left to display and are excluded. |
Jobs, Projects, and Service Agreements with an open balance | Records with a zero balance are suppressed to keep the dashboard focused on what needs attention. |
Can't find a specific job or invoice? Check two things:
Does it have an active outstanding balance? Zero-balance records are filtered out.
Is the invoice still in Draft or Void status? Those are excluded until they're posted.
How Credit Is Split: With vs. Without Retainage
Both views show the same aging buckets (A–E) with the same underlying data. The only difference is in the total column:
With Retainage → Total AR includes Net Retainage (H). Shows everything you're owed, including money a GC is still holding.
Without Retainage → Total Active AR is columns A–E only. Shows what you can actually go collect today.
For contractors doing project work, both numbers matter — they just answer different questions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: An invoice shows as outstanding, but the customer says it's paid. Why?
A: The dashboard calculates outstanding balance as Invoice Total − Payments Applied − Write-offs Applied. Invoice status (Closed, Exported) is not part of that math — if no payment has been recorded in BuildOps, the balance will still show as open. The most common cause is that the payment was recorded in your accounting system but hasn't been entered in BuildOps yet. Once it's recorded in BuildOps, it'll clear within the next 40-minute refresh.
Q: Why don't my numbers match my accounting software?
A: This is expected — they use different formulas and serve different purposes. Your accounting system is your financial ledger of record. The AR Aging Dashboard is your operational AR view built from BuildOps activity. Common reasons for differences include:
draft invoices are excluded here
unapplied payments show as negatives
the As-of Date may not align with your accounting period
retainage is handled differently between systems.
To reconcile, match on the Adjusted Outstanding Balance per transaction using the same As-of Date on both sides.
Q: I'm seeing a negative number in an aging bucket. What does that mean?
A: A negative balance in an aging bucket usually means you have an unapplied payment — money that's been received and recorded in BuildOps but not yet matched to a specific invoice. Once your team applies it to the right invoice, the negative will disappear and the invoice balance will reduce accordingly.
Q: A job or service agreement isn't showing up. Why?
A: Two common reasons: (1) it has no active outstanding balance — zero-balance records are filtered out, or (2) its invoices are still in Draft or Void status, which are excluded. Once an invoice is posted, it will appear in the next refresh.
Q: What's the difference between the With Retainage and Without Retainage pages?
A: Both pages show the same aging buckets and underlying data. The difference is in the total column. With Retainage includes Net Retainage so you can see your full financial exposure. Without Retainage shows only your collectible AR — what you can go pick up the phone and collect today.
Q: Can I see what my AR looked like at a specific past date?
A: Yes — that's exactly what the As-of Date filter is for. Set it to any past date (like a month-end or the date a customer claims they paid) and the dashboard will rebuild your AR exactly as it looked at that point in time.