AR aging summary prompt: free ChatGPT template
Updated · By Robert Breen
Use this when you have an aging report, the table that sorts unpaid invoices into current, 30, 60 and 90-plus days, and the owner wants to know what it means without reading forty rows. The prompt asks for the headline number, the biggest balances and a short call list, and it keeps your numbers as they are. It summarizes the report you paste. It does not decide who is a bad risk or whether to write anything off.
Have a professional review it. This prompt helps you explain your own numbers, not give financial advice. Have your accountant or financial advisor review anything you will act on.
The prompt
Copy it into ChatGPT (or Claude, Gemini or Copilot) and replace every [BLANK] with your own details. It uses the four parts from Prompt Writing 101: Role, Context, Task and Format.
Role: You are a staff accountant writing a short receivables summary for [READER]. Context: This is the aging report as of [REPORT DATE] for [COMPANY]: [AGING DATA]. Our normal payment terms are [TERMS]. Notes I know that aren't in the report: [NOTES]. Task: Summarize it in four parts: total outstanding and how much is over 60 days, the three largest overdue balances with customer names, any customer who appears in more than one aging bucket, and a short list of who to contact first and why. Use only numbers in the report. If a total doesn't add up, say so instead of fixing it. Don't recommend writing anything off. Format: Plain text under 220 words with the four parts as labeled lines, amounts with dollar signs, and a final line starting "Needs your decision:" if any item does.
Fill in the blanks
[READER]- Who reads it, such as the owner or a partner.
[REPORT DATE]- The "as of" date printed on the report.
[COMPANY]- The business the report belongs to.
[AGING DATA]- The report rows pasted as text, with customer, bucket amounts and total.
[TERMS]- Standard terms such as net 30.
[NOTES]- Disputes, promised payments or anything the report can't show, or "none".
Example, filled in
A made-up example from the free lesson Turn a Client Meeting into Action Items and a Follow-Up Email (Accounting Firms). Millbrook Accounting is the made-up accounting firm from the client-meeting lesson. A partner wants to understand the firm's own unpaid client invoices before a Monday meeting. All names and numbers are invented.
Role: You are a staff accountant writing a short receivables summary for Dana Whitfield, a partner. Context: This is the aging report as of September 30 for Millbrook Accounting: Oakridge Dental, current $1,200, 31-60 $0, 61-90 $2,400, 90+ $0; Pell Landscaping, current $0, 31-60 $950, 61-90 $950, 90+ $0; Harlan Print Shop, current $600, 31-60 $0, 61-90 $0, 90+ $3,100; Total outstanding $9,200. Our normal payment terms are net 15. Notes I know that aren't in the report: Harlan says a payment was mailed in September and we haven't received it. Task: Summarize it in four parts: total outstanding and how much is over 60 days, the three largest overdue balances with customer names, any customer who appears in more than one aging bucket, and a short list of who to contact first and why. Use only numbers in the report. If a total doesn't add up, say so instead of fixing it. Don't recommend writing anything off. Format: Plain text under 220 words with the four parts as labeled lines, amounts with dollar signs, and a final line starting "Needs your decision:" if any item does.
What a good answer looks like
- A first line with the total and the over-60 amount, not a paragraph of background.
- Pell Landscaping flagged as sitting in two buckets.
- Harlan listed first for contact, with the mailed-payment note carried over as written.
- A flag that the rows add up to $9,200 only if the arithmetic is checked, rather than a silently corrected total.
How to check it before you use it
An AI draft can sound right and still say something you never told it. Use the habit from the Reply Faster lesson: check every promise, name, date and number against what you gave it before anything goes out.
- Add the buckets yourself. Aging reports are easy for a model to misread when columns shift in a paste.
- Compare each customer name and balance against the report, not against the summary's memory of it.
- Confirm the call list matches your collection policy. The prompt suggests order. It doesn't set policy.
- Remove customer names before sharing outside the firm if the summary goes anywhere the clients could see it.
Why this prompt works
An accounts receivable summary is mostly sorting and arithmetic, which suits a model well, as long as you hold it to the figures on the page.
Practice it in the free lesson
Turn a Client Meeting into Action Items and a Follow-Up Email (Accounting Firms): Turn the transcript of a client's quarterly review into the decisions, an action items table with owners and due dates, and a follow-up email to the client. You do every step yourself in a practice copy of ChatGPT, and nothing touches your real accounts.
Also useful: Prompt Writing 101: Role, Context, Task, Format
Terms used here
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