Put overdue invoices into a cash forecast without assuming they all pay

Confirm the receivables total agrees with the ledger and includes approved credits and applied payments. Review unapplied cash before contacting customers. A customer should not be treated as overdue because the company received the money but failed to match it to the invoice.

Keep the original due date, current outstanding amount, customer contact, dispute status, and latest collection evidence. An invoice's age matters, but it is not the only information needed to estimate when cash might arrive.

Record the specific promise, date, and person who made it. Check whether previous promises were kept and whether the customer has confirmed the invoice is approved for payment. A request sent by your team is not a promise from the customer.

For a material invoice, inspect issues such as a missing purchase order, disputed delivery, incorrect billing details, or an unapplied credit. Resolve those operational problems with the responsible team. Moving the forecast date forward each week does not fix an invoice the customer cannot process.

Suppose illustrative receivables total $50,000: $20,000 has a documented near-term payment commitment, $15,000 is disputed, and $15,000 has no current response. Keep those groups separate in the forecast. Do not put the full $50,000 into next week's available cash merely because all invoices are due.

Choose a base case and downside case using the actual evidence, with assumptions clearly labeled. A weighted expected value can summarize uncertainty, but it does not guarantee part of a large invoice will be paid. Test essential payments against the timing risk of the largest customer balances.

The cash forecast estimates collections by date. The accountant may separately need to assess collectability and the appropriate receivable valuation under the reporting policy. Changing a forecast date does not settle that accounting question.

After receipts arrive, compare them with the forecast and record why timing differed. Keep unresolved invoices owned by a person with a next action. Use repeated delays to improve invoicing, payment terms, and customer approval processes rather than relying on increasingly optimistic collection assumptions.