Signal Check · free
Where your cash is stuck, who’s holding it, and how long you wait to get paid
Export your invoice list from QuickBooks, Xero, or FreshBooks and drop it in. You’ll see how much is stuck past 60 days, which customers are sitting on it, how long you wait to get paid, and whether any of that is unusual for the work you do — with the arithmetic behind every figure.
If your export carries payment dates, it goes further: whether payment is drifting, which customers have gone quiet, and what should land in the next 30 days. Nothing is uploaded either way — it reads the file and does the arithmetic right here in this browser tab, so the file never leaves your computer.
Your file never leaves your computer.
It’s read and added up right here in this browser tab. Nothing is uploaded. If you ask for the one-page PDF afterward, only the finished numbers are sent.
Drag your invoice export here, or
CSV or Excel, up to 10 MB. You’ll check the columns before any numbers appear.
What you’ll see
Every invoice export gives you this.
Cash stuck past 60 days
What customers still owe you on invoices more than 60 days past due, with the aging behind it and how many customers are holding it.
Who is holding it
Your largest overdue balances by customer name. Those names are read in this browser tab and go nowhere else — not into the PDF, not to me.
How long you wait to get paid
The typical time from invoice to payment. If your file carries no paid dates, an estimate from what's open against recent invoicing, labeled as one.
Where your revenue sits
How much of the last 12 months' invoicing came from your five largest customers, and how much from the single largest.
Whether any of it is unusual
Your payment days against Xero's published small-business figures, your aging split against Dun & Bradstreet's for the work you do. Where no honest published comparison exists, the page says so instead of inventing one.
When your invoices go out
Whether invoicing bunches into the last days of the month — which starts the payment clock weeks after the work actually finished.
An export that carries payment dates adds movement.
- Whether payment is drifting — the last 90 days of invoicing against the twelve months before them.
- Which customers are slowest, and what it would be worth if they paid the way your fastest five do.
- Which customers used to invoice on a rhythm and have gone quiet.
- What should land in the next 30 days, from this file's own collection behaviour.
Xero’s Receivable Invoice Summary and the FreshBooks Invoice Details report carry those dates. QuickBooks doesn’t put them in its invoice reports, so for a QuickBooks file your days figure is an estimate and the four above are left out, each with a line saying why rather than a blank. An A/R aging report is thinner still: it lists only what’s unpaid, so it shows the stuck cash and not your revenue share. You’ll know which of these you have before you spend a minute on it — the export guide for your system says up front what your file will and won’t answer.
I’m Rob Neal. I spent sixteen years in banking, where the numbers had to be right. This check is built the same way: every figure comes with the rows it was built from, every row it skipped is listed with the reason, and where there’s no honest comparison to make it says nothing rather than something.
Getting your file out
Export steps for each system
QuickBooks Online
Recommended · Invoice List by Date
- Go to Reports and search for "Invoice List". Open "Invoice List by Date".
- Set the report period to "All Dates", or at least the last 12 months.
- Select "Export/Print", then "Export to Excel".
Due dates and open balances are all the headline figures need. QuickBooks doesn't list paid dates here, so days to get paid is an estimate, and the payment trend, the slowest-payer ranking, the quiet-customer list and the next-30-days projection are left out.
Or · Accounts receivable aging detail
- Go to Reports and search for "aging detail". Open "Accounts receivable aging detail".
- Leave the date set to today.
- Select "Export/Print", then "Export to Excel".
Lists only what's still unpaid, so it shows cash stuck past 60 days but not how fast you get paid or your customer share.
Full QuickBooks Online export guide, and what the file can and can’t tell you →
QuickBooks Desktop
Recommended · Transaction Detail (invoices)
- Go to Reports, then Custom Reports, then Transaction Detail.
- On the Display tab, set the dates to at least the last 12 months, set Total by to None, and tick Name, Num, Due Date, Amount, and Open Balance. On the Filters tab, choose Transaction Type, then Invoice. Select OK.
- Select "Excel", then "Create New Worksheet", then "Export", and save the workbook.
Lists every invoice, paid or not, so every headline figure works. There are still no paid dates, so days to get paid is an estimate and anything built on payment history — the trend, the slowest payers, who has gone quiet, what's coming — is left out.
Or · A/R Aging Detail
- Go to Reports, then Customers & Receivables, then A/R Aging Detail.
- Leave the date set to today.
- Select "Excel", then "Create New Worksheet", then "Export", and save the workbook.
Lists only what's still unpaid, so it shows cash stuck past 60 days but not how fast you get paid or your customer share.
Full QuickBooks Desktop export guide, and what the file can and can’t tell you →
Xero
Recommended · Receivable Invoice Summary
- Go to Reporting, then All reports, and open Receivable Invoice Summary.
- Set the dates to cover at least the last 12 months. Under Columns, add Due Date, Status, Balance, and Last Payment Date, then select Update.
- Select "Export", then Excel.
One row per invoice with the date it was last paid. This is the fullest export Xero gives: days to get paid is measured rather than estimated, and the payment trend, the slowest payers, the quiet customers and the next 30 days all come with it.
Or · Invoices export
- Go to Sales, then Invoices, and open the All tab.
- Use Search to set a start and end date covering the last 12 months. One export holds up to 500 invoices.
- Select "Export" to download a CSV.
One row per invoice line, which the check adds up by invoice number. No paid dates, so days to get paid is an estimate and nothing built on payment history appears. The Receivable Invoice Summary above is worth the extra minute.
Full Xero export guide, and what the file can and can’t tell you →
FreshBooks
Recommended · Invoice Details
- Go to Reports and open Invoice Details.
- Under Settings, then Filters, choose a custom date range covering at least the last 12 months, and keep every invoice status.
- Select "More Actions", then "Export for Excel". It downloads a CSV.
Includes the date each invoice was paid, so days to get paid is measured rather than estimated, and the payment trend, the slowest payers, the quiet customers and the next 30 days all appear.
Full FreshBooks export guide, and what the file can and can’t tell you →
Something else
Recommended · Your invoice list
- Export your invoices as a CSV or Excel file.
- It needs a customer, an invoice date, and an amount for each invoice.
- Add either an open balance or a paid date column if your system has one.
You'll confirm which column is which before any numbers appear. A paid-date column is what unlocks the payment trend, the slowest payers, the quiet customers and the next 30 days; without one, those are left out with a line saying why.
Common questions
About the check
- Is my file uploaded?
- No. The check reads your file inside this browser tab and does the arithmetic there. You can watch your browser's network activity while it runs: the file never goes anywhere. If you ask for the one-page PDF, only the finished numbers are sent, never the file, its rows, or your customers' names.
- Which files work?
- A CSV or Excel export of your invoices. It needs a customer, an invoice date, and an amount for each invoice, plus either an open balance or a paid date. QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Xero, and FreshBooks reports are recognized automatically; anything else works once you confirm which column is which. An A/R aging report works too, but it lists only what's still unpaid, so it shows the stuck cash and not the rest.
- Why does my export give fewer findings than someone else's?
- Because exports differ in what they carry. Xero's Receivable Invoice Summary and the FreshBooks Invoice Details report include the date each invoice was paid, so the check can measure how fast you get paid and read movement over time. QuickBooks doesn't put paid dates in its invoice reports, so for a QuickBooks file the days figure is an estimate and anything that needs payment history — the trend, the slowest payers, who has gone quiet, what's coming in the next 30 days — is left out with a line saying why. The export guide for your system says up front what your file will and won't answer.
- My file has no due dates. Does it still work?
- Yes. You tell the check your usual payment terms (net 30 unless you change it), and each due date becomes the invoice date plus those terms. The results say so.
- Why do I have to confirm the columns?
- Because a wrong column gives a wrong number, and a confident wrong number is worse than none. The check pre-fills what it recognizes and flags anything it had to guess, and the results list every row it skipped and why.
- Is this accounting advice?
- No. It's plain arithmetic on one export, meant to show where to look. It doesn't know about payments that haven't been recorded yet, disputes, or anything outside the file.
Want the full picture, with jobs, quotes, and costs joined to your invoices? See what Summit Signal looks at.