{"id":1152,"date":"2019-07-01T15:08:15","date_gmt":"2019-07-01T15:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.test\/en-au\/blog\/?post_type=sage_glossary&#038;p=1152"},"modified":"2026-05-18T15:56:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T13:56:55","slug":"what-is-accounts-receivable","status":"publish","type":"sage_glossary","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/glossary\/what-is-accounts-receivable\/","title":{"rendered":"What is accounts receivable?"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header has-dark-background-color entry-header--has-illustration entry-header--has-illustration--generic\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__row row align-center\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col col-lg-7 col-xlg-6 entry-header__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"component component-single-header\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__misc text--subtitle text--uppercase text--small\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/glossary\/\" class=\"entry-header__link\">Glossary definition<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-title-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"entry-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat is accounts receivable?\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"single-post-details container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"reading-time\"> min read<\/span>\n\t\t<button\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\tclass=\"social-share-button button button--icon button--secondary js-social-share-button\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-title=\"What is accounts receivable?\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-url=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/glossary\/what-is-accounts-receivable\/\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-text=\"Please read this interesting article\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__share-label\">Share<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-label\" hidden>Copy Link<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\" hidden>Copied<\/span>\n\t\t<\/button>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/header>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Accounts receivable is a phrase referring to a company\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/smes-late-payments\/\">invoices<\/a> that are not yet paid at the time of reporting. Similar to a line of credit extended to a customer, accounts receivable serves as a payment agreement between a company and their client. Though specific terms vary, an account receivable is typically set to be paid anywhere from one day to one year of the invoice date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A broader accounts receivable definition refers generally to any money owed to a company \u2013 any unpaid invoices define accounts receivable of a company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/sage-business-cloud\/accounting\/\">Accounts receivable management<\/a> is an integral part of a company\u2019s accounting practices. Offering sale on credit to customers can help foster healthy business relationships with repeat buyers while avoiding the hassle and paperwork of frequent invoicing.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"single-cta\">\n\t<div class=\"single-cta__positioner on-scroll-highlight__target\">\n\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__wrapper has-dark-background-color\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"single-cta__title h3\">Subscribe to the Sage Advice enewsletter<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Get a roundup of our best business advice in your inbox every month.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"#gate-84fe79b5-668d-41f8-a0cc-6229018c4ac9\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"single-cta__button button button--primary\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t>Subscribe<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1440\" height=\"810\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1181404518-1440x810.jpg\" class=\"single-cta__image\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1181404518-1440x810.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 48em) 33vw, 100vw\" \/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Accounts receivable is a phrase referring to a company\u2019s invoices that are not yet paid at the time of reporting. Similar to a line of credit extended to a customer, accounts receivable serves as a payment agreement between a company and their client. Though specific terms vary, an account receivable is typically set to be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1774,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1152","sage_glossary","type-sage_glossary","status-publish","hentry"],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice South Africa","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/sage_glossary\/1152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/sage_glossary"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/sage_glossary"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/1774"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/sage_glossary\/1152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76237,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/sage_glossary\/1152\/revisions\/76237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-za\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}