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In finance, bad debt, occasionally called uncollectible accounts expense, is a monetary amount owed to a creditor that is unlikely to be paid and for which the creditor is not willing to take action to collect for various reasons, often due to the debtor not having the money to pay, for example due to a company going into liquidation or insolvency.
The formal accounting distinction between on- and off-balance-sheet items can be quite detailed and will depend to some degree on management judgments, but in general terms, an item should appear on the company's balance sheet if it is an asset or liability that the company owns or is legally responsible for; uncertain assets or liabilities ...
Accounts receivable represents money owed by entities to the firm on the sale of products or services on credit. In most business entities, accounts receivable is typically executed by generating an invoice and either mailing or electronically delivering it to the customer, who, in turn, must pay it within an established timeframe, called credit terms [citation needed] or payment terms.
Good debt is preferable because it builds value, but there are cases where bad debt is the best choice. For instance, using a loan to buy a reliable car to get you to and from work is a good use ...
A separate term for the aggregation of expenses and losses does not exist. Contra-accounts are accounts with negative balances that offset other balance sheet accounts. Examples are accumulated depreciation (offset against fixed assets), and the allowance for bad debts (offset against accounts receivable). Deferred interest is also offset ...
Netflix's accounting treatment provides a big boost for its operating cash flows. At the time it went bankrupt last year, competitor Blockbuster had been classifying its DVD purchases as operating ...
In business accounting, the term "write-off" is used to refer to an investment (such as a purchase of sellable goods) for which a return on the investment is now impossible or unlikely. The item's potential return is thus canceled and removed from ("written off") the business's balance sheet. Common write-offs in retail include spoiled and ...
Long-term liabilities give users more information about the long-term prosperity of the company, [3] [better source needed] while current liabilities inform the user of debt that the company owes in the current period. On a balance sheet, accounts are listed in order of liquidity, so long-term liabilities come after current liabilities.