Accounting: The Language of Business - Vol. 2 (Intermediate: Part 142)

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Short-Term Operating Assets: Cash and Receivable (Part G)

by

Charles Lamson

Uncollectible Account Write-Off 

A company writes off an account receivable when it no longer expects to collect the amount due from a customer. When it decides to write off a specific amount, the company reduces or debits the allowance for uncollectible accounts and reduces or credits the accounts receivable.

The write-off under the allowance method has no balance sheet affect related to the NRV of the accounts receivable. There is also no income statement effect from the write-off under the allowance method because the company previously reduced income by the estimated bad debt expense in the year of the sale.

Companies maintain the general ledger account accounts receivable that reflects the amount of the gross accounts receivable reported on the balance sheet. In addition, companies include the specific customer accounts in an accounts receivable subsidiary ledger.

When estimating the NRV of accounts receivable, the company uses the allowance for uncollectible accounts to offset the gross accounts receivable account on the balance sheet as opposed to any specific customer accounts. However, the company removes the individual customer account from the subsidiary ledger when it ultimately writes off the account. The gross accounts receivable and the allowance accounts are also reduced by the amount of the write-off. Example 9.7 provides an example of a write-off.

 GORDON, RAEDY, SANNELLA, 2019, INTERMEDIATE ACCOUNTING, 2ND ED., PP. 455-456*

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