What is Allowance for Doubtful Accounts? [Calculation & Journal Entry]

Introduction

Businesses that offer trade credit to their customers keep an allowance for doubtful accounts on their balance sheet. It is an estimate of the amount of accounts receivable (AR) that a business expects to become bad debt.

Allowance for doubtful accounts falls under the contra assets section of a company’s balance sheet. It is then added to their total AR to get the approximate dues they expect will be cleared by their customers. 

What is an allowance for doubtful accounts (ADA)?

Definition of allowance for doubtful accounts

An allowance for doubtful accounts or uncollectible accounts is a prediction made by a company on the percentage of accounts receivable they foresee to be uncollectible.

So, instead of waiting for customers to default, businesses prepare in advance a bad debt reserve to ensure their operations aren’t affected by a sudden cash crunch.

Allowance for doubtful accounts is used in the accrual accounting method and also helps improve financial reporting accuracy. It also gives a detailed overview of a company’s revenue and expenses during a particular period.

Purpose of allowance for doubtful accounts

Source – PYMNTS.com

It is critical to have an allowance for doubtful accounts as it indicates the bad debt expense a company expects to incur. It also helps to increase the accuracy of financial reports.

Example of allowance for doubtful accounts

In 2021, Microsoft corporation published its annual financial report. Below is a snippet from the same which shows an ideal way to report the allowance for the doubtful accounts.

Source – Microsoft corporation annual report, 2021

How to calculate the allowance for doubtful accounts?

There are two primary ways to calculate the allowance for doubtful accounts. They are:

1. Percentage of sales method

It only takes into account the credit sales of a company. Here the business assesses its past records and chooses an appropriate percentage of AR they expect to go unpaid. 

It could be 2% for some companies and 5% for others. Since the estimate is made by taking historical data into account, it gives a very close idea of the bad debt a business might incur.

For example, Company A identifies that its bad debt has been around 4-6% (of AR) for the past 3 years. It might then estimate that an average of 5% of its AR will go unpaid. Hence, if its total accounts receivable is $500,000, the allowance for doubtful accounts will be (5/100* 500000 = $25,000).

2. AR aging method

Accounts receivable aging is a more precise method to calculate the allowance for doubtful accounts. Here a business takes into account both payment dues and the time it has been due for. There can be several windows like 0-30 days, 30-60 days, 60-90 days, and so on.

For example, company XYZ expects 2% of its payment dues between 0-30 days to turn into bad debt. While, the expected bad debt percentage for invoices that are due for 30-60 days and 60-90 days is 5% and 10% respectively.

So, if the accounts receivable during these periods are $100,000, $150,000, and $50,000, respectively, then: Allowance for Doubtful Accounts = (2/100 * 100,000) + (5/100 * 150,000) + (10/100 * 50,000) = $14,500

3. Other Methods

There are several other methods like Risk classification, Historical percentage, and Pareto analysis used to calculate the allowance for doubtful accounts. 

• Risk classification method

In the risk classification method, the average of the total pending AR in the different risk categories (low, medium, and high) is taken as the allowance for doubtful accounts. 

• Historical percentage method

The historical percentage method uses past data on bad debts to give an approximation of the allowance a business needs to keep for its doubtful accounts.

• Pareto analysis

The Pareto analysis method analyzes only large accounts that total up to 80% of the overall receivables. Businesses can then identify the most important and high-risk accounts and get an approximate idea of which customers might default. 

For the smaller accounts, the business then uses the historical percentage method. The Pareto analysis method is generally used by companies that have only a few large accounts.

What is the average industry-wise allowance for doubtful accounts?

The allowance for doubtful accounts varies widely from industry to industry. Since it is an estimate of the bad debt expense a company expects to incur, days sales outstanding (DSO) also plays a vital role in its calculation. In other words, the higher the DSO of a company, the higher its allowance must be. 

For example, a report from D&B states that 78% of customers in the Mfg sheet metalwork industry pay on time, while this figure is only 42% for the equipment rental/leasing industry.

So, the allowance will be lower for the metalwork industry and higher for the equipment rental industry.

Allowance for doubtful accounts journal entries with examples

Allowance for doubtful accounts fall under the contra assets section in the balance sheet, meaning it can either be zero or negative. 

Below are a few scenarios to enter allowance for doubtful accounts in the balance sheet:

Scenario 1

So, when a company estimates it will have $15,000 in bad debt, they debit bad debt expense on the balance sheet and credit the allowance for doubtful accounts. 

This means if the net AR of the company is $200,000, the actual payment a business expects to receive is ($200,000 – $15,000 = $185,000).

Scenario 2

Now, let’s say you want to write off $10,000 in bad debt for your business. In that case, the allowance for doubtful accounts will be debited, and accounts receivable will be credited. However, the net AR doesn’t get affected, and only the remaining allowance reduces from $15,000 to $5,000.

Scenario 3

In some scenarios, there is a chance that a customer is unable to pay, and their AR is written off as bad debt. But a few weeks or months later, they make the payment and clear their dues. In such cases, the business must first debit its AR account and credit its allowance for doubtful accounts. After this, cash will be debited, and AR will be credited.

What is the difference between the allowance for doubtful accounts and bad debt expense?

How can HighRadius help reduce the number of doubtful accounts?

Being proactive with your e-invoicing and collections process is the easiest way to reduce the number of doubtful or delinquent accounts. A reliable AR automation solution can help you achieve better cash flow, lower bad debt, and improve profits by analyzing customer behavior, risk, and past data.

Source – PYMNTS.com

HighRadius offers RadiusOne AR Suite for mid-market businesses and autonomous AR solutions for large enterprises. It can help your business reduce bad debt by prioritizing collections from high-risk customers, automating dunning processes, and providing real-time data and analytics. It also cuts down the invoicing costs, and reduces payment friction and DSO to eventually lower your allowance for doubtful accounts and bad debt expense.

FAQs

What is allowance for bad debts?

An allowance for bad debt is a valuation account used to estimate the amount of a firm's receivables that may ultimately be uncollectible. Lenders use an allowance for bad debt because the face value of a firm's total accounts receivable is not the actual balance that is ultimately collected.

Is allowance for doubtful accounts a current asset?

Allowance for doubtful accounts falls under contra assets and not the current assets section. A contra-asset account means its balance will either be zero or negative (credit balance).

Is allowance for doubtful accounts a temporary account?

Allowance for doubtful accounts is not a temporary account as they get carried forward to the next financial year. So, it is categorized under permanent accounts.

How to adjust the allowance for doubtful accounts?

When the balance on allowance for doubtful accounts is credited, the bad debt expenses are debited. 

Is allowance for doubtful accounts a debit or credit?

Allowance for doubtful accounts is a credit account, meaning it can be either zero or negative. It records a decrease in the value of assets or an increase in liabilities. 

What type of account is an allowance for doubtful accounts?

Allowance for doubtful accounts falls under the contra-asset section, which means it will either be zero or negative. It is usually added to the total accounts receivable to give the net AR value.