Accounts Expenses Definition, Accounting Treatment, Types

contra expense account

The accounts normally have a credit balance and in use are offset against the purchases account which is normally a debit balance. The net balance of the accounts shows the net value of the purchases made by the business for the accounting period. Examples of a contra revenue accounts include sales returns, sales discounts, and sales allowances. You debit the contra revenue accounts and credit the corresponding revenue accounts.

contra expense account

Expense Contra Account

In its general ledger, the business will want to capture its gross sales figures and the actual value of the discount. Writing off your obsolete inventory in this manner allows you to expense the cost of the obsolete inventory while also decreasing your current inventory balance using the contra asset account. A contra account is an entry on the general ledger with a balance contrary to the normal balance for that categorization (i.e. asset, liability, or equity). However, that $1.4 billion is used to reduce the balance of gross accounts receivable.

How are Contra Accounts Used and Reported?

However, these accounts are still useful when dealing with large quantities of reimbursements, where it is cleaner and less confusing to store the information in a separate account. Thus, the use of a separate contra expense account makes it easier to monitor the flow of expenses and reimbursements. As can be seen using the two accounts, allows information about the original sale to be maintained on the revenue account, and details of the sale returns to be maintained on the sales returns contra revenue account.

What is the Matching Principle in Accounting? [Explained]

contra expense account

The following are examples of contra expense accounts used in double entry bookkeeping. Contra expense accounts have a natural credit balance, as opposed to the natural debit balance of a typical expense account. Therefore, a contra expense account that contains a debit balance must have a negative ending balance.

  • By reporting contra accounts on the balance sheet, users can learn even more information about the company than if the equipment was just reported at its net amount.
  • Creating this contra asset account builds in a safeguard against overstating your accounts receivable balance.
  • If a contra account is not used, it can be difficult to determine historical costs, which can make tax preparation more difficult and time-consuming.
  • When the amount is material, the line item is typically presented separately on the balance sheet, below the liability account with which it is paired.

What is the Effect of Contra Accounts to the Balance of Related (Paired) Account?

Although the accounts receivable is not due in September, the company still has to report credit losses of $4,000 as bad debts expense in its income statement for the month. If accounts receivable is $40,000 and allowance for doubtful accounts is $4,000, the net book value reported on the balance sheet will be $36,000. The most common contra type, contra assets, records the loss in value of any asset accounts listed in your general ledger.

Cash Flow Statement

The list of asset accounts on your general ledger and balance sheet conveys the combined, potential value of all of the tangible and intangible items that your organization possesses. But in the real world, converting all of that potential into hard cash is highly unlikely, if not impossible. Instead, you need to record this value gap, and a contra asset account serves that purpose.

Loans from banks usually require interest payments, but such payments don’t generate any operating income. The purchase of an asset such as land or equipment is not considered a simple expense but rather a capital expenditure. Assets are expensed throughout their useful life through depreciation and amortization. Accounting software can simplify the management of and reporting from your ledger.

Expenses in double-entry bookkeeping are recorded as a debit to a specific expense account. A corresponding credit entry is made that will reduce an asset or increase a liability. For instance, if a company has a plant asset such as Equipment with a debit balance of $92,000 and the account Accumulated Depreciation has a credit balance of $50,000, the carrying amount (or book value) of the equipment is $42,000. You may use accounting software packages, such as QuickBooks Online to set up contra accounts.

Examples of COGS include direct material, direct costs, and production overhead. The OID is calculated as the difference between the redemption price and the discounted issuance price. Harold Averkamp (CPA, MBA) has worked as a university accounting instructor, accountant, and consultant for more than 25 years.

What is Accumulated Depreciation?

Namely, within a ledger, each account is intended to contain transactions and balances of a similar type only. But sometimes, dissimilar transactions contra expense account are important to consider together within a ledger. Contra asset accounts provide business owners with the true value of certain asset accounts.

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