Whether you are a finance student or have simply developed an interest to manage your accounts in business, it becomes crucial to understand the prepaid expenses and accrued expenses are the technical jargons that define the company’s Balance sheet.
[All kinds of business expenses can be managed well with the Expense Management tool]
It becomes crucial to realize the difference between these expenses on the basis of:
- The timing of the expenses incurred
- The financial statements of a company
One can be easily be confused between prepaid expense vs accrued expense.
Hence the difference needs to be highlighted in detail, to avoid confusion in the balance sheet of your company.
Prepaid Expenses
These expenses are expenses incurred because of payments that have been made in advance. Though expenses are usually recorded as a liability in the balance sheet but these expenses are a slight deviation from the theory because the privileges can be incurred in the future.
An example of prepaid expense is an insurance premium. Though insurance payment is an expense but however the prime reason for undertaking an insurance coverage is to receive future benefits from this expense.
These expenses are always recorded in the current asset of the balance sheet. Therefore when the insurance premium is paid in full at the beginning of the insurance coverage, the prepaid expense account for insurance is debited and the cash account is credited in the balance sheet.
However, at the end of every quarterly Balance Sheet, it is important that the prepaid expense account for insurance is credited and the insurance expense account is debited.
Other examples of prepaid expenses include advance payment of rent, supply orders in stock, tax paid in advance by corporations prior to payment of the actual tax liability.
How to record Accrued expense?
Accrued Expenses
The accrued expense is the exact opposite of prepaid expense. Where prepaid expenses are included in the current asset, accrued expenses are included in the current liability. Accrued expenses are expenses that have been incurred but the payment has not been made yet.
An example of accrued expense includes: Goods received but no invoice has been delivered for payment. To record this transaction, the accrued expense is recorded as a credit in the liability account and the office supplies expense is recorded as a debit in the Balance sheet.
However at the end of the quarter when invoice payment is made, the entry is simply reversed where office supplies expense is credited and accrued expense liability account is debited.
Also Read: How to Make Expense Management Easy for your Business?
Conclusion
Therefore we can conclude that prepaid expenses vs accrued expenses are mirror reflections of each other. When the prepaid expense is considered as an asset, an accrued expense is a liability in the financial statement.
Using an Expense tracking software like Invoicera is the key to managing all kinds of business expenses well. The tool is helpful for recording expenses and when they occur generating detailed expense reports for financial analysis. Also, check a tool that helps in assigning expenses to staff members within the company and analyzing the same in the long run.
Manage expenses with Invoicera
Invoicera is a cloud-based invoicing and billing software empowering invoice and expense management for over 3 million businesses worldwide since last 13 years. Invoicera helps to automate and simplify your business processes and communication with online invoicing and payments, expense management, recurring/subscription billing, client/vendor panels, automatic time tracking, workflows, Invoice approval process, multilingual & multi-currency support, staff permissions, financial reporting & analysis, purchase order management, sub-contractor billing and time management, comprehensive reporting and APIs for 3rd party integration.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ques: What is the Actual difference between prepaid expenses and accrued expenses?
Ans: As the name suggests, prepaid expenses are the payments that have been paid in advance by a business for services still to be used. Whereas, accrued expenses in business are accounts payables by a business for already used services and added to the liabilities section of a balance sheet.
Ques: What type of expenses are prepaid expenses?
Ans: Prepaid expenses for a business include
- Rent
- Insurance
- Subscriptions
- Purchase Order Advance
- Quarterly Estimated Taxes
Ques: Which expenses are termed as accrued expenses?
Ans: Accrued expenses for a business are:
- Salaries
- Electricity
- Stationery
- Loan
- Raw material and supplies
Ques: How Invoicera automates expense management?
Ans: Invoicera helps you create separate expense management sheets and automate calculations of expenses incurred in the business. These expense management sheets give complete visibility of cash outflow allowing businesses to analyze them.
Ques: Do you accrue prepaid expenses?
Ans: No, you cannot accrue prepaid expenses as you have not utilized any services/products in exchange for money.
Ques: How do you record accrued expenses?
Ans: Yes, they are recorded under the current liabilities of the company’s balance sheet.
Ques: Where are prepaid expenses on the balance sheet?
Ans: Prepaid expenses are expenses paid in advance. They are recorded under current assets in the balance sheet.
Ques: Is Accounts Payable a debit or credit?
Ans: Accounts payables are listed under debits of balance sheet.
