You may think that you did everything right and if you’re using an accounting software, such a situation should not even arise. However, presuming here that you haven’t bought an accounting software and are still doing your accounts either on paper or in Excel or some other form of method, situations like “my balance sheet does not equal” are bound to happen.  Continue reading →

Knowing your liabilities based on their liquidity is important for obvious reasons when you think about it. Every reasonable accountant or careful owner is interested in knowing which liabilities they are to be settling first and which still have time until the payment is due.  Continue reading →

Usually, I say usually because there is always exceptions to the rule, usually the assets on a company’s balance sheet are divided into two big groups – current and non-current. There’s “assets” and then there are the subgroups that are distinguished by their liquidity.  Continue reading →

Loan payables obviously are recognized under liabilities on the balance sheet, there’s no doubt about it. However, what often gets either forgotten, misstated or confusing, is proper classification of those balances inside liabilities. As with assets, there are current and non-current liabilities on the balance sheet. Classification of loans as ones is depending on three things – scheduled payments, any additional extraordinary payments and any restrictions in terms of covenants or similar conditions that have to be met.

First off the scheduled payments – the installments due in next 12 months are ‘current’ on the balance sheet. It’s this easy and straightforward. We suggest making the necessary accounting entries every month so you wouldn’t forgot them eventually at year end.
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Accounts receivable balances are the ones the company has against its clients. These balances are receivable from sales of goods or services. On the balance sheet they are recognized under assets and as such are subject to valuation assessment as frequently as needed.

All the assets need to be recognized essentially at their fair value meaning most often the market value. In the case of receivables, one needs to assess if the amount recorded in the books is indeed collectable. I know it sounds simple, but estimating it is not something that is easily grasped. In normal situation the clients pay the invoices in their due time meaning at the ‘payment date’. On the contrary, depending on the situation, there also may be clients that are unable or unwilling to pay their debt in due time thus creating doubt whether the receivables are in fact collectable or should be written down.
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Excel Balance Sheet Template includes both current and non-current liabilities. The question we sometimes get is when a liability is current and also what are non-current ones? What companies and accountants are not struggling, but simply forget, is the simple proper classification. The rules are fairly simple and remembering them is worthwhile.

So as a general rule, liabilities are shown on the balance sheet in two major groups. The condition for this classification is rather straightforward. If a liability is due to be paid in next 12 months, the liability is current. It’s due to be paid in next financial year and hence should be labeled as “current”. And as a result every other liability is non-current.

This is simple right? There are some additional considerations that may be of help to you in classification of liabilities. If loans or overdrafts are tied with covenants, then in case of any breaches that result in a default meaning that the loans may be called to be fulfilled in full, the loans need to be classified as current ones although the agreed due date is later than 12 months.
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Property, plant and equipment schedules template includes a line “Impairment charge”, which is essentially an expense that is recognized after certain tests have been made for particular cash generating units (we’ll cover them in our future posts). When the expense is recognized in the accounts, it’s not all over yet.

Something has got to be disclosed in the Annual Report and what is almost always neglected besides showing the expense as part of the schedule, is additional information describing some of the key aspects of the charge. Readers of the Annual Report are entitled to know why the charge was made in the first place. So there’s the first disclosure – what and why was written off in value. But when this is the easiest part what usually is more not only sensitive, but trickier to disclose is the measurement. Yes, you did a test, but in addition to give a true and fair view of the financial performance and Continue reading →