Accounts receivable and payable. Accounts receivable are ...

The financial condition of any enterprise is almost unthinkable without loans and debts. And if they are overdue, then receivables and payables become a problem not only of sales and purchasing departments, but also of the whole organization.

Accounts payable: types and causes

In terms of the need to pay after receiving loans can be divided into cash and mixed.

Cash is divided into banking, salary, tax.

The company uses mixed loans when it pays for work performed according to work contracts or pays for previously delivered products.

Loan arrears (payables) arise, respectively, at the moment when the payment deadlines are violated either to third parties (for them it is past due receivables) and banks, or to employees, or to extrabudgetary funds, or to the state.

In case of malicious violation of the terms of payment for loans comes into effect 177 article Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Overdue receivables - a decrease in working capital

Any enterprise, giving its products without an advance payment, risks receiving money for it late with the terms of the contract or not receiving them at all.

The commercial manager, giving the go-ahead to the conclusion of such a transaction, can never be 100% sure of timely payment. Neither the preliminary work done to clarify the financial condition of the buyer, nor the long and fruitful cooperation, nor the personal contacts of the managers can give guarantees.

Overdue receivables are such a frequent occurrence in all firms that the working capital of many enterprises includes a share of funds that can mitigate the actions of non-payers.

The mark-up for the sale of goods with deferred payment should include, in addition to the minimum profit, both bank interest for the purchase (manufacture) of goods and bank interest when taking an additional loan to preserve working capital when working in conditions of large receivables.

In what cases is it possible and necessary to write off receivables?

Write-off of receivables requires accounting staff responsible for working with clients to constantly monitor the deadlines for non-payment. According to the Regulation on accounting (PBU 10/99), the company is obliged to write off unrealistic receivables for collection. The reason for this is that hanging unwritten debt distorts the real profit of the enterprise.

It becomes unrealistic to recover, firstly, a debt overdue for more than three years (196 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation), and secondly, if it is impossible to recover it (bankruptcy or liquidation of a debtor, a situation where the bailiff cannot take the debt).

What documents should be in the accounting department of an enterprise in order to prove the bad debt?

1. The main thing in this situation should be the documents of shipment correctly executed by the buyer (TTN) with seals, signatures, and deadlines.
2. Act of reconciliation with the debtor.
3. In case of short delivery of products on advance payment, documents are required proving the date of transfer of funds under the contract.

Actually, these same documents are also needed for filing with the arbitration tribunal when trying to recover a debt using the judicial system.

Difficulties in the preparation and storage of documentation during decommissioning

The practice of preparing documentation in these cases (first for the court, then for write-offs) shows that they are very difficult to collect (with the exception of payments under clause 3).

1. The company’s cargo delivery service (or a hired transport company) is very often concerned not so much with paperwork as with the holistic transfer of goods to the buyer. The human factor is reflected in the fact that a real recovery can occur for shortage, and non-payment of the amount for the delivered goods is far beyond the immediate actions.
2. It is almost impossible to get a reconciliation report with a debtor who is not going to pay for goods delivered to him. Sometimes it seems that the future debtor has already prepared in advance for non-payment: all services (the procurement department, accounting) first pretend that they are not familiar with this situation, and then simply ignore the calls.
3. The term of receivables, after which it is recognized as unrealistic, is three years. That is why no service in the enterprise can guarantee the safety of unpaid invoices. Although all the documents were originally executed correctly, they were checked and deposited. During this period, tax (or other) checks could be carried out, the originals could be seized for submission to the court, and managers could request them. The result is the lack of the right document after unrealistically lengthy searches.

Accounts receivable: postings

The grounds for writing off are three events, the need for which is approved by clause 77 of PBU 10/99:

• inventory;
• written justification;
• order of the head.

If the organization has not created a reserve for doubtful debts, the debts written off should be included in the financial results in the amount reflected in the “Expenses of the organization” for accounting. According to paragraph 12 of PBU10 / 99, it is included in the list of other expenses.

Postings:

Debit 91-2, Credit 62 (76) - Write-off for losses with VAT.

In the case of creating a reserve, the amount of overdue debts should be written off at its expense, while at the same time taking into account the balance of the debts written off.

Postings:

Debit 63, Credit 62 (76) - Write-off from the contingency fund

Comprehensive analysis of the organization's debt structure

From the point of view of financial stability, an excess of accounts receivable over a creditor is an indicator of a company's poor “well-being”. The suddenness of this condition is impossible if the analysis of receivables becomes the daily norm not only for the sales department, but also for financial managers.

Actually, accounts receivable is the mass of cash that must be paid in different periods:

• normal - when the due date has not yet arrived;
• overdue.

When analyzing overdue receivables, they distinguish between hopeless (the payment term expired more than three years ago) and doubtful (the payment term under the contract has already expired, the debtor is not going to pay yet).

The normal part of accounts receivable allows you to plan the money supply to build a payment scheme for the payment of taxes, bank and commodity loans, salaries. In the case of a decrease in the normal share of the overdue, you can forget about the planning of payments. In such situations, only tough management intervention will determine the priority of payments, identifying strategically important partners, cutting off low-profit transactions.

In some organizations, the receivable turnover is considered to be an effective indicator. The indicator is calculated in days: Odz = Dz - SDz / Val x 365, where:

- Odz - turnover;

- Dz - the total amount of debt;

- SDZ - doubtful debts;

- Val - the amount of revenue.

A positive trend is the acceleration of turnover for the compared periods. Although the indicator itself serves as a hint for changing the policy of working with the bulk of customers.

Debt collection

Overdue receivables are a headache not only for managers sales department, but also lawyers, accounting and managers.

Each company that maintains a conservative sales policy strictly defines the time frame during which non-payment is considered to be less critical. Usually this is a period of three to seven days.

The actions of the manager who made the shipment to the client, after this period must be subject to strict regulations. The procedure is usually this: a report to management, a request to the security service, a complaint with a lawyer.

Effective methods of working with debtors

The collection of receivables should not rest solely with the manager, limited in his actions by the rights and duties of the job description. The manager can propose a variant of goods offsetting, discuss a debt repayment plan with the debtor’s management, offer work under a partially increasing payment scheme with the delivery of goods.

The security service, if any, at the enterprise serves to escalate the situation, which is considered the most effective method of "knocking out" debts.

The legal service, acting strictly within the framework of the law, begins with a complaint, a pre-arbitration warning, prepares documents for submission to the court, and monitors the progress of the process. A correctly drawn up claim, taking into account not only the amount of debt, but also a penalty under the terms of the contract, sober the debtor and gives 70% of 100 good results. A won case in court does not always lead to the receipt of the full amount of debt immediately, payments can last indefinitely.