Accounts receivable are understood to mean the amount of debts that individuals or legal entities must pay to the enterprise as a result of business relationships on a contractual basis. Accounts receivable may appear in the process of concluding transactions involving installment or sale of goods, provision of services on credit.
Practice has repeatedly confirmed that to date, none of the entities with the formation of a legal entity does not function without accounts receivable, since its occurrence is easily explained by real reasons:
• if we consider this issue from the organization of the debtor - the existence of receivables helps to attract additional capital, while the working capital of the enterprise remains intact;
• from the point of view of the creditor enterprise, accounts receivable significantly expand the market of work, sales of goods and provision of services.
Funds, which include the accounts receivable of the enterprise, are withdrawn from the organization’s turnover, which, of course, cannot be attributed to the advantages of its financial activities. During the period of conducting business activities, a sharp increase in debt cannot be allowed, since in practice cases of collapse of business entities have been repeatedly identified, therefore, the accounting department of the company has a great responsibility to control receivables. To ensure the steady state of the enterprise, one important point must be taken into account: accounts receivable must in total exceed the amount of accounts payable.
Regardless of whether short-term or long-term receivables, whether they are past due or real, are possible to be collected or hopeless, the most important thing is that they must be correctly taken into account and written off so that the tax inspectorate does not have any questions.
Accounts receivable appear after the conclusion of a loan agreement for the provision of services, works, sales of products, goods in the accounting of the supplier company. But at the same time, the moment of transition of receivables into overdue ones, as well as situations when the buyer cannot pay off his obligations in full, is not excluded.
In the accounting of an enterprise, the amount of debt is reflected in the balance sheet asset for a certain date until the buyer fully settles it. In the event that payment is not received on the account of the enterprise, for example, due to the liquidation of the purchasing enterprise, the debt may become uncollectible, which may lead to the need to write it off. In addition, it is necessary to do this no later than a certain date and with documentary evidence.
In order to classify doubtful debt as bad and to write it off in non-operating expenses in the future , it is necessary to take into account one point:
• limitation period - on the basis of civil law is three years. In the event that the term is not specified in the contract, the countdown starts from the time the performance requirement is presented to the borrower and is seven days: article 314 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
Accounts receivable for which the statute of limitations has already passed, is written off on the basis of data obtained as a result of an inventory, order and written justification of the head of the enterprise.
In the event that the storage period of documents has already expired, it is not recommended to destroy them, since in the absence of documentary evidence during a tax audit, the written off bad debts will be excluded from expenses and penalties and taxes will be charged.