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Accruals and Prepayments (part b) - ACCA Financial Accounting (FA) lectures

33 Comments

  1. sanchit
    hi john
    i wanted to ask that the dates wont matter ? if there is an overlap in the dates of buying the insurance.
    for example - Mr A bought insurance on 15 january 2000 and for the next year he bought insurance on 10 january 2001.
    1.) will the extra 15 days considered as prepayment?
    2.) what will hapen in the overlap of 10 january and 15 january
  2. havoc7774
    I don't understand why we add the $1000 prepayment from the last year as an expense in the SOPL for this year... Wouldn't that have been dealt with in the previous year itself? Shouldn't we mention *only* the money paid in the current year as an expense?
  3. John MoffatTutor
    The amount we show as an expense in any one year is the cost incurred for that year - not simply the cash paid.

    So the $1000 paid last year was not an expense for last year - it was a cost for this year. So at the end of last year we didn't show it as an expense for last year but instead showed it as an over-payment (a prepayment just like a receivable).

    It is a cost for his year and show it will appear as an expense in this years SOPL.
  4. Halima
    Thank you sir .
  5. Nam Anh
    Sir, I have a question. You said that when we entered the new year, accountant will reverse the double-entry and we will now have Prepaid: $1,000. But now if the co. shut down before the expire date of prepaid exp (30/6/X2), suppose it does so at the end of March, then what entry should we make to record this transaction in which the insurance co. repays our prepaid part and expense from Jan to March. Sorry for my bad grammar and ty anyone who replies.
  6. Hetal
    Hello, could you please tell me where I can get a used study textbook for the FA 2022-23 financial reporting exam?
  7. John MoffatTutor
    Try asking in the Buy and Sell Books forum on this website :-)
  8. Lara
    Dear John Moffat,
    thank you very much for your lectures. I now understood how prepayment and accuals works but now, I'm very confused when I have to work with all four of them; prepayment expenses with prepayment income and accrual expenses with accrual income. Could you please explain those others two please?

    Thank you,
    Kind regards,

    Lara
  9. John MoffatTutor
    It is exactly the same logic as the way we deal with expenses, but instead we are dealing with income :-)
  10. Goodness
    I think I can use examples to explain them.

    Prepaid Income = This can be rental income. As in the example above, the insurance company is the one 'receiving' income for service(s) they are yet to provide.
    Prepaid Expense = This is the expense the owner of the company (Karen) paid. So basically, it's payment in advance. In Nigeria, we pay rent in advance. This is a prepaid expense for the tenant (as they'd have a roof over their head for a year, or as the case may be), but prepaid income for the Landlord.
    Accrued Expense = Refers to an amount owing for which invoices have not been received & payment is yet to be made. For instance, postpaid electricity bills; these come after the electricity service has been used & invoices are issued for prior months.
    Accrued Income = Now, the electricity company has provided their services to their customers, but yet to receive payment for it. This is accrued income.
  11. Irving
    When talk about prepayments such as monthly internet subscription where you pay before you consume it. Do you have to go through the whole book keeping process of placing in prepayments at the start of the month and then expensing it at the end of the month?
  12. John MoffatTutor
    No. Any prepayments are sorted out only at the end of the year. (Some companies deal with them every month because they prepare monthly accounts, but that will never be the case in the exam.)
  13. Basil Ahmed
    Thank you very much Sir for the beneficial lectures.
  14. John MoffatTutor
    You are welcome :-)
  15. Kok Hue
    actually i found a mistake in the note page 25,
    Example 3 paragraph 2,
    it printed 12 June 2001 ,
    is it suppose to be 01 June 2001 ?
  16. John MoffatTutor
    No, it is not a mistake.

    It does not matter when the cash was paid, it is the period that it is paid for that matters.
  17. shubhajitghoshal
    Hello Sir John

    First of all, excellent lectures. Very comprehensive and precise. I have a question in terms of the journal entries for the prepayment and accruals. I am mentioning them below. Would be great if you could advise if my understanding is correct and if the JE's make sense and can be considered as the correct way of recording these transactions:

    For Year ending Dec 2000

    DEBIT Expense (Insurance) 1800
    DEBIT Prepayment (Insurance) 1000
    CREDIT Cash 2800

    For Year ending Dec 2001
    DEBIT Expense (Insurance) 1200
    CREDIT Prepayment (Insurance) 1000
    CREDIT Cash 1200

    DEBIT Prepayment (Insurance) 1200
    CREDIT Cash 1200

    Also, can the year ending Dec 2001 entries be summarized as below:
    DEBIT Expense (Insurance) 2200
    DEBIT Prepayment (Insurance) 1000
    CREDIT Cash 2400
  18. Bennett
    This is not the subject in here, but I will show you one example of Journal Entry.

    1 Jan 2000 to 31 December 2000

    Cr Cash 2,800
    Dr Insurance Expense 2,800
    Dr Prepaid Insurance 1,000
    Cr Insurance Expense 1,000

    You need to learn double-entry bookkeeping.
    I hope this answers your question.
  19. shazia786
    Double entry for DR & CR should always match, the last one doesn't match i.e.

    Also, can the year ending Dec 2001 entries be summarized as below:
    DEBIT Expense (Insurance) 2200
    DEBIT Prepayment (Insurance) 1000
    CREDIT Cash 2400
  20. Abebe
    Very Clear. Thank you sir. I aspire to be very versed as you one day.
  21. John MoffatTutor
    Thank you for your comment :-)
  22. b2018
    Amazing, Thanks
  23. mshahmir
    why we took 1000 as previous prepayment from 1 jan to 31 jul instead of 1200?
  24. Erum
    From 1 Jan to 30 Jun, the prepayment was taken because it was paid for last year.
    As for the 1200, that didn't include the first 6 months. We paid 1200 for 1jul 2001 to 30 Jun 2002.
  25. ngocbaophamm
    Dear Sir,

    It is still confusing for me that why prepayment of last year is still added in this year?
  26. John MoffatTutor
    If you prepaid last year it means that you paid already for part of this year. So the amount prepaid is part of this years expense.
  27. Yao
    How do we know that part of the insurance is prepayments at the end of the year if we only credit cash and debit insurance when the transaction happened?
  28. John MoffatTutor
    Because always with insurance you will know what period you are paying for - it will be on the invoice!
  29. Yao
    I see, thanks a lot
  30. Yao
    oh, I've got that, thanks for this useful video
  31. joy
    do we only have four adjustments before the preparation of financial statements?
  32. John MoffatTutor
    There are the four 'standard' adjustments that always need to be made. In addition, of course, any errors discovered will be corrected, but that is a separate issue - a correction rather than an adjustment.
  33. Vivian
    Really detailed.

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