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Forums › Ask ACCA Tutor Forums › Ask the Tutor ACCA FA – FIA FFA › recovering some of the written-off receivables
Dear sir,
If I’m not wrong, I think the accounting entry if a company manages to recover some of the previsouly written-off receivables is :
Debit: Accounts Receivable (statement of financial positions)
Credit: Allowances for receivables (statement of financial positions)
But I think it should be cash account that’s debitted, not accounts receivable, since the written off receivables have already been partially collected, which must be in the form of cash. So I don’t understand why accounts receivable are debitted. Look forward to your enlightenment.
thanks
Liming
The entry is Dr Cash; Cr Irrecoverable debts expense account.
We do not debit receivables – that would not make any sense. We credit the expense account because it is like a negative expense.
I think that when you refer to debiting receivables, you are probably referring to a question where the bookkeeper (by mistake) had Dr Cash Cr Receivables. That would be wrong and so to correct the mistake we would Dr Receivables and Cr Irrecoverable debts expense.
thanks, then would there be any impact on Allowances for receivables ?
No – no impact (unless it had been calculated incorrectly and needed recalculating)
