The Allowance for Doubtful Accounts
Overview of the Allowance for Doubtful Accounts
The allowance for doubtful accounts is a reduction of the total amount of accounts receivable appearing on a company’s balance sheet, and is listed as a deduction immediately below the accounts receivable line item. This deduction is classified as a contra asset account.
The allowance for doubtful accounts represents management’s best estimate of the amount of accounts receivable that will not be paid by customers. It does not necessarily reflect subsequent actual experience, which could differ markedly from expectations. If actual experience differs, then management adjusts its estimation methodology to bring the reserve more into alignment with actual results.
Estimation Techniques for the Allowance for Doubtful Accounts
There are several possible ways to estimate the allowance for doubtful accounts, which are:
Risk classification. Assign a risk score to each customer, and assume a higher risk of default for those having a higher risk score. Click here to read the full article on risk-based bad debt forecasting.
Historical percentage. If a certain percentage of accounts receivable became bad debts in the past, then use the same percentage in the future. This method works best for large numbers of small account balances.
Pareto analysis. Review the largest accounts receivable that make up 80% of the total receivable balance, and estimate which specific customers are most likely to default. Then use the preceding historical percentage method for the remaining smaller accounts. This method works best if there are a small number of large account balances.
You can also evaluate the reasonableness of an allowance for doubtful accounts by comparing it to the total amount of seriously overdue accounts receivable, which are presumably not going to be collected. If the allowance is less than the amount of these overdue receivables, the allowance is probably insufficient.
You should review the balance in the allowance for doubtful accounts as part of the month-end closing process, to ensure that the balance is reasonable in comparison to your latest bad debt forecast. For companies having minimal bad debt activity, a quarterly update may be sufficient.
Companies have been known to fraudulently alter their financial results by manipulating the size of this allowance. Auditors look for this issue by comparing the size of the allowance to gross sales over a period of time, to see if there are any major changes in the proportion.