09 Feb A Beginner’s Guide to Using Contra Asset Accounts
The accounts normally have a credit balance and in use are offset against the purchases account which is normally a debit balance. The net balance of the accounts shows the net value of the purchases made by the business for the accounting period. To illustrate, let’s use the contra asset account Allowance for Doubtful Accounts. Since it is a contra asset account, this allowance account must have a credit balance (which is contrary to the debit balances found in asset accounts). The Allowance for Doubtful Accounts is directly related to the asset account entitled Accounts Receivable. Therefore, the net amount of the accounts receivable that is expected to turn to cash is $38,000.
- When a company repurchases shares, it increases the fractional ownership of all remaining shareholders.
- In double entry bookkeeping terms, a contra expense account refers to an account which is offset against an expense account.
- An estimate of bad debts is made to ensure the balance in the Accounts Receivable account represents the real value of the account.
- The net effect of the two accounts is a reduced total benefits expense for the company.
- A contra liability account is not classified as a liability, since it does not represent a future obligation.
- Examples of contra liabilities are Discounts on Bonds and Notes Payable and Short-Term Portion of Long-Term Debt.
The purpose of the Owner’s Withdrawal account is to track the amounts taken out of the business without impacting the balance of the original equity account. The information provided by my colleague above is to set up an account within QuickBooks Online (QBO). In regards to your concern, the Accumulated Depreciation will not automatically set as a contra account in QBO. We still have to manually set up and track on how much we depreciate a fixed asset into this account.
Is a contra entry debit or credit?
Accumulated Depreciation is a contra asset that pairs with Fixed Assets. Accumulated Depreciation acts as a subaccount for tracking the ongoing depreciation of an asset. Each year of an asset’s life, another year of Depreciation Expense is recorded. The offset to the Depreciation Expense account is Accumulated Depreciation. The cost of goods sold (COGS) account will have a debit balance of $100,000, representing the initial cost of the inventory.
- Contains either an allowance for returned goods, or the actual amount of revenue deduction attributable to returned goods.
- A contra expense account is an account used to reduce the amount of an expense without changing the balance in the main expense account.
- This account serves two purposes — tracking total depreciation expenses while providing you with the accurate book value of the asset being depreciated.
- Home Depot also devotes footnote 4 to its share repurchase program and reports that the company is authorized by its board to repurchase $20 billion in shares.
Contra revenue transactions are recorded in one or more contra revenue accounts, which usually have a debit balance (as opposed to the credit balance in the typical revenue account). There are three commonly used contra revenue accounts, which are noted below. A contra account is a negative account that is netted from the balance of another account on the balance sheet.
Contra accounts are used to reduce the original account directly, keeping financial accounting records clean. The difference between an asset’s balance and the contra account asset balance is the book value. Contra liability, equity, and revenue accounts have natural debit balances. These three types of contra accounts are used to reduce liabilities, equity, and revenue which all have natural credit balances. Therefore, for these three, the debit balance actually represents a negative amount.
Contra accounts definition
If your company has minimal contra revenue activity, it is acceptable to record these transactions within the revenue account. As can be seen using the two accounts, allows information about the original sale to be maintained on the revenue account, and details of the sale returns to be maintained on the sales returns contra revenue account. Reserve for obsolete inventory is a contra asset account used to write down the inventory account examples of flexible budgeting if inventory is considered obsolete. Excess, stored inventory will near the end of its lifespan at some point and, in turn, result in expired or unsellable goods. In this scenario, a write-down is recorded to the reserve for obsolete inventory. Writing off your obsolete inventory in this manner allows you to expense the cost of the obsolete inventory while also decreasing your current inventory balance using the contra asset account.
Examples of revenue contra accounts are Sales Discounts, Returns and Allowances. Obsolete, Unsold and Unusable Inventory are contra asset accounts with a credit balance that reduce the normal debit balance of the main Inventory asset account in order to present the net value of inventory on a company’s balance sheet. Purchase returns, allowances and discounts are all examples of contra expense accounts.
What is a contra account?
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What is contra asset account used for?
There are four key types of contra accounts—contra asset, contra liability, contra equity, and contra revenue. Contra assets decrease the balance of a fixed or capital asset, carrying a credit balance. Contra equity accounts carry a debit balance and reduce equity accounts. Contra revenue accounts reduce revenue accounts and have a debit balance. Contra equity is a general ledger account with a debit balance that reduces the normal credit balance of a standard equity account to present the net value of equity in a company’s financial statements.
Is petty cash a contra account?
In essence, contra accounts allow you to report your firm’s gross and net amounts. Some of the most common contra assets include accumulated depreciation, allowance for doubtful accounts, and reserve for obsolete inventory. While tracking contra asset accounts is cumbersome for bookkeepers and accounting clerks using manual accounting systems, if you’re using accounting software you’ll find that most of the heavy lifting is done for you. Anytime you need to depreciate an asset, you’ll use an accumulated depreciation contra asset account, which records the amount of depreciation that has been expensed while offsetting the value of the asset being depreciated.
In bookkeeping, a contra asset account is an asset account in which the natural balance of the account will either be a zero or a credit (negative) balance. The account offsets the balance in the respective asset account that it is paired with on the balance sheet. Your bank account, the inventory you currently stock, the equipment you purchase, and your accounts receivable balance are all considered asset accounts. Allowance for doubtful accounts is netted from the accounts receivable balance. The company predicts which accounts receivable won’t be paid by customers and writes those off.
If the company withholds $2,000 from its employees’ wages to pay part of the cost of the insurance, the company will credit its contra expense account 4211 Employee Withholdings for Health Ins. It is important to realize that unearned revenue is not a contra revenues account. The balance is held as a current liability (credit) on the balance sheet of the business. Asset accounts always maintain a debit balance, so anytime that you increase the value of an asset, such as when you deposit customer payments or invoice a customer, that asset account is debited or increased.
The contra revenue accounts commonly used in small-business accounting include sales returns, sales allowance and sale discounts. A contra revenue account carries a debit balance and reduces the total amount of a company’s revenue. Discount on Bonds Payable is a contra liability account with a debit balance that reduces the normal credit balance of its parent Bonds Payable liability account in order to present the net value of payables on a company’s balance sheet. Discount on Notes Receivable is a contra asset account with a credit balance that reduces the normal debit balance of its parent Notes Receivable asset account in order to present the net value of receivables on a company’s balance sheet. Contra revenue is a deduction from the gross revenue reported by a business, which results in net revenue.
Examples of fixed assets include buildings, machinery, office equipment, furniture, vehicles, etc. The accumulated depreciation account appears on the balance sheet and reduces the gross amount of fixed assets. A debit will be made to the bad debt expense for $4,000 to balance the journal entry. Although the accounts receivable is not due in September, the company still has to report credit losses of $4,000 as bad debts expense in its income statement for the month. If accounts receivable is $40,000 and allowance for doubtful accounts is $4,000, the net book value reported on the balance sheet will be $36,000. A contra liability is an account in which activity is recorded as a debit balance and is used to decrease the balance of a liability.
Furthermore, revenue is reported on the income statement while contra expense is not. As you saw in the example, contra accounts can be an important part of your financial statement analysis, but they are hard to find. Companies bury them in the footnotes and often don’t break out the actual calculation. Still, it is important when possible to consider how the net accounts are calculated and be wary of companies that are reporting a ton of bad debts. The contra asset account Accumulated Depreciation is deducted from the related Capital Assets to present the net balance on the parent account in a company’s balance sheet.
Contra liabilities are common in companies that sell bonds to raise capital. To drum up interest in the bond, the company will sell it at a discount. For example, a bond with a principal amount of $1,000 may be sold for only $950.
Expense accounts and the contra expense accounts with which they are paired are typically combined in the income statement in a single line item, so that readers are not aware that a contra account even exists. A contra expense is an account in the general ledger that is paired with and offsets a specific expense account. Contra expense accounts have a natural credit balance, as opposed to the natural debit balance of a typical expense account.