6 Types Of Contra Asset Accounts And What They Mean

In the example of Homes Inc. the percentage of customers defaulting on the account, and the amount defaulted, is estimable and probable. Past experience with uncollected bad debt has been, on average, 10% of credit sales. The sale to the Johnson family will create a bad debt expense estimate of 10% of the amount receivable.

• If we record depreciation related adjustments in the cost accounts we will lose key information about the original cost of the assets and accumulated depreciation.
• Accumulated depreciation decreases the value of an asset, bringing it more in line with its market value.
• The company’s contra asset account will record unusable or obsolete assets.
• Contra accounts are usually linked to specific accounts on thebalance sheetand are reported as subtractions from these accounts.
• Sales has a credit balance; its contra accounts, Sales Discounts and Sales Returns and Allowances, have debit balances.

These billings may usually be documented on invoices, which are then summarized in an aging report for all the business’s accounts receivable. These accounts might also appear on the balance sheets of the company. ADAs are used to create allowances for clients that bought the company’s goods or services but somehow failed to pay the owed amount.

Overview Of Contra Asset Account

Unlike regular assets and liabilities, contra assets typically keep a credit balance and contra liabilities typically keep a debit balance. Managers and investors must understand contra accounts to accurately analyze a company’s balance sheet and determine the organization’s financial position. Accumulated depreciation is the most prevalent type of contra asset accounts. It represents all the depreciation related to an asset or the overall assets a company owns. Usually, companies add to the accumulated depreciation account after every accounting period. The accumulated depreciation account plays a vital role in representing the accurate value of an asset in the financial statements. Overall, contra accounts are offsetting balances that are the opposite of specific accounts.

A contra asset account is an account that opposes the balances of other asset accounts. As mentioned, a company will usually have debit balances in its asset accounts. However, a contra asset account usually has a credit or nil balance. This account offsets the balance in the respective asset account that they pair with on the balance sheet. A company’s financial accounts will usually have three types of items.

Definition Of Contra Asset Account

This means that it acts in the opposite manner of a regular asset account. The other terms that refer to valuation account is contra account or valuation reserve. For companies to be able to accurately present their financial position, they must be able to present the value of the assets and liabilities to their conservative amounts rather than just their historical value. The carrying amount of these assets and liabilities are a result of the pairing between assets and liabilities accounts.

However, these can cause a reduction to other balances on the statement. When examining the term “contra asset account,” look no further than the root of contra to get a vague grasp of the definition. Because contra means “against,” one could quickly conclude that a contra asset account is going to be an account that goes against the regular asset account on the Balance Sheet. Quite frankly, the actual definition is not far from this estimate. In a sense, a contra asset account is a negative asset account that detracts from all of the other assets included in the balance sheet. More specifically, record the contra asset as a credit that is supposed to balance out a correlating plant asset.

Is A Contra Account A Debit Or Credit?

Contra revenue account, which is used to record the net amounts and usually has a debit balance, as opposed to the revenue account that records the gross amounts. For the purpose of financial statement reporting, the amount on a contra account is subtracted from its parentaccount gross balance to present the net balance. The contra account offsets the parent account to reveal the remaining net amount of non-current assets. Long-Term Assets are parent accounts that contain the original acquisition cost of fixed assets. The allowance for doubtful accounts is not specifically reported, but the 10 reported that the allowance is immaterial to the amount. This make sense because Home Depot wouldn’t be carrying accounts receivable with long payment terms. Most accounts receivable would just be the time between purchase and credit card settlement.

• Consequently, in the first year, the equipment would reflect a net value of $90,000, which is computed by deducting the accumulated depreciation from the equipment’s historical cost.
• They bring the balance sheet accounts to their carrying values in order for companies not to overstate their financial position.
• However, there are other items as well that may not show in those financial statements.
• The corresponding effect is charged to accumulated depreciation accounts.

Contra accounts can get buried in the footnotes of financial statements, but they could be a key piece of your investigation into a growth stock’s prospects. Power Manufacturers, Inc. purchases new machinery for a total of $300,000. The company projects that the equipment will be usable for six years, and it subtracts a 16% yearly depreciation rate from the initial value to calculate the amount of depreciation over the next six years. Therefore, the depreciation of the equipment increases by approximately $50,000 for each year of use.

Financial Management: Overview And Role And Responsibilities

Such accounts are allowance for doubtful accounts and the accumulated depreciation account. This type of account can also be called the bad debt reserve or allowance for doubtful accounts.

If a company is operating at a loss, Retained Earnings may have a debit balance. Eying the Trial Balance When reviewing the trial balance for errors, the first step is to eye the accounts to see that each account’s balance is in the proper debit or credit column. When Correct Account Balances May Not Be Normal Generally, an account balance that is not normal is incorrect, but there are exceptions. For example, if a company overdraws its bank account, the Cash account will have a temporary credit balance. Debit depreciation expense for $16,875 and credit accumulated depreciation-equipment for $16,875. Debit accumulated depreciation -equipment for $16,875 and credit depreciation expense for $16,875. Debit depreciation expense for $18,625 and credit accumulated depreciation-equipment for $18,625.

Discount on bonds payable is a result of a bond issued for less than the face value of the bond. Companies must bring the balance of the discount on bonds payable account to zero over the life of the bond, which is accomplished through amortization. The amount recorded in the discount on bonds payable account is amortized to interest expense over the life of the bond. Amortization of the discount on bonds payable account decreases its balance and increases the balance in the interest expense account. Allowance for receivables is an account that companies maintain to record possible bad debts. However, this account does not represent actual irrecoverable debts. Regardless of that, allowance for receivables accounts will exist for all companies that have account receivable balances.

Contra Accounts

When accounting for assets, the difference between the asset’s account balance and the contra account balance is referred to as the book value. There are two major methods of determining what should be booked into a contra account. Another contra asset listed on the balance sheet is accumulated depreciation. This reduces the amount of the carrying value of a company’s fixed asset to account for the wear and tear over the asset’s useful life. Fixed assets are often listed on the balance sheet as property, plant and equipment. The accumulated depreciation account appears on the balance sheet as a credit and is a reduction from the total amount listed for fixed assets.

A hyperlink to or positive reference to or review of a broker or exchange should not be understood to be an endorsement of that broker or exchange’s products or services. There are three key questions in evaluating the revenue recognition standard requirements. The payments industry also is one in which the application of the new revenue recognition standard, ASC 606, Revenue from Contracts with Customers, requires significant judgments. The payments industry is one of the most dynamic ecosystems in financial services. It continues to evolve, propelled by technological and operational innovations from established players and new entrants. Treasury Stock AccountTreasury Stock is a stock repurchased by the issuance Company from its current shareholders that remains non-retired.

What Are The Benefits Of Factoring Your Account Receivable?

Contra account is important as it not only allows a company to report the original amount of a transaction but also report any reductions that may have happened so that the net amount will also be reported. The allowance method of accounting enables a company to determine the amount reasonable to be recorded in the contra account.

The most prominent of these include allowing companies to present a more accurate picture of their assets. Contra asset accounts help companies to record any reductions to their non-current and current assets. By doing so, they can bring their asset accounts to a more accurate position.

Maintenance Of Historical Cost

The accounting entry for this is debit, bad debt expense and credit to accounts receivable. Here, accounts receivable are decreased in the period when bad debt expense is incurred.

The allowance for these doubtful accounts can ultimately result in the total number of receivables. This allows the financial analyst to evaluate the company inventory’s current market value.

When a contra asset account is first recorded in a journal entry, the offset is to an expense. For example, an increase in the form of a credit to allowance for doubtful accounts is also recorded as a debit to increase bad debt expense. Contra asset accounts include allowance for doubtful accounts and accumulated depreciation. Contra asset accounts are recorded with a credit balance that decreases the balance of an asset. Therefore, sales returns and allowances is considered a contra-revenue account, which normally has a debit balance.

In turn, this makes the entire process of the company’s tax preparation tougher and more time-consuming. A Contra account is an account that appears as a subtraction from another account on balance sheet of a company. For example, provision what are contra assets for bad debts is a contra account of accounts receivable. Accounts receivable is the main account with a debit normal balance and provision for doubtful debts is an account with credit normal balance which offsets the main account.

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. Discount on notes receivable refers to a contra asset account that occurs when the current value of a note receivable amounts to less than the face value of the note. The resulting credit balances in these types of accounts may typically be amortized as interest revenue over the course of the note’s viable lifetime.