What is a Contra Expense?

Expense accounts and the https://www.bookstime.com/ 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. Contra expense accounts have a natural credit balance, as opposed to the natural debit balance of a typical expense account. Therefore, a contra expense account that contains a debit balance must have a negative ending balance. The use of contra accounts ensures the accuracy of financial accounting records, as the value of the original accounts is not directly reduced.

It results in the outflow of money and has a debit balance on the books of accounting. For example, rent expense, salaries expense, depreciation expense, etc. Let’s consider a fictional example of a small retail business called “GadgetHub” to illustrate the use of a contra expense account in financial accounting. Examining a trend line of the monthly additions to a contra expense account is a good way to determine whether any third party payments were not made to the company, or if two of these payments were incorrectly recorded within the same month. The amount on the equity contra account is deducted from the value of the total number of outstanding shares listed on a company’s balance sheet.

University Transfers

Nonoperating Revenues are primarily derived from activities that are non-exchange transactions. Preliminary allocated cost and space charges for the upcoming fiscal year are distributed in October with the Budget Call memo, and final charges are distributed in March with the guarantee letters. The upcoming year budget in Planning should reflect the distributed allocated cost and space charges (either prelim or final depending on the time of year). The allocated cost and space charges for the out-year https://www.bookstime.com/articles/contra-expense budgets can be computed using the stated parameter growth rates for each allocated cost and space charge category, using the upcoming fiscal year charges as the starting point. In cases in which resources are simply being transferred from one school or center to another, or from one org within a center to another, and no reimbursement is involved, use a Resource Transfer (revenue) object code. Stipends should be forecast and budgeted in the appropriate service or non-service payroll object codes.

You can’t say something is correct if you apply it wrong, but consistently wrong. Something is revenue if it meets the criteria of CON 6 which makes no mention of margin. If someone chooses (or is stupid enough) to sell something at below margin, that doesn’t change the inflows revenue characteristic. The problem with your interpretation of GAAP or GAAP itself is that reimbursement is not revenue (for clarity sake, there is no margin, which would be revenue).

What is a Direct Expense?

A company receives rebates for advertising it does on behalf of brands it carries in its stores. For example, a grocery store displays advertisements for a national brand in its weekly flyer. The national brand gives the grocery store cash, reducing the overall cost of printing the flyer. Normal capacity is the production expected to be achieved over a number of periods or seasons under normal circumstances, taking into account the loss of capacity resulting from planned maintenance. Some variation in production levels from period to period is expected and establishes the range of normal capacity. If the agreement with the external entity relates to a revenue-generating activity (e.g., a conference), then the full costs of the activity should be reflected, and support from an external entity would be considered another source of revenue.

The balance in the contra account is reduced when the corresponding asset or liability it is paired with is disposed of. When a company gives a discount to customers in an effort to convince them to buy its goods or services, it is recorded in the discount on sales account. A company creates allowances for doubtful accounts to record the portion of accounts receivable which it believes it will no longer be able to collect.

Obsolete Inventory

Contra asset accounts are useful tools in double-entry accounting. They are also helpful for keeping the books balanced and creating a clear trail of financial breadcrumbs for historical review and reporting. For instance, it is common to keep the purchase price of a piece of equipment as a historical cost in the debit asset account when it comes to fixed assets. A contra expense account is an account used to reduce the amount of an expense without changing the balance in the main expense account. Examples of contra expense accounts include Purchase Returns, Purchase Discounts, and Advertising Reimbursements.

The purpose of a contra expense account is to reduce the total expenses shown on the income statement by reflecting specific adjustments, recoveries, or reimbursements related to the expense. Contra revenue is a general ledger account with a debit balance that reduces the normal credit balance of a standard revenue account to present the net value of sales generated by a business on its income statement. Examples of revenue contra accounts are Sales Discounts, Returns and Allowances. 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. In order to balance the journal entry, a debit will be made to the bad debt expense for $4,000. 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.

A Agency Carryforward (Universities & Component Units)

Since you no longer have the shoes, aka the asset, you record a $20 expense on your income statement, But you also record $30 in revenue from the sale, so your net income is $10. Of course, you’ll also have to pay your employees’ wages, your rent, your utilities and other costs. Those are expenses, too, because, without them, you wouldn’t have had a store in which to sell the shoes and collect the revenue.

This discount is subtracted from the total amount borrowed to better reflect the discount given by the lender. The discount on bonds payable amount shows the difference between the amount of cash received when issuing a bond and the value of the bond at maturity. When the original dollar amount is kept in the original account and a separate account is used for recording the deduction, the resulting financial information becomes more transparent and helpful for stakeholders. For example, a building is acquired for $20,000, that $20,000 is recorded on the general ledger while the depreciation of the building is recorded separately. A contra account is a general ledger account with a balance that is the opposite of another, related account that it is paired with. Transfer to Reimburse Appropriation for Payroll
This account is to be used to record the tranfer of appropriation that covered payroll cost that was funded by ARRA stabilization funds.