Question

All
are good means provision for doubtful debts is no longer required

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Answer 1

Answer:

Financial Statements

Depreciation, Bad Debts and Provision for Doubtful Debts

Some of the typical items which find a place in the profit and loss account of a firm are depreciation, bad debts and provisions. Enlisting these items on the debit side of the account is indicative of creating a charge on the profits of the firm for that period. If these items are not accounted for in the revenue statement for a period, it would hamper the true and fair view of the accounts. Let us study these concepts in detail.

Depreciation

A charge on the value of fixed assets of a firm, depreciation usually entails writing down the cost of a fixed asset. This is done in lieu of the matching concept of accountancy. There are two main methods of charging depreciation, which is the straight-line method and the written down value method.

Bad debts are those items of charge on the profits of the company that indicate the sums of money that could not be recovered from a debtor, during the year. In order to record the number of bad debts correctly, such sum is charged to the profit and loss account and deducted from the value of debtors for that year, so that the amount represents money that is actually expected to accrue from the debtors.

The journal entry passed to record the event is as follows:

Bad Debt Exp —————Dr

To Receivable Account —————-Cr

Provision for Doubtful Debts

The provision for doubtful debts is an estimated amount of bad debts that are likely to arise from the accounts receivable that have been given but not yet collected from the debtors. It is similar to the allowance for doubtful accounts.