Accounting Essential Definitions: Accrual and Adjusting Entry
What is accrual in accounting? What is accrued expense? What is adjusting entry? You can get the answer on this page.
- Accruals – Adjusting entries for either accrued revenues or accrued expenses.
- Accrual-basis accounting – Accounting basis in which companies record transactions that change a company’s financial statements in the periods in which the events occur.
- Accrued expenses – Expenses incurred but not yet paid in cash or recorded.
- Accrued revenues – Revenues earned but not yet received in cash or recorded.
- Deferrals – Adjusting entries for either prepaid expenses or unearned revenues.
- Adjusting entries – Entries made at the end of an accounting period to ensure that companies follow the revenue recognition and matching principles.
- Adjusted trial balance – A list of accounts and their balances after the company has made all adjustments.
- Book value – The difference between the cost of a depreciable asset and its related accumulated depreciation.
- Calendar year – An accounting period that extends from January 1 to December 31.
- Cash-basis accounting – Accounting basis in which companies record revenue when they receive cash and an expense when they pay cash.
- Contra-asset account – An account offset against an asset account on the balance sheet.
- Fiscal year – An accounting period that is one year in length.
- Interim periods – Monthly or quarterly accounting time periods.
- Matching principle – The principle that companies match efforts (expenses) with accomplishments (revenues).
- Prepaid expenses – Expenses paid in cash that benefit more than one accounting period and that are recorded as assets.
- Revenue recognition principle – The principle that companies recognize revenue in the accounting period in which it is earned.
- Time period assumption – An assumption that accountants can divide the economic life of a business into artificial time periods.
- Unearned revenues – Cash received and recorded as liabilities before revenue is earned.
