Advance Payment

You're so good. You are not a bird, not a plane, but a super creditor. You pay for things in advance, partly because you just hate having debt, and partly because the vendor wouldn't ship you the automatic hand-clapping and beer-drinking cap with the NFL logo on it until you had advance paid at least half.

Advance payments are an important part of the credit economy of the world, in that when payment is made in advance, it is a kind of truing feature that guarantees that the buyer is, in fact, serious about buying, and has lots of time between that advance payment, which may or may not be the full payment...and the final payment.

And from the prospective of the vendor who sold the product, much risk is driven out of the system when that 50% down check is cashed and cleared, as the vendor then is at least usually breaking even.

The fancy term on the balance sheet? If you are the company making that pre-payment, it's listed as a pre-paid expense under accrual accounting methods. So...up, up, and away.