Liability Ledger

  

Categories: Accounting

You borrow money from a bank. That debt counts as a liability...you have to pay it back. Meanwhile, the bank makes similar loans all day long.

When you borrow $50 from your sister, she can probably keep the debt in her head. Even if you give her $12.50 as partial payment, it isn’t too taxing for her to recall, “that deadbeat still owes me $37.50.”

However, a bank has so many loans outstanding, each with a different terms and in a different state of repayment, it needs a central document to keep them straight.

That list is represented by the liability ledger. It's the main document outlining the loans the bank has outstanding.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What's the Difference Between S...35 Views

00:00

sure we've all heard of mystery stories, but what really makes a mystery

00:06

a mystery? okay yeah if you're reading something called the big book of [boy picks book off shelf]

00:10

mysteries, that's a pretty good hint. but we're looking for something a bit more

00:14

general than that. like most stories a mystery will contain stuff like

00:18

characters a setting and a plot, but there are a whole bunch of other

00:22

ingredients that give mysteries that are distinctive and dare we say mysterious, [chef mixes ingredients]

00:27

taste. and no none of those ingredients are the mystery machines. well the first

00:33

one is a central problem aka a mystery to be solved like a crime. it's pretty

00:38

tough to solve a mystery if there's you know no mystery to solve. well you could

00:43

have a story where a detective goes to the beach with his friends and has a [2 men toss beach ball]

00:46

great time but with no problem well you've got no mystery. and sure the

00:51

detective might appreciate the day off but mystery stories aren't about

00:54

creating fond memories for fictional detectives. well the second element is a

00:58

list of suspects. if there's a crime to be solved then somebody must have [lineup shown]

01:01

committed that crime. and if there's only one suspect it's gonna be a pretty short

01:06

story, and not much of a mystery. so if you're bad at solving mysteries, well it

01:10

might be right up your alley. well the third element is a set of clues.

01:14

in a good mystery both the characters and the reader use clues to figure out [detective examines house]

01:17

who committed the central crime, and know the answer is rarely Miss Scarlet with

01:22

the candlestick in the billiard parlor. the fourth element is a bunch of red

01:26

herrings. and no red herring isn't an alternate name for swedish fish. [red candy fish]

01:30

we like that. in mysteries red herrings are false clues. things that suggest the

01:35

guilt of a suspect who's really innocent. even though readers like to try and

01:39

solve mysteries they don't want the solution to be too easy. it's like the

01:43

difference between playing chess with your grandpa and playing chess with a

01:46

toddler. yeah the win against the toddler well [man plays with old man, and young child]

01:49

it's gonna be way more satisfying than the win against your grandpa. what? she's

01:53

a prodigy. grandpa's just senile and last but not least a mystery story must

01:59

contain a dénouement. well this is the resolution which comes at the end of the

02:02

story. it reveals the suspect who committed the central crime and it [detective points out perp from lineup]

02:06

solves the mystery. and if you ever had a hard time coming up with a decent ending

02:09

to your mystery keep this in mind. Edgar Allan Poe once ended a story by

02:14

basically saying the orangutan did it .so when in doubt you know blame the [student grimaces]

02:19

orangutan.

Up Next

Finance: What is liability?
3 Views

What is liability? Any type of lawful financial obligation that a company bears is categorized for accounting purposes as a liability. Liabilities...

Finance: What is Accrued Liability?
0 Views

What is Accrued Liability? An accrued liability is a financial obligation yet unpaid, even though it has already been assessed. These are usually t...

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)