Everybody makes some bad deals. Companies sell to customers who turn out to be deadbeats. They end up with receivables they will never collect.
Net receivables takes these bad deals into account. The figure represents a company's total receivables (that is, the money owed to them by clients) minus the amount it deems uncollectable. The total receivables number suggests a best-case scenario in terms of the amount the company will likely receive someday. The net receivables amount provides a more realistic estimate of what it's likely to get.
Two years ago, you agreed to sell your bubble footbath to your brother-in-law for $50. He took the footbath that day. You still haven’t seen a dime of that fifty bucks. At this point, you’ve stopped bringing it up, because your constant hectoring was starting to make family dinners tense. Meanwhile, you sold your sister collection of Weird Al vinyl records for $75 was two weeks ago, and you haven't seen the money yet...but, at the time you sold it, you gave her a month to pay. She's pretty reliable, so you fully expect to receive your hundred bucks.
All that taken into account, your net receivables is $75. Your total receivables equals $125...the $50 owed by your brother-in-law, plus the $75 owed by your sister. But that amount from your brother-in-law is likely uncollectable. The more reasonable estimate of the total amount you'll get is $75.
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Finance: What are Aging Receivables/an A...70 Views
Finance a la shmoop what are aging receivables and an allowance for doubtful accounts
A lot of people don't realize this but that was the original title of Moby [Book title changes to Moby Dick]
Dick yeah all right My aching receivables that's your
balance sheet talking well wine is about the only thing that gets better with age [Wine poured into a glass]
and even it has its limits there yeah aliens go ahead and pour yourself a
glass all right when receivables a balance sheet item
that lives right here get old they - generally speaking get bad note how much
higher the probability of non collection called deadbeat-ism gets as the age of
the receivables increases well generally speaking bills that are gonna get paid
generally get paid fast or at least on time and those that don't have to be
tracked well best guesses matter in accounting so coming to an actual
predicted rational and reasonable number is a big deal and you can see that in [Man discussing receivables]
this case the spread between the legally owed money and the amount likely to be
collected is a pretty big spread well the decline hits the assets side of the
balance sheet in the form of accounts receivable here being lower and [Accounts receivable column highlighted]
eventually when a bad debt is finally recognized as a deadbeat bad debt never
to be collected and is dead dead dead well then it simply gets written off on
the income statement or well said another way it goes away as a sale that
never happened so that's aging receivables in a nutshell and yeah this [Aging receives inside a nut]
is the one time you don't need to respect the elderly [Man trips over elderly man and gives thumbs up]
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