Receivables

What you are owed.

You run a hardware store. You sell some of your wares for cash, so those have essentially zero "recievables" to them. That is, you are paid cash. Every night, you deposit your end-of-day cash in the bank. And that's it. But other things are bought with checks. It takes a few days for those checks to clear. And you have other things...bigger items...that get sold on credit. They take 30 days to get paid off. And some things are sold to deadbeats who never pay. Receivables that are never...received. And so it goes.