What are Accrued Expenses?
Accrued Expenses refer to a company’s incurred expenses related to employee wages or utilities yet to be paid off in cash — often due to the invoice not yet being received.
Accrued Expenses: Current Liability Definition
On the current liabilities section of the balance sheet, a line item that frequently appears is “Accrued Expenses,” also known as accrued liabilities.
An accrued liability is an expense that has been incurred — i.e. recognized on the income statement — but has not actually been paid yet.
Per the “matching principle” under accrual accounting, the benefit associated with the expense dictates when the expense appears on the books of the company.
Despite the fact that the cash outflow has not occurred, the expense is recorded in the reporting period incurred.
Similar to accounts payable, accrued expenses are future obligations for cash payments to soon be fulfilled; hence, both are categorized as liabilities.
Accrued Expenses: Examples on Balance Sheet
For example, let’s say that a company’s employees are paid bi-weekly and the starting date is near the end of the month in December.
The benefit of the employees working was received, so the expense is recognized in December, but the employees may not receive cash compensation until the following month, early January.
As a result, the accrued expense balance increases from the unpaid employee wages caused by the timing mismatch.
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Accrued Expense Journal Entry: Debit or Credit
If an accrued expense is incurred and recognized, the initial journal entry is as follows.
- Employee Payroll Account → Debit
- Accrued Wages → Credit
For example, suppose we’re accounting for an accrued rental expense of $10,000.
The initial journal entry on the company’s books is as follows.
| Journal Entry | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| Rental Expense | $10,000 | |
| Accrued Rental Expense | $10,000 |
The entry reverses at the beginning of the following reporting period, assuming the company follows through with the payment on time.
| Journal Entry | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|
| Accrued Rental Expense | $10,000 | |
| Rental Expense | $10,000 |
Current Liability Classification of Accrued Expenses
Simply put, more accrued expenses are created when goods/services are received, but the cash payment remains in the possession of the company.
Oftentimes, the reasoning for the delayed payment is unintentional but rather due to the bill (i.e. customer invoice) having not been processed and sent by the vendor yet.
The rules regarding the impact on free cash flow (FCF) are as follows:
- Increase in Accrued Liabilities → Positive Impact on Cash Flows
- Decrease in Accrued Liabilities → Negative Impact on Cash Flows
The intuition is that if the accrued liabilities balance increases, the company has more liquidity (i.e. cash on hand) since the cash payment has not yet been met.
By contrast, a decrease in the accrued liabilities balance means the company fulfilled the cash payment obligation, which causes the balance to decline.
