Accrued Liability

What is an Accrued Liability?

An accrued liability represents an expense a business has incurred during a specific period but has yet to be billed for. Accrued liabilities are only reported under accrual accounting to represent the performance of a company regardless of their cash position. They appear on the balance sheet under current liabilities.

Understanding Accrued Liability

Accrued liabilities are expenses that have yet to be paid for by a company. They are recorded to better represent the financial position of the company regardless if a cash transaction has occurred.

Recording accrued liabilities is part of the matching accounting principle. Under the matching principle, all expenses need to be recorded in the period they are incurred to accurately reflect financial performance.

When an accrued liability is paid for, the balance sheet side is reversed, leaving a net zero effect on the account. Accrued liabilities can also be thought of as the opposite of prepaid expenses.

Accrued Liabilities – Types

There are two types of accrued liabilities: routine or recurring and infrequent or non-routine.

1. Routine/Recurring

Routine/Recurring occurs as a normal operational expense of the business. An example would be accrued wages, as a company knows they have to periodically pay their employees.

2. Infrequent/Non-Routine

Infrequent/Non-Routine is the opposite and does not occur as a normal operational part of the business. An example is a one-off purchase from a supplier where a bill is not immediately received. As the event isn’t recurring, it is considered an infrequent/non-routine accrued liability.

Accrued Liabilities vs. Accounts Payable

Accrued liabilities and accounts payable are both current liabilities. However, the difference between them is that accrued liabilities have not been billed, while accounts payable have. Accrued liabilities may not have been billed either because they are a regular expense that doesn’t require billing (i.e., payroll), or because the company hasn’t received a bill from the supplier.

For example, if a company has received a shipment from a supplier and has yet to receive a bill, they will record an accrued liability. However, if they were to receive the shipment and the bill before the end of the period, they would record an accounts payable.

Journal Entry

The journal entry is typically a credit to accrued liabilities and a debit to the corresponding expense account. Once the payment is made, accrued liabilities are debited, and cash is credited. At such a point, the accrued liability account will be completely removed from the books.

Accrued Liabilities – Examples

• Accrued interest expense: When a company owes interest on a loan but has yet to be billed by the lender.
• Accrued wages: Employees have not been paid for work completed because their payroll period falls after the reporting date.
• Accrued services: A supplier has provided a service but has yet to bill the customer

Practical Example

Company ABC has received product from their supplier on December 31^st, costing $500. However, the supplier has yet to bill them. They receive the bill on January 10^th and pay the same day.

Above are the journal entries for December 31^st and January 10^th. As you can see, the accrued liabilities account is net zero following the payment. The net effect on financial statements is an increase in the expense account and a decrease in the cash account. The purpose of accrued liabilities is to create a timeline of financial events.

Related Readings

Thank you for reading CFI’s explanation of Accrued Liability. To keep learning and advancing your career, the following resources will be helpful:

• Philosophy of Accounting
• Types of Liabilities
• Projecting Balance Sheet Line Items
• Current Liabilities
• See all accounting resources