Money Matters

What is accounts receivable? Definition and examples

Managing customer payments can be challenging. Learn how a strong accounts receivable process helps you track outstanding invoices, reduce delays, and maintain healthier cash flow.

Published August 28, 202611 min read Share

This article was originally published on February 12, 2025 but has been refreshed and re-published with new content in August 2026.

Every business that sells on credit is owed money it hasn’t collected yet.

Invoices go out, goods and services get delivered, and payment follows some time after—sometimes promptly, sometimes not.

Accounts receivable is how you keep track of it all.

To keep a firm grasp on your finances, learn the accounts receivable definition, how it differs from accounts payable, and what it looks like in practice.

We’ll alco cover why accounts receivable is so important for your business, how to record and manage it, and what your options are if a customer doesn’t pay.

Key takeaways

• Accounts Receivable (AR) is money owed to your business for goods or services you’ve already delivered, recorded as a current asset on your balance sheet.
• Under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), AR reflects the net amount you expect to collect from customers; under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), it covers invoices due within the next 12 months.
• AR is an asset account: recording it involves a debit to accounts receivable and a credit to revenue under accrual accounting.
• Tracking AR helps you monitor cash flow and catch slow-paying customers before they become a bigger problem.
• If a customer doesn’t pay, you have several options, from adjusting terms to using a collections agency, before writing the debt off.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

What is accounts receivable?

Accounts receivable is the money customers owe your business for goods or services you’ve already delivered but haven’t yet been paid for.

It’s recorded as a current asset on your balance sheet, similar to a short-term line of credit extended to each customer.

More broadly, the accounts receivable definition covers any unpaid invoice your company is owed. Together, these make up your total accounts receivable balance.

A typical accounts receivable entry includes:

• The customer or client who owes the payment.
• The invoice amount owed.
• The due date, typically 30 to 90 days from the invoice date, depending on the agreed-upon payment terms.
• The status of the payment (outstanding, partially paid, or overdue).

Managing accounts receivable well is a core part of accounting practice.

Offering customers a sale on credit builds repeat business and stronger client relationships without the hassle and paperwork of collecting payment upfront every time.

What type of account is an accounts receivable?

Accounts receivable is an asset account. It represents money owed to your business by customers, so it’s recorded as a current asset on your balance sheet, meaning it’s expected to convert to cash within a year.

Under the accrual accounting system, recording an accounts receivable entry involves two things at once:

• A debit to the accounts receivable account.
• A credit to the revenue account.

This is different from cash-based accounting, which only records revenue once cash actually comes in and therefore doesn’t use accounts receivable at all.

The exact way you classify and report accounts receivable also depends on which accounting standard your business follows:

• GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles). Businesses in the US use GAAP, whereby your accounts receivable balance must equal the total amount you expect to collect from customers (the “net realizable value”) within the reporting period, excluding any bad debt.
• IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards). IFRS is used in the EU, UK, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere. Accounts receivable is the money you expect to collect on outstanding invoices within the next 12 months.

Accounts receivable vs. accounts payable: What’s the difference?

Accounts receivable and accounts payable are opposite sides of the same transaction: accounts receivable is money owed to your business, while accounts payable is money your business owes to others, such as suppliers or vendors. Every credit transaction creates one of each—a receivable for the seller and a payable for the buyer.

Here’s a quick side-by-side comparison:

	Accounts receivable	Accounts payable
What it represents	Money owed to your business	Money your business owes
Balance sheet classification	Current asset	Current liability
Whose records it appears in	The seller’s	The buyer’s
What increases it	Issuing an invoice to a customer	Receiving an invoice from a supplier
What decreases it	Customer pays the invoice	Your business pays the invoice

Here’s how accounts receivable and accounts payable work in practice.

Say Company A orders $1,000 worth of goods from Company B and Company B invoices Company A for payment within 30 days.

At that point:

• Company A records the transaction as $1,000 in accounts payable.
• Company B records the transaction as $1,000 in accounts receivable.

Two weeks later, Company A pays the invoice in full. Now:

• Company A removes the $1,000 from accounts payable and debits its cash account by the same amount.
• Company B removes the $1,000 from accounts receivable and credits its cash account by the same amount.

Monitoring both accounts receivable and accounts payable side by side gives you a fuller picture of your company’s cash flow and overall financial health.

Accounts receivable example

Here’s a worked example of how accounts receivable is recorded, using a business that supplies components to a computer manufacturer:

The computer manufacturer places an order for $5,000 worth of components. You deliver the goods and issue an invoice requesting payment within 30 days. At this point:

• You record a debit of $5,000 to accounts receivable, where it stays until the invoice is paid.
• You record a credit of $5,000 to your cash account.

When the customer pays on time, the entry reverses:

• You credit $5,000 to accounts receivable.
• You debit $5,000 to your cash account.

But what if that $5,000 arrives so late you’ve already written it off as bad debt? In that scenario, you’ll need to reinstate it on your books before recording the payment.

To do this:

• Debit $5,000 to accounts receivable.
• Credit $5,000 to revenue.

Why does accounts receivable matter for your business?

Keeping on top of accounts receivable protects your cash flow, since money tied up in unpaid invoices isn’t available to cover your own costs. This matters even for profitable businesses. You can be earning well on paper and still struggle to pay staff or suppliers if customers are slow to pay.

The stakes are real: according to a widely cited U.S. Bank study by Jessie Hagen, 82% of small business failures involve poor cash flow management.

Late or unpaid invoices can be a common contributor.

Actively managing accounts receivable helps you:

• Protect your cash flow: know exactly how much money is owed, by whom, and when it’s due.
• Spot problems early: a customer who’s consistently late paying is a risk signal worth acting on before it grows.
• Improve customer relationships: clear invoicing and consistent follow-up reduce friction and disputes.
• Support better forecasting: accurate AR data feeds directly into cash flow planning and financial reporting.

How do you record and manage accounts receivable?

ThRecording accounts receivable follows the same basic pattern each time: you debit accounts receivable when you issue an invoice, then credit it once the customer pays. From there, managing accounts receivable well comes down to tracking what’s owed, reconciling payments as they arrive, and monitoring how quickly customers pay.

Here’s a quick reference for the most common accounts receivable journal entries:

Transaction	Debit	Credit
Invoice issued to customer	Accounts receivable	Revenue
Customer pays invoice in full	Cash	Accounts receivable
Early-payment discount taken	Cash + sales discounts	Accounts receivable
Invoice written off as bad debt	Allowance for uncollectible accounts	Accounts receivable
Bad debt later recovered	Accounts receivable	Allowance for uncollectible accounts

Once entries are recorded, a few habits keep accounts receivable under control:

• Reconcile payments regularly: match incoming payments against outstanding invoices so you can reconcile payments accurately. This catches errors early and keeps your cash position reliable.
• Track your accounts receivable turnover ratio: calculating your accounts receivable turnover ratio tells you how quickly customers pay on average, making it a useful early-warning indicator if payment speed starts slipping.
• Set clear payment terms up front: ambiguous or inconsistent terms are one of several common invoicing mistakes that lead directly to overdue bills.
• Follow up on unpaid invoices promptly: the longer an invoice sits unpaid, the harder it typically becomes to collect. So, when you follow up on overdue invoices promptly, you’re more likely to get paid faster.

What if a customer doesn’t pay?

If a customer is late paying, you don’t need to jump straight to writing the debt off. There are several steps you can consider first, from pausing business with the customer or tightening their business terms to engaging a collection agency or converting the debt into a formal loan.

Let’s look at some of your options in a bit more detail, roughly in order of severity:

• Pause further business with the customer: it’s standard practice to set a cut-off period (often 90 or 120 days) after which you stop taking new orders from that customer until the outstanding debt is settled. This signals you’re serious and can be enough to prompt payment.
• Convert the invoice into a formal loan: if the customer is otherwise in good standing, you can convert the outstanding receivable into a long-term note, officially treating it as debt due in over 12 months and charging interest on it.
• Use a collections agency as a last resort: agencies can recover the debt on your behalf, but they typically take a substantial cut of what’s collected, so this option often returns less than you’re owed. Negotiating directly with the customer is usually preferable where possible.

If none of these options resolve the situation, the final step is writing the account off as bad debt.

Recording a bad debt write-off

Before the relevant accounting period, estimate the share of annual revenue you expect to be uncollectible. Record this as a credit to “allowance for uncollectible accounts,” offset by an equal debit to “bad debt expense.”

For example, if a customer fails to pay a $5,000 invoice, you’d credit $5,000 to accounts receivable, but instead of debiting it to your cash account, you’d debit it to the allowance for uncollectible accounts.

For Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax purposes, bad debts that may qualify include:

• Loans to clients and suppliers.
• Credit sales to customers.
• Business loan guarantees.

How can account receivable software help?

Accounts receivable software automates much of the collection process, reducing manual work and giving you real-time visibility into what’s owed and by whom. Rather than tracking invoices and payments by hand, the software updates your accounts receivable balance automatically as payments come in.

With the right accounts receivable software, you can:

• Accept payments online in multiple currencies, making it easier for customers to pay promptly.
• Send automatic payment reminders as invoices approach or pass their due date, without manual follow-up.
• Offer self-service payment options, reducing friction for customers and cutting down on queries.
• Reconcile payments automatically, linking documents to customer accounts and updating balances in real time.
• Track payment trends with analytics, helping you spot slow-paying customers or seasonal patterns early.
• Integrate with your CRM, keeping quotes, sales orders, and invoices connected on a single platform.

Freeing your team from manual reconciliation and chasing payments means more time for higher-value work, like strengthening customer relationships and refining your cash flow strategy.

Take control of your cash flow with accounts receivable management

Accounts receivable might just look like invoices on a spreadsheet, but it’s really a direct reflection of your company’s cash flow health.

Businesses that manage it well know exactly what’s owed, by whom, and when it’s due, and they act quickly when something looks off.

Whether you’re recording your first invoice or refining a process you’ve run for years, the fundamentals stay the same: record accurately, monitor consistently, and follow up before small delays become bigger cash flow problems.

If manual tracking is starting to feel like a burden, accounts receivable software can take the manual work off your plate, so you can focus on running your business rather than chasing payments.

Frequently asked questions

Where do I find a company’s accounts receivable?

Accounts receivable appears on a company’s balance sheet, listed under current assets. Publicly traded companies also break it out in more detail in the notes to their financial statements, alongside figures like the allowance for uncollectible accounts.

What are net receivables, and how are they different from accounts receivable?

Net receivables are your total accounts receivable minus the allowance for uncollectible accounts. In other words, the amount you realistically expect to collect. Accounts receivable on its own reflects the full invoiced amount, before accounting for expected non-payment.

When does a debt become a receivable?

A debt becomes a receivable as soon as you deliver goods or services and issue an invoice, even if payment isn’t due for another 30, 60, or 90 days. It stays classified as a receivable until the customer pays or until you write it off as bad debt.

What can a company’s accounts receivable tell you?

A high or rising accounts receivable balance can signal strong sales, but it can also point to slow-paying customers or overly generous credit terms. Comparing accounts receivable to revenue over time, or tracking the accounts receivable turnover ratio, helps you tell the difference between healthy growth and a collections problem.

What is accounts receivable financing?

Accounts receivable financing lets you borrow against your outstanding invoices, or sell them to a third party at a discount, to access cash before customers actually pay. It’s typically used by businesses with strong sales but a cash flow gap caused by slow-paying customers.

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