Bad Debts, Provision for Bad Debts, Debtors Control

by Anonymous
(South Africa)

Q: How does bad debts and the provision for bad debts affect the debtors control account?

A: Let's make sure we fully understand what these terms are before I answer your question.

Bad debts are debts owed to the business that have become bad, meaning it seems they are uncollectable. For example, Joe Shmo, who owed you R1,000, files bankruptcy and informs you of this. So it seems we won't get paid by Joe in future.

The original journal entry to record the sale would have been:
Dr Debtors Control R1,000
Cr Sales R1,000

When we become aware that the debt has become 'bad', we do an entry as follows:
Dr Bad debt (expense) R1,000
Cr Debtors Control R1,000

The provision for bad debts is not the same as bad debts.

The provision for bad debts is an estimate of the debts owed to us that will go bad in the future. We record this future loss of debts as soon as we are aware that we will definitely lose money in the future.

For example, let's say that at the end of the year we have R200,000 in debtors control. We expect 2% of debts owed to us to go bad in future. This amounts to R4,000 of our current debts.

The entry to record this provision for bad debts is:
Dr Bad debts (expense) R4,000
Cr Provision for Bad Debts (like a liability) R4,000

If nothing changes (we continue to expect 2% of all debts to go bad) then we keep our provision - our estimate - of bad debts, for as long as the business is running.

In the meantime, if some actual debts go bad (like the first example above), then we record an additional bad debt expense (as above).

The provision for bad debts is kept as a separate account to the debtors control.

These two accounts are, however, set off against one another in the balance sheet in order to present the true value of debtors. In our example above the "Trade and other debtors" in our balance sheet would be shown as R196,000 (R200,000-R4,000).

Make sense?