The Installment Method of Revenue Recognition
Installment sales take place whenever purchases are made but not fully paid for at point of sale or delivery. For example, Penway, Inc., wants to totally revamp the office with swanky new furniture and fixtures, but it prefers not to lay out the cash for the purchase all at once upon receipt of the furniture.
Penway finds an office furniture supplier that’s willing to take payments over the next five years. Using the installment method, the office furniture supplier recognizes the revenue for this sale in the periods it receives the payments from Penway instead of at point of sale/delivery.
The theory behind delaying recognition for financial statement purposes is that the risk of not collecting on the installment sale receivable is greater than an accounts receivable. To refresh your memory, accounts receivable reflects all money customers owe to a business for completed sales transactions and due within a shorter time, such as 30 days.
To cover the realizable aspect of revenue recognition, the revenue is booked as it is received; you also book the related gross profit at the same time. Consider the following example:
ABC, Inc., sells inventory to XYZ, Inc., for $750,000. XYZ signs an installment sales contract requiring that it pay $100,000 down and $130,000 per year for the next five years, with the first payment also due at signing. Thus, the initial payment is $230,000 ($100,000 + $130,000).
ABC’s cost of inventory sold is $400,000. ABC’s gross profit on the whole shebang is $350,000 ($750,000 – $400,000). ABC also has to figure out the gross profit percentage, which is 46.667 percent (otherwise rounding doesn’t make journal entries work) ($350,000 /$750,000).
All your facts and figures line up, so journalize this transaction!
Accounting Glossary
accounting equation
The equation Assets = Liabilities + Equity, which demonstrates the two-sided nature of accounting and is useful for explaining the concept of double-entry accounting (or double-entry bookkeeping).
Accounting Glossary
accounting period
The time period for which financial information is being tracked in a business, such as monthly, quarterly, or annually.
Accounting Glossary
accounts receivable
An account that records the amounts that customers owe to a business.
Accounting Glossary
adjusting entry
A correction made to a bookkeeping account that adjusts for accounting errors or other necessary changes at the end of the accounting period.
Accounting Glossary
cash flows
Used to describe the source or sources of cash or how cash is used.
Accounting Glossary
Chart of Accounts
A list of all the accounts used by a business, including what types of transactions go into each account.
Accounting Glossary
debit
An accounting entry that increases an asset or expense account, and decreases a liability or income account.
Accounting Glossary
dividends
A portion of a company’s profits paid by share of common stock on a quarterly or annual basis.
Accounting Glossary
FASB
Financial Accounting Standards Board. FASB is the highest-ranking authority in the private (non-government) sector of the U.S. for making pronouncements on GAAP and for keeping accounting standards up-to-date.
Accounting Glossary
Federal Unemployment Tax
In the U.S., the fund that used to be known simply as Unemployment. Employers contribute to the fund, and states also collect taxes to fill their unemployment fund reserves. (The acronym FUTA means Federal Unemployment Tax Act.)
Accounting Glossary
fidelity bonds
A type of insurance — typically carried by employers for their employees — that helps guard against theft and reduce the risk of loss.
Accounting Glossary
FIFO
First-in, first-out. A method for costs of goods sold in which a business charges out product costs to cost of goods sold expense in the chronological order in which the goods were acquired.
Accounting Glossary
fungible
Describes a product that is interchangeable and virtually indistinguishable from another product.
Accounting Glossary
General Ledger
A summary of all of a business’s accounts and transactions.
Accounting Glossary
IASB
International Accounting Standards Board. The IASB (based in London) is the main authoritative accounting standards setter outside the U.S.
Accounting Glossary
Journals
The location in which bookkeepers keep records (in chronological order) of daily company transactions.
Accounting Glossary
LIFO
Last-in, first-out. A method for costs of goods sold that selects the last item you purchased first, and then works backward until you have the total cost for the total number of units sold during the period.
Accounting Glossary
LLP
Limited liability partnership. A legal structure that state laws offer to qualified professionals in which all the partners have limited liability.
Accounting Glossary
PC
Professional corporation. A legal structure that state laws offer to qualified professionals who otherwise would have to operate as an unlimited partnership liability.
Accounting Glossary
petty cash
A cash account that businesses keep on hand for unexpected expenses.
Accounting Glossary
revenue
Monies that are collected in the process of selling a company’s goods and services.
Accounting Glossary
salvage value
The amount that an asset is worth after it has been fully depreciated.
Accounting Glossary
statement of cash flows
A financial statement that summarizes a business’s cash inflows and outflows during an accounting period.
Accounting Glossary
transactions
Economic exchanges between a business or other entity and the parties with which the entity interacts and makes deals.
Accounting Glossary
worker’s compensation insurance
A type of insurance carried by employers that covers its employees in case they are injured on the job.
