Record and allocate Prepaid Expenses

The outward rent payment for each month will not be a cash transaction but only a record of accounts in the books. This is the purpose and benefit of prepaid expenses in the balance sheet. Usually, expenses recorded as prepaid expenses by organisations are for advance https://www.digitalconnectmag.com/a-deep-dive-into-law-firm-bookkeeping/ rent payments, insurance payments and other recurring expenses commonly paid in advance. In addition, taxes, leased equipment, etc., are also deemed prepaid expenses. Prepaid rent—a lease payment made for a future period—is another common example of a prepaid expense.

Then, once the value of the asset gets completely utilised, the expense is shifted from the current asset account and is recorded as an expense. Prepaid expenses are considered assets for a business because they represent future economic benefits. When a business pays for goods or services in advance, it expects to receive the benefits of those goods or services over a period of time. For example, if a business pays for a year’s worth of insurance premiums upfront, it expects to receive the benefits of that insurance coverage over the course of the year. Prepaid expense amortization is the method of accounting for the consumption of a prepaid expense over time. This allocation is represented as a prepayment in a current account on the balance sheet of the company.

Prepaid rent accounting

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A debit to one account can be balanced by more than one credit to other accounts, and vice versa. For all transactions, the total debits must be equal to the total credits and therefore balance. For certain expenses, this is the case, so there has to be a process related to how to properly record them in the company’s books. For example, if your company buys a large and expensive photocopier that it plans to use over time, it could be considered a prepaid expense. That is, the photocopier will provide benefits to the company over its lifetime, not just when it is purchased, so it should be listed as an expense over the time period it does so.

What is a Prepaid Expense?

It occurs when a company pays rent upfront before the corresponding period it covers. Mary Girsch-Bock is the expert on accounting software and payroll software for The Ascent. For example, because of recent legal issues, Jill puts her attorney on retainer. Though she pays the retainer in full, Jill still needs law firm bookkeeping to determine how much she will need to expense each month as the retainer is used. ” Accrued expenses are common across all lines of business, so you’ve surely come across them or had to deal with them in your business. The upsides and downsides related to prepaying an expense depend on the situation.

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• Once expenses incur, the prepaid asset account is reduced, and an entry is made to the expense account on the income statement.
• This is known as amortization or allocation of the prepaid expense over the period that it is expected to benefit the business.
• Prepaid insurance is a key component of business accounting, whereby advance payments are made for insurance coverage.

The second entry, however, does affect both the income statement and the balance sheet. On the income statement, rent expense is recorded, which increases expenses, and in turn, decreases net income. On the balance sheet, current assets decrease as prepaid rent decreases. Prepaid expenses reflect the cost of assets whose benefits will be realised later during future accounting periods. Each time the asset gets used for its value, a portion of its cost also gets deducted from the total cost that was first denoted in the books.

Accounts pertaining to the five accounting elements

The prepaid rent is neither an expense nor revenue for the company because it doesn’t fulfill the expense or revenue definition. Since accrual basis is a more popular and widely used accounting system, we will focus on that. However, we will also talk about the treatment of different economic transactions on a cash basis.