Final answer:
Accrued liabilities are current liabilities for expenses that have occurred but are not yet paid. To record them, debit the expense account and credit the accrued liabilities account. An example is recording unpaid salaries as an accrued liability with a debit to Salaries Expense and a credit to Accrued Salaries Payable.
Step-by-step explanation:
Accrued liabilities are current liabilities that represent amounts a company owes for expenses that have been incurred but not yet paid. They are recognized in the accounting period in which they are incurred, regardless of when the cash is paid out. When a business incurs an accrued liability, it must record the expense and the corresponding obligation.
To record an accrued liability in double-entry bookkeeping, you would debit the appropriate expense account to reflect that the expense has been incurred. Then, you would credit the accrued liabilities account to reflect the obligation to pay in the future. For example, if a company has accrued salaries payable to employees that have not yet been paid, the journal entry would include a debit to Salaries Expense and a credit to Accrued Salaries Payable to recognize the liability.