Question

West Company had the following account balances at December 31, 2016, before recording bad debt expense for the year: Accounts receivable $ 900,000 Allowance for uncollectible accounts (credit balance) 16,000 Credit sales for 2016 1,750,000 West is considering the following methods of estimating bad debts for 2016: ⢠Based on 2% of credit sales ⢠Based on 5% of year-end accounts receivable What amount should West charge to bad debt expense at the end of 2016 under each method? Percentage of Credit Sales Percentage of Accounts Receivable Multiple Choice $35,000 $29,000 $35,000 $45,000 $51,000 $29,000 $51,000 $45,000

Answer 1

The amount reported must be on two simple rules that is as under:

1. The provision must reflect the bad debts of current year receivables only.

2. The provision must not reflect the bad debts of previous year receivables.

Now there are two ways we can solve this problem. One is using 2% of $1,750,000 of credit sales which is $35000 and the other one is 5% of $900,000 of the receivable amount which is $45,000.

Now we have to adjust the amount $45,000 for the bad debts already recorded in the accounts for the previous year, which is $16,000 for the year. So the net amount that we have to record is $29,000.

Dr Bad debt expense $29,000

Cr Provision for bad debts $29,000

In the case of Credit Sales percentage we just calculate the figure and pass the entry of bad debt as under:

Dr Bad debt expense $35,000

Cr Provision for bad debts $35,000