The most liquid asset which is used as the standard medium of exchange and as the basis for measuring and accounting all other items.
Cash Equivalents
Short-term, highly liquid investments that are both readily convertible to known amounts of cash and so near to maturity that they present insignificant risk of change in value due to changes in interest rates.
Restricted Cash
Cash set apart and used for payment of short-term or long-term obligations
Compensating Balance
Minimum account balance that must be maintained by a corporation or customer to support existing borrowing arrangements.
Receivables
Claims held against customers and others for money, goods, or services.
Current Receivable
A receivable that is expected to be converted to cash within a business cycle or year, whichever is longer.
Noncurrent Receivable
A receivable that is not expected to be converted to cash within a business cycle or year.
Trade Receivable
A receivable arising from transactions pertaining to goods bought or services rendered
Nontrade Receivable
A receivable arising from transactions that are tangential to normal business operations.
Notes Receivable
A written promise to pay a certain amount of money on a specified future date.
Transaction Price
The amount of consideration that a company expects to receive from a customer in exchange for transferring goods or services.
Variable Consideration
Variables that must be considered by a company when assessing a fair value on receivables.
Trade Discounts
Altering of price for different quantities purchased or to hide true invoice price from competitors
Cash Discounts
Offering of discounted pricing scheme within a timeframe to induce prompt payment.
Sales Return and Allowances
A provisional contra-revenue account that is used to mitigate volatility in revenues arising from return of merchandise or inadequacy of services rendered.
Direct Write-Off
A method for valuing a receivable in which all measures of collecting have been exhausted. Directly pulls bad debt expense from accounts receivable, but does not effectively match expenses to their corresponding revenues.
Allowance Method
A method for valuing a receivable in which amounts of uncollectable accounts are estimated and allocated to an allowance for uncollectable accounts. This method smoothes volatility in earnings by mitigating the effect of bad debt.
Fair Value Option
Valuation method in which receivables are recorded at fair value, and unrealized gains or losses throughout the period are reported in net income
Unrealized gain or loss
Net change in fair value of a receivable from one period to another, exclusive of interest revenue.
Factors
Finance companies or banks that buy receivables from businesses for a fee and then collect remittances directly from the customers