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March 14, 2007

What is a deferred expense?

A deferred expense is not yet an expense, even though it has already been paid. The deferred expense is reported on a company’s balance sheet until it becomes an expense in a future accounting period.

Paying the insurance premium prior to the start of the coverage period gives rise to a deferred expense. For example, if a retailer pays $6,000 on December 26, 2006 for the cost of insurance from January 1 through June 30, 2007, the $6,000 is a deferred expense until the year 2007. This deferred expense of $6,000 will be reported on the retailer’s balance sheet of December 31 as the current asset, Prepaid Insurance. In January, when one month of the insurance premium expires (is used up), the retailer’s January income statement should report $1,000 (one-sixth of $6,000) as Insurance Expense. The remaining $5,000 of deferred expense will be reported on the January 31 balance sheet. In each of the following five months the retailer will report $1,000 as Insurance Expense. The deferred expense on the balance sheet will decrease by $1,000 per month.

The insurance company that receives the $6,000 in December 2006 will have deferred revenue until 2007. (On its December 31 balance sheet, the insurance company will report the $6,000 of deferred revenue in a current liability account.) Beginning in January the insurance company will report premium revenue of $1,000 per month and it will reduce its deferred revenue by the same amount.

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Comments

5 Responses to “What is a deferred expense?”

  1. sammy on January 24th, 2009 2:56 pm

    what is the relatioship between pre-paid expenditur and deferred expenses

  2. shanavas on March 8th, 2009 1:24 am

    what is the relatioship between pre-paid expenditur and deferred expenses

  3. Joe on July 20th, 2009 5:52 pm

    What is the appropriate guidance to site for deferral of project costs?

  4. KABIR the accounting freak on August 7th, 2009 5:06 am

    According to the accounting concepts prepaid expenses are those expenses that have been paid before they turn into an expense.For example Jhon pays $200 per year as heating expense.In the year 2007 he paid$200 for the current year and prepaid $2OO for the upcoming year.This extra $2OO is known as prepaid expenses.This prepayment of expenses will be treated as a current asset in the balance sheet.

  5. Sopheap on October 9th, 2009 9:48 pm

    Hello! Thanks for your overall explaination. About Deffered Expense, it sound like Prepaid Expense. Are these two accounts the same in meaning? And one more, could you show me concern on Revenue Recognition during Cash Collection together with it’s Balance Sheet to date? How is Account Receivable recorded?

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