Accrued Expense

Accrued expense is expense which has been incurred but not yet paid.

Expense must be recorded in the accounting period in which it is incurred. Therefore, accrued expense must be recognized in the accounting period in which it occurs rather than in the following period in which it will be paid.

As expense will be debited to record the accrued expense, a corresponding payable must be created to account for the credit side of the transaction. The accounting entry to record accrued expense will therefore be as follows:

Debit	Expense (Income Statement)
Credit	Expense Payable (Balance Sheet)

Example

ABC LTD pays loan interest for the month of December 2010 of $10,000 on 3rd January 2011. ABC LTD has an accounting year end of 31st December 2010.

ABC LTD will recognize interest expense of $10,000 in the financial statements of year 2010 even though it was paid in the next accounting period as it relates to the current period. Following accounting entry will need to be recorded to account for the interest expense accrued:

		$	$
Debit	Interest Expense	10,000
Credit	Interest Payable		10,000

On the date of payment of interest (i.e. 3rd January of the next year) following accounting entry will need to be recorded in the subsequent year:

		$	$
Debit	Interest Payable	10,000
Credit	Cash		10,000

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Accrued Inocme

Prepaid Income