Accrued Income

Accrued income is income which has been earned but not yet received.

Income must be recorded in the accounting period in which it is earned. Therefore, accrued income must be recognized in the accounting period in which it arises rather than in the subsequent period in which it will be received.

As income will be credited to record the accrued income, a corresponding receivable must be created to account for the debit side of the transaction. The accounting entry to record accrued income will therefore be as follows:

Debit	Income Receivable (Balance Sheet)
Credit	Income (Income Statement)

Example

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

ABC LTD will recognize interest income of $10,000 in the financial statements of year 2010 even though it was received 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 income accrued:

		$	$
Debit	Interest Income Receivable	10,000
Credit	Interest on Bank Deposit (Income)		10,000

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

		$	$
Debit	Bank	10,000
Credit	Interest Income Receivable		10,000

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Accrual and Prepayments

Accrued Expense