应收账款管理Management of Account Receivable receivable is one of a series of accounting transactions dealing with the billing of customers who owe money to a person, company or organization for goods and services that have been provided to the customer. In most business entities this is typically done by generating an invoice and mailing or electronically delivering it to the customer, who in turn must pay it within an established timeframe called credit or payment terms.An example of a common payment term is Net30, meaning payment is due in the amount of the invoice 30 days from the date of invoice. Other common payment terms include Net45 & Net60 but could in reality be for any time period agreed upon by the vendor and client.While booking a receivable is accomplished by a simple accounting transaction, the process of maintaining and collecting payments on the accounts receivable subsidiary account balances can be a full time proposition. Depending on the industry in practice, accounts receivable payments can be received up to 10 - 15 days after the due date has been reached. These types of payment practices are sometimes developed by industry standards, corporate policy, or because of the financial condition of the client.On a company's balance sheet, accounts receivable is the amount that customers owe to that company. Sometimes called trade receivables, they are classified as current assets. To record a journal entry for a sale on account, one must debit a receivable and credit a revenue account. When the customer pays off their accounts, one debits cash and credits the receivable in the journal entry. The ending balance on the trial balance sheet for accounts receivable is always debit.Business organizations which have become too large to perform such tasks by hand (or small ones that could but prefer not to do them by hand) will generally use accounting software on a computer to perform this task.Associated accounting issues include recognizing accounts receivable, valuing accounts receivable, and disposing of accounts receivable.Accounts receivable departments use the sales ledger.Other types of accounting transactions include accounts payable, payroll, and trial balance.Since not all customer debts will be collected, businesses typically record an allowance for bad debts which is subtracted from total accounts receivable. When accounts receivable are not paid, some companies turn them over to third party collection agencies or collection attorneys who will attempt to recover the debt via negotiating payment plans, settlement offers or legal action. Outstanding advances are part of accounts receivables : If a company gets an order from its customers with advance agreed in payment terms. Since no billing is being done to claim the advances several times this area of collectible is not reflected in Accounts Receivables. Ideally, since advance payment is mutually agreed term, it is the responsibility of the accounts department to take out periodically the statement showing advance collectible and should be provided to sales & marketing for collection of advances. The payment of accounts receivable can be protected either by a letter of credit or by Trade Credit Insurance.Companies can use their accounts receivable as collateral when obtaining a loan (Asset-based lending) or sell them through Factoring (finance). Pools or portfolios of accounts receivable can be sold in the capital markets through a Securitization.[edit] Bookkeeping for Accounts ReceivableCompanies have two methods available to them for measuring the net value of account receivables, which is computed by subtracting the balance of an allowance account from the accounts receivable account. The first method is the allowance method, which establishes a contra asset account, allowance for doubtful accounts, or more simply, allowance, as the offset to accounts receivable. Allowance is a contra asset that offsets the accounts receivable account to derive the net accounts receivable depicted in the balance sheet. The amount of the allowance can be computed in two ways; through the analysis based on sales method and analysis based on accounts receivable method. The reason a contra asset receivable account is necessary is to adhere to the matching principle of accounting, which mandates that accrual basis companies match all revenues and expenses with the period in which expense, and crediting the allowance contra asset account. Once it has been deemed that a particular account is uncollectible, it would be necessary to take the account off a company's books by debiting allowance for doubtful accounts and crediting the associated accounts receivable account.The second method, known as the direct write off method, is simpler than the allowance method in that allows for one simple entry to reduce accounts receivable to its net realizable value. The entry would consist of debiting an uncollectible expense account and crediting the respective account receivable.For tax reporting purposes, the direct write-off method must be used; however, for financial reporting purposes, it is necessary to use the allowance method because it is a period's revenue with associated expenses-a fundamental concept of accounting known as the matching principle.应收帐款(Accounts receivable,又为应收账款)於会计原理上,专指因出售商品或劳务,进而对顾客所发生的债权,且该债权且尚未接受任何形式的书面承诺。该科目重点於对象为顾客,若非顾客,即撇开此科目适用。Factoring is a word often misused synonymously with accounts receivable financing. Factoring is a financial transaction whereby a business sells its accounts receivable (i.e., invoices) at a discount. Factoring differs from a bank loan in three main ways. First, the emphasis is on the value of the receivables, not the firm’s credit worthiness. Secondly, factoring is not a loan – it is the purchase of an asset (the receivable). Finally, a bank loan involves two parties whereas factoring involves three.OBS: In Europe the term Factoring typically mean accounts receivable financing. Here the correct word for this article is: American factoring.The three parties directly involved are: the seller, debtor, and the factor. The seller is owed money (usually for work performed or goods sold) by the second party, the debtor. The seller then sells one or more of its invoices at a discount to the third party, the specialized financial organization (aka the factor) to obtain cash. The debtor then directly pays the factor the full value of the invoice.ReasonA company sells its invoices, even at a discount to their face value, when it calculates that it will be better off using the proceeds to bolster its own growth than it would be by effectively functioning as its "customer's bank." In other words, it figures that the return on the proceeds will exceed the income on the receivables.Differences from bank loansFactors make funds available, even when banks would not do so, because factors focus first on the credit worthiness of the debtor, the party who is obligated to pay the invoices for goods or services delivered by the seller. In contrast, the fundamental emphasis in a bank lending relationship is on the creditworthiness of the small firm, not that of its customers. While bank lending offers funds to small companies at a lower cost than factoring, the key terms and conditions under which the small firm must operate differ significantly. Bank relationships provide a more limited availability of funds and none of the bundle of services that factors offer.From a combined cost and availability of funds and services perspective, factoring creates wealth for some but not all small businesses. For small businesses, their choice is slowing their growth or the use of external funds beyond the banks. In choosing to use external funds beyond the banks the rapidly growing firm’s choice is between seeking angel investors (i.e., equity) or the lower cost of selling invoices to finance their growth.The latter is also easier to access and can be obtained in a matter of a week or two, versus the six months plus that securing funds from angel investment typically takes. Factoring is also used as bridge financing while the firm pursues angel investors and in conjunction with angel financing to provide a lower average cost of funds than would equity financing alone. Firms can also combine the three types of financing, angel/venture, factoring and bank line of credit to further reduce their total cost of funds. In this they can emulate larger firms.As with any technique, factoring solves some problems but not all. Businesses with a small spread between the revenue from a sale and the cost of a sale, should limit their use of factoring to sales above their breakeven sales level where the revenue less the direct cost of the sale plus the cost of factoring is positive.While factoring is an attractive alternative to raising equity for small innovative fast-growing firms, the same financial technique can be used to turn around a fundamentally good business whose management has encountered a perfect storm or made significant business mistakes which have made it impossible for the firm to work within the constraints of a bank line’s credit terms and conditions(i.e, covenants). The value of using factoring for this purpose is that it provides management time to implement the changes required to turn the business around. The firm is paying to have the option of a future the owners control. The association of factoring with troubled situations accounts for the half truth of it being labeled 'last resort' financing. However, use of the technique when there is only a modest spread between the revenue from a sale and its cost is not advisable for turnarounds. Nor are turnarounds usually able to recreate wealth for the owners in this situation.应收账款保理,指企业将应收账款按一定折扣卖给第三方(保理机构),获得相应的融资款,以利於现金的尽快取得。Abstract: Account receivable is the fund that should be received from the purchasing or labor hiring entity for an enterprise’s sale of its commodities or products as well as its providing of labor service. Under the circumstances of market economy, using its credit standing to exert the labor benefaction is an unavoidable business behavior, which may be treated as a major method for enterprises to enlarge its business and raise its market share. However, by the influences of marketplace economic system and project management as well as engineering construction, the Account receivable increases rapidly year by year, so as to make the difficulties in enterprise’s capital turnover. Those hard situations even made the employees can’t get their full pay of the salary. By analysis of the cause and the advantages and disadvantages of it, this article introduced some way of how to minimize the Account receivable. 关键词key words:应收账款Account receivable;工程施工Engineering construction;合同管理The management of contracts摘 要:应收账款是企业因销售商品、产品、提供劳务等,应向购货单位或劳务单位收取的款项。在市场经济条件下利用自身的商业信用,施舍劳务是不可避免的商业行为,通过先施舍劳务可使企业更多地承揽业务、扩大市场份额,是企业提高市场占有率的必要手段。但是近年来由于市场经济体制及工程管理和工程施工过程中的种种原因,造成应收账款迅速膨胀,逐年增加,致使企业资金周转困难,甚至连工资都难以正常发放。本文分析了应收账款形成的原因及利弊,提出了如何减少应收账款的途径。 关键词:应收账款;工程施工;合同管理