The accounts receivable is one of the most confusing numbers on the balance sheet to understand. It is income that is due to the company, but has not yet been paid. So while the goods or services have been given out already, the money has not yet been received. This is problematic because it decreases the inventory while increasing the expense of trying to get back the money that is owed for the products. Because of this, it is important for companies to track how well they are able to receive their payments for debts owed by their customers. And do to this, they often use an accounts receivable turnover ratio.
What is an Accounts Receivable Turnover Ratio?
An accounts receivable turnover ratio is the total amount of times in a fiscal period that a company is able to achieve their
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It is just a matter of sitting down to do the math. However, inaccurate accounts receivable numbers can throw things off, which means that it will take more time to figure it out. So it is important that a company always reviews their accounts first before attempting to find out what their ratio is.
Three Ways in Which You Can Reduce Spending on This Ratio
The following are several basic ways to ensure that the accounts receivable ratio can be done by a company itself instead of having to pay an outside financial professional to do it for them.
1. The best way to keep accounts receivable numbers accurate is to have an accurate and timely billing system. All invoices should be sent out at the end of the month. Then, a ten-day period should be given for the payments to arrive. If payments haven't been received by then, calls and letters to the customers should start right away. Customers should never be allowed to avoid payment for several months because this will reduce the amount of the accounts receivable
Suppliers are mostly concerned with a company 's ability to pay on their liabilities. Therefore, the current ratio and the quick ratio are both looked at by suppliers. The current ratio takes a company’s current assets and divides that by the company’s current liabilities. This number is
Accounts receivable ending balance= Beginning balance +sales on Account - cash receipts -sales returns and allowances- charge of uncollectible account
The Current Ratio is calculated by taking the current debt and dividing it by the current liabilities. It is the measurement on how a company can meet its short term liabilities with liquid assets (Loth, Rihar, 2015a).A higher ratio indicates favorable activity. A company should be able to meet it responsibilities with its
The first method we will review is the accounting method. Through this accounting approach we will analyze specific ratios and their possible impact on the company's performance. The specific ratios we will review include the return on total assets, return on equity, gross profit margin, earnings per share, price earnings ratio, debt to assets, debt to equity, accounts receivable turnover, total asset turnover, fixed asset turnover, and average collection period. I will explain each ratio in greater detail, and why I have included it in this analysis, when I give the results of each specific ratio calculation.
This accounting principle requires companies to use the accrual basis of accounting. The accounting method under which revenues are recognized on the income statement when they are earned (rather than when the cash is received). The balance sheet is also affected at the time of the revenues by either an increase in Cash (if the service or sale was for cash), an increase in Accounts Receivable (if the service was performed on credit), or a decrease in Unearned Revenues (if the service was performed after the customer had paid in advance for the service).
...To check how successful it has been, we calculate debtor collection period ratio. (Dyson, 2004) Fixed Asset turnover: In this ratio, we seek the amount of sales that can be generated (or the amount of fixed assets necessary to achieve a level of sales) from a given level of fixed assets. (Klein, 1998) Total asset turnover: This ratio determines that how efficiently a firm is utilizing its assets. If the asset turnover ratio is high, the firm is using its assets effectively in generating sales. If this ratio is low, the firm may not be using its assets efficiently and shall either increase sales or eliminate some of the existing assets. (Argenti, 2002) Solvency Ratio Gearing: Gearing reflects the relationship between a company’s equity capital (ordinary shares and reserves) and its other form of long-term funding (preference share, debenture, etc.) (Black, 2000)
Accounts Receivable has good separation of duties and strong internal controls such as control numbers and reconciliations to sales and bank statements. One weakness in the Accounts receivable system is the accounting supervisor approves summary entries and reconciles the general ledger account, which could indicate a weakness with segregation of duties. We recommend that the controller approves of summary entries to segregate these duties.
Rondo is showing steady improvement in its Fixed Assets Turnover ratio. Total Assets Turnover ratio is a measure of all assets measured against sales. Rondo is showing improvement in this area at 1.0, but is still below the industry average of 1.1. Rondo's performance is fair in this ar...
The second step is entering the transactions of the period in appropriate journals. This step consists of taking the journal entries, assigning each to an asset, liability, equity, expense or revenue account(s) to debit and credit. This can be done by almost anyone. I have had jobs where the bookkeeper does the journal entries and figures out which accounts are affected. I have also had jobs where anyone from a receptionist to a staff accountant does this step. If the person doing the journal entries does not have a background in accounting, or is unfamiliar with which accounts are affected, the person submitting the source documents will write down which accounts should be debited and which should be credited. This practice makes doing the journal entries little more than data entry, which can be done by nearly every employee.
The inventory turnover decreased from 3.8 to 3.59. This is explained by the higher increase in the average inventory (37%) than the increase in cost of sales (29%) during 2005. This means that the rate at which inventory is sold is dropping
However, due to the limitations of ratio analysis, some precautions that are necessary are mentioned below. 1. Even though, financial statement analysis is simple and widely used tool, every users should have minimum knowledge of accounting and the calculation to obtain certain ratios. 2. Investors should analyze financial statements rather than going by ratios before investing in companies or businesses.
Inventory Turnover (2011 only): For the year 2011, the inventory turnover was calculated by the cost of good sold divided by the typical average amount of inventory. The average inventory was equal to the current inventory plus the prior inventory all divided then by two. Resulting in the 2011 Inventory Turnover to be equal to 3.480 because 5,385,088 / 1,547,223.5=
... inventory turnover was found to be very low. The low inventory turnover ratio was an indicator of inadequacy, since inventory usually has a rate of return of zero (Inventory Turnover Ratio Interpretation, 2009). It also implied either poor sales or excess inventory. A low turnover rate indicated poor liquidity, convincible overstocking, and obsolescence, but it would have also reflected a planned inventory build-up in the case of material shortages or in anticipation of rapidly rising prices. (Inventory Turnover Ratio Interpretation, 2009) And a rapid and unexplained rise in the number of sales per day in receivables in addition to growing inventories to cover the shortage was noted. The interviewee (Public Accountant) could smell something suspicious which led him for more detailed procedures and proactive investigation at the end of which a fraud was detected.
Ratios traditionally measure the most important factors such as liquidity, solvency and profitability, as well as other measures of solvency. Different studies have found various ratios to be the most efficient indicators of solvency. Studies of ratio analysis began in the 1930’s, with several studies of the concluding that firms with the potential to file bankruptcy all exhibited different ratios than those companies that were financially sound.
Accounting is a vital element of business. It records the way a business has grown and, after analyzing figures, suggests the way it should go in the future. Furtunes are gambled on the advice of accountants.