At left below is a “balance sheet approach” for Prepaid Insurance. The expenditure was initially recorded into a prepaid account on the balance sheet. The alternative approach is the “income statement approach,” wherein the Expense account is debited at the time of purchase. The appropriate end-of-period adjusting entry establishes the Prepaid Expense account with a debit for the amount relating to future periods. The offsetting credit reduces the expense to an amount equal to the amount consumed during the period.

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Companies purchase insurance coverage by paying insurance premiums and record related transactions accordingly. Depending on the length of the insurance purchased each time, companies may record the insurance for uses over multiple accounting periods. In other words, companies may have to journalize insurance expense periodically as the insurance expires over time, instead of expensing the total insurance purchase at once in a single period.

Within a financial year, each time a portion of the expense is paid off, the prepaid account is gradually debited until the value becomes zero. Then, once the value of the asset gets completely utilised, the expense is shifted from the current asset account and is recorded as an expense. Overall, prepaid expenses are an Prepaid Insurance Definition, Journal Entries important accounting concept that helps businesses to better manage their cash flow and accurately reflect the value of goods and services received over time. At the end of twelve months, the asset account would show a balance of zero for the insurance premium and a total of $12,000 in the insurance expense account.

Examples of journal entry for prepaid insurance

Companies that take care of assets and employees by paying reasonable advance insurance premiums are considered strong financial companies. There should always be a check regarding the period for advance in insurance. A company shouldn’t advance too much as it may reflect badly on the profitability.

• At left below is a “balance sheet approach” for Prepaid Insurance.
• This company-wide effort crosses multiple functional areas and is reinforced by critical project management and a strong technology infrastructure.
• On November 20, the payment is entered with a debit of $2,400 to Prepaid Insurance and a credit of $2,400 to Cash.
• Let us look at the balance sheet at the end of one month on December 31, 2017.
• Prepaid assets are nonmonetary assets whose benefits affect more than one accounting period.
• Might relate to such events as client services that are based on hours worked.

Consequently, insurance expenses will need to be prepaid by the enterprise clients. Besides that, another notable example would be if the company purchases a huge and costly printer that it intends to utilise over time, the printer may then be acknowledged as a prepaid expense. In other words, this means that the printer will provide its benefits to the firm across its entire lifetime rather than just when it was just bought. Hence, the printer ought to be noted down as an expense over the period in which its benefit has been fully realised.

Understanding Prepaid Expenses: Examples & Journal Entry

In other words, prepaid expenses are expenditures paid in one accounting period, but will not be recognized until a later accounting period. Prepaid expenses are initially recorded as assets, because they have future economic benefits, and are expensed at the time when the benefits are realized . Expired insurance during a period is recorded as an insurance expense for the same period.

According tothe three types of accounts in accounting“prepaid expense” is a personal account. Health insurance is a type of contract in which a company agrees to pay some of a consumer’s medical expenses in return for payment of a monthly premium. The original journal entry, as well as the adjusting entry and the relevant T-accounts, are illustrated below.

Chapter 4: Completion of the Accounting Cycle

As the benefits of the prepaid expenses are availed over time, they are recorded in the income statement. Initially, they are not recorded in the income statement because of the principles set by GAAP , which says that expenses cannot be recorded in the income statement until they are incurred. In this method also assets are recorded in advance but the portion of the expense value corresponding to the financial period remains unexpired till the end of the period. During the adjustment period, the entry for it is made under the prepaid expense asset section. Also, an already used portion of the prepaid expense increases the expense amount entry and decreases the total prepaid asset value. Some of the common examples of prepaid expenses are monthly, quarterly, half-yearly, or yearly payments made toward a product or service.

In small business, there are a number of purchases you may make that are considered prepaid expenses. When an expense is paid in advance, the company will not have to pay it when it arises. The company’s Balance Sheet will reflect the expense as an asset as long as the correct period doesn’t arrive.