Accounts payables is one of the most important factors in running a business. It is a current liabilities or short-term debt of a company that is essential to be paid to avoid any kind of financial default. Let’s suppose there are two companies. A and B. Company A purchases goods from company B on credit and ensures to repay the whole amount within a specific period of time. In this case, company A will record the purchase as accounts payable, whereas company B will record it as accounts receivable. Most importantly, accounts payable includes some important steps, including invoice generation of a company, invoice approval, execution and authorization of payments, and more.
What Is The Importance Of Account Payable?
What is an account payable, and why is it essential for a business? A company’s account payables include payments it owes to suppliers, and it does not include any payroll or long-term debt like a mortgage. A company’s balance sheet shows the total amount of accounts payable without listing individual transactions. A skilled accounts team of a company is responsible for processing all invoices and expense reports. Furthermore, they always maintain a good relationship with the suppliers and ensure all the vendor information is correct and up-to-date.
How Do We Differentiate Between Account Payable And Receivable?
- A business will issue or receive a payment invoice for every sale or purchase. Here, we can consider AR an asset and AP a liability.
- In the case of accounts payable and accounts receivable, the finance department of a company needs to ensure that the person responsible for paying bills cannot issue invoices.
- Currently, most profitable firms have one AR team member to prepare customer payment receipts and one team member from the AP side to approve invoices and pending charges.
- Auditors test account payables and typically use different methods to look for instances of quantity errors and find unethical behavior. At the same time, auditors look at accounts to remove the due amount and charge it as an expense when testing the report receivable.
- Clients need to maintain a record of accounts payables; on the other hand, vendors need to keep a record of the accounts receivable.
In our households, accounts payable are the bills we need to pay, such as the electric company, telephone company, monthly newspaper subscription, dish TV service, and more. We can easily track and pay monthly using debit or credit cards, internet banking, UPI, and mobile wallet. In the case of a business, there is a broader range of services, and accounting software plays a significant role in tracking the flow of money. At present, many large firms use specialized accounts payable automation solutions to automate all the manual elements of processing invoices of the company. Accounts payable personnel should continuously monitor fraudulent invoices without a purchase order system.
To conclude the whole concept, we can say that accounts payable and accounts receivable are the two sides of the same coin. A finance and accounting solution helps us gain a better understanding of the financial system of our business by saving time, improving control, and increasing productivity through automation.
