Suspense Account, What Is a Suspense Account? with Examples

The accountant recorded the “unclassified” amount in the general ledger suspense account to complete the assignment by the deadline. A trial balance is the closing balance of an account that you calculate at the end of the accounting period. When debits and credits don’t match, hold the difference in a suspense account until you correct it. Later, when errors are detected, the rectifying entries are passed. The suspense-account will show balance until all entries are corrected.

This will in turn help companies prepare relevant reports based on accurate data. For smaller companies, they will be able to conduct a review once a month or once in every quarter since transactions are few. Get reacquainted with what qualifies as a transaction in accounting.

You received a portion of your payment

Remember to consider issues like an inaccurate recording of funds (for example, money going into the cash account and not the sales account) and unrecorded expenses, which can be traced back to their invoices. Suspense accounts suspense account on balance sheets are not desirable since they might make it difficult to balance the books appropriately. In branchless banking (BB) – banking through mobile for the unbanked – these accounts are used for ‘money-in-transit’.

• For example, an entry for a payment will be cleared from the suspense account and entered into the accounts receivable once the corresponding invoice has been identified and the details about the transaction are known.
• If there is an anomaly, this amount is placed in a suspense account until the balance is corrected, and the amount is accurately placed in the right account.
• The format of suspense account entries will be either a credit or debit.
• Mortgage vendors then keep the first payment in the suspense account until the second payment is received for the month and the payment is complete and recorded to its correct account.
• Keep the partial payment in a holding account until you can contact the customer.

A suspense account will be managed by the finance team and serve as a catch-all for unknown amounts. The purpose of a suspense account is to hold amounts that cannot be categorised, so it would not be possible for each department to have a suspense account. If you could identify the department, you would not need to place the payment in a suspense account. If you are purchasing an asset that you will not https://www.bookstime.com/articles/posting-in-accounting receive until you have paid in full, payment instalments can be placed in a suspense account and moved to an asset account when completed. A company’s general ledger needs to show all of your organisation’s financial accounts, including your suspense account. Having a suspense account containing a balance on the financial statements does not generally reflect well on the overall health of the business.

What Is an SAP General Ledger?

Even if there is no timeline set by regulatory authorities for the clear-out process, businesses routinely carry out monthly or quarterly suspense account reconciliations. At times, all the required details for a particular transaction are not available but it still needs to be recorded in order to keep the accounting books updated. A suspense account is a type of account used in a business that applies temporary transactions.

Having said that, any sums recorded in this account will ultimately be transferred to another permanent account. A trial balance is a worksheet with totals of all accounts in the general ledger. Trial balances are usually prepared at the end of the reporting period to make sure that all credits and debits are equal. A suspense account may be added to the trial balance when there are understated or overstated balances that cannot be corrected before the end of the reporting period. Customers sometimes make partial payments on monthly loan or credit installments. Partial payments will be entered into a suspense account until the full payment is received.

Suspense AccountDefined & Explained along with Examples

Let’s suppose a company receives a cash sum of $500 but it cannot figure out who the money is from or what it is for. Let’s suppose you receive a payment from an unknown entity; or the sender is known but you are not sure which invoice they are paying for. Despite its mysterious connotations, “suspense” in this case simply refers to the fact that a transaction or its designation in a company’s books has been suspended temporarily, pending some further action. At Finance Strategists, we partner with financial experts to ensure the accuracy of our financial content.

When your trial balance is out of balance (i.e., the debits are larger than the credits or vice versa) then the difference is held in a suspense account until the imbalance is corrected. The suspense account will be listed under “Other Assets” on your trial balance sheet. Once you’ve found the source of the imbalance and corrected it, the suspense account will be closed and will no longer form part of the trial balance. A suspense account is one that temporarily records transactions that have yet to be assigned to their proper accounts. The suspense account is situated on the general ledger and is used to temporarily store specific transaction amounts.