Payment for goods and services: cash and accounts receivable

[blank_start]The maker of a note[blank_end] is the person or firm making the promise to pay.

[blank_start]Segregation of duties[blank_end] means that the person who has physical custody of an asset is not the same person who has record-keeping responsibilities for that asset.

[blank_start]Accounts receivable[blank_end] is a current asset that arises from sales on credit; it is also the total amount customers owe the firm.

An [blank_start]outstanding check[blank_end] is a check the firm has written but that has not yet cleared the bank. That is, the check has not been presented to the bank for payment yet.

The [blank_start]allowance method[blank_end] is a method of accounting for bad debts in which the amount of the uncollectible accounts is estimated at the end of end accounting period.

A [blank_start]bank reconciliation[blank_end] is a comparison between the cash balance in the firm´s accounting records and the cash balance on the bank statement to identify the reasons for any differences.

Net realizable value is a bank deposit the firm has made but is not included on the month´s bank statement because the deposit did not reach the bank´s recorded-keeping department in time to be included on the current bank statement.

The allowance for uncollectible accounts is a contra-asset account, the balance of which represents the total amount the firm believes it will not collect from its total accounts receivable.

Bad debts are highly liquid investments with a maturity of three months or less that a firm can easily convert into a known amount of cash.

[blank_start]A bank statement[blank_end] is a summary of the activity in a bank account sent each month to the account holder.