What Is a Suspense Account? How It Works, Types, and Example

Automatically identify intercompany exceptions and underlying transactions causing out-of-balances with rules-based solutions to resolve discrepancies quickly. On 1 September 20X8, Michelle had a balance outstanding owed to one of her suppliers of $400. That supplier also had a balance outstanding owed to Michelle of $500. Michelle and the supplier agreed to settle the balance owed to Michelle through a contra entry.

Once you have checked invoices and other correspondence and confirmed with the client or customer, you can then move the amount to the appropriate account. If an expense is incurred, the benefit of which is received by more than one account, such an expense can temporarily be placed in a suspense account. Later, the entries can be transferred to the relevant accounts at the appropriate ratio. Because the suspense account reflects transactions that are not fully documented or properly assigned, it can be hard to know on which side of the ledger they belong.

Suspense account definition

Investing and brokerage suspense accounts temporarily hold investors’ funds until the money is allocated towards the purchase of new investments. While other trial balance errors do exist (e.g., error of omission, commission, principle, original entry, reversal of entries), they do not affect the suspense account. Another instance in which having a suspense account comes in handy is when a trial balance is out of balance, meaning the debit and credit columns do not match. As can be seen the original entry to the suspense accounts is reversed, so the balance on the account is zero. Having been correctly identified, the interest expense account now contains the correct amount of 1,000.

There are several situations for holding an entry in a suspense account. A general ledger is where a business records its assets and liabilities on an ongoing basis, broken into separate categories or accounts. Suspense accounts are used for assets or liabilities that require further clarification before they can be assigned a permanent place in the ledger. Similarly, if a borrower pays more than they owe for a particular month—without designating how those funds should be applied—the servicer may put the extra money into a suspense account for the time being. A mortgage servicer can use a suspense account to hold funds when a borrower falls short on their required monthly loan repayment, possibly by accident.

Placing the suspense account on the balance sheet

Most businesses clear out their suspense accounts monthly or quarterly. This product integrates with all major ERP systems, importing the item count, aging, and business justification details of suspense accounts on a periodic basis. This allows all suspense accounts to be monitored and reported on from one centralized location.

Explore offerings that unlock new transformation opportunities and make transformation a reality. Create, review, and approve journals, then electronically certify, post them to and store them with all supporting documentation. Automatically create, populate, and post journals to your ERP based on your rules. 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.

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Because transactions in a https://simple-accounting.org/nonprofit-bookkeeper-vs-accountant-who-should-you/ are unallocated, the account should be considered temporary. Transactions that are booked before an allocation is made to the appropriate cost or profit center will be recorded in the suspense account until they can be properly assigned. A partial payment occurs when a customer does not pay the full amount owed for a transaction. Partial payments can come in many different forms, such as a deposit on a real estate transaction or an upfront payment for a service order.

Timely, reliable data is critical for decision-making and reporting throughout the M&A lifecycle. Without accurate information, organizations risk making poor business decisions, paying too much, issuing inaccurate financial statements, and other errors. To sustain timely performance of daily activities, banking and financial services organizations are turning to modern accounting and finance practices. However, it is important to remember that items in a suspense account represent unallocated amounts. As a result, having a suspense account presented on the financial statements with a balance is generally viewed negatively and can weaken the statement to outside investors. Thus, effort should be made to clear suspense accounts at the end of each financial period.

Dictionary Entries Near suspense account

BlackLine and our ecosystem of software and cloud partners work together to transform our joint customers’ finance and accounting processes. Together, we provide innovative solutions that help F&A teams achieve shorter close cycles and better controls, enabling them to drive better decision-making across the company. A Accounting for a Non-Profit Organization is essentially a bookkeeping technique for keeping track of funds for a brief period until particular issues are resolved. A business can use a suspense account to record payments it has received but that can’t be properly accounted for until certain missing information (such as an invoice number) is obtained. In mortgage servicing, it is a way for the servicer to record incomplete monthly payments until the borrower has made the payment in full. Brokerage firms also use suspense accounts to, for example, keep track of a customer’s money between the time they sell an investment and when they reinvest that money.