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Suspense a/c

Neeti (Student) (235 Points)

06 July 2012

Dear Members,

I have a query.Suppose there is a large amount (in lakhs) in suspense A/c.How shall the same be disclosed in books of accounts while preparing a balance sheet?Kindly advise.

Thnx & Regards

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4 Replies

Aarush (Delhi) (1566 Points)
Replied 07 July 2012

Suspense account can have many reasons but simply its the difference between the credit and debit side of the trial balance resulting in the books out of balance.
Remember suspense account is created to balance the books.... it is not created to account for something missing... of course it means that somehow only one side of a transaction was posted initially.
Suspense account is shown as an asset or liability on the balance sheet although.. it reflects very poorly on the accountant. Normally suspense accounts are eliminated before financial statements are drawn up (taken to income or expense unless material) and in modern accounting systems (computer based), these kind of accounts are thing of the past.
There is another category of suspense account where e.g. we receive cash from our customers but do not have enough identification to credit it to their account; these are sometimes called unapplied cash/ unidentified cash. However, this does not affect the balance of the books as the problem lies in the subsdiary ledgers only.

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Neeti (Student) (235 Points)
Replied 07 July 2012

Thnx Gaurav. Yes,some noney has been received but the accountants do not know where it came from.Hence they have maintained it under suspense A/c.Can you give me an example of how the same can be eliminated?

Aarush (Delhi) (1566 Points)
Replied 07 July 2012

Group it under Debtors account i assume that customer paid their debt to your company on account.

after this process your suspence account eliminate and you will able to finalize your balance sheet.

after that request to each debtor/s to proide their account statement so that you know from where you realised that money, or track with bank statement from where you realised that money.

CA RAJAN (CHARTERED ACCOUNTANT) (22 Points)
Replied 07 July 2012

AGREE WITH GAURAV G, BUT YOU MUST KNOW THE NATURE OF AMOUNT RECEIVED, IT MAY BE MATURITY OF ANY INVESTMENT WHICH YOU HAVE DONE EARLIER SO BEFORE FINALIZE YOU STATEMENTS YOU MUST CLEAR ALL SUSPENSE ACCOUNTS .