Bad debt recovery definition
/What is Bad Debt Recovery?
A bad debt recovery is a payment received after it has been designated as uncollectible. This may occur after legal action has been taken to recover a receivable, as a partial payment from a bankruptcy administrator, the acceptance of equity in exchange for cancellation of the receivable, or some similar situation. It could also arise simply because an invoice was written off too soon, before all possible collection alternatives had been explored.
A bad debt recovery can also come from the sale of a borrower's collateral. For example, a lender might repossess a car after a borrower on a car loan has been delinquent in making payments. The lender sells the car, and the proceeds from the sale are considered a bad debt recovery.
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Credit and Collection Guidebook
Accounting for a Bad Debt Recovery
The accounting for a bad debt recovery is a two-step process, as noted below.
Step 1. Reverse Original Recordation
The first step is to reverse the original recordation of a bad debt. This means creating a debit to the accounts receivable asset account in the amount of the recovery, with the offsetting credit to the allowance for doubtful accounts contra asset account. If the original entry was instead a credit to accounts receivable and a debit to bad debt expense (the direct write-off method), then reverse this original entry.
Step 2. Record the Cash Receipt
The second step is to record the cash receipt from the bad debt recovery, which is a debit to the cash account and a credit to the accounts receivable asset account.