What is a short term asset?

A short term asset is an asset that is to be sold, converted to cash, or liquidated to pay for liabilities within one year. In the rare cases where the operating cycle of a business is longer than one year (such as in the lumber industry), the applicable period is the operating cycle of the business, rather than one year. An operating cycle is the time period from when materials are acquired for production or resale to the point when cash is received from customers in payment for those materials or the products from which they are derived.

All of the following are typically considered to be short term assets:

• Cash
• Marketable securities
• Accounts receivable
• Prepaid expenses (such as prepaid rent or prepaid insurance)
• Inventory

If it is anticipated that any prepaid expenses will not be charged to expense within one year, then they must instead be classified as long-term assets.

Similar Terms

A short term asset is the same as a current asset.

Related Topics

Prepaid expenses accounting 
Prepaid rent accounting