ACCOUNTANTS: "balance" means "due" or "money in acct for you"??

[oscar111]

Hi,
Liberal arts type needs help!!

can you help me on this?

I see on the account summary, the bare word "balance" and cannot tell if they mean "what i owe them", or "this is the balance of cash sitting in your acct and you owe nothing".

PS such confusing wording on a form.. is this a result of the guy who drew up the form being a turkey? Am i being fair? There are many turkeys in the net world, are there as many in accounting?

No offense, i just felt a need to get the real truth from an insider.

thanks,
oscar the dummy

[lizziegrace]

1. What kind of "account summary" are you talking about

A bank statement? A loan document? An invoice for services or merchandise?

[oscar111]

2. Hi, it is the electric bill

and hi again... you helped me just ysterday, and that was much appreciated!

It is the electric bill.

What do you think they mean? It is really ambiguous to me.

thanks,
oscar the ox

[Midlodemocrat]

4. I'm pretty sure that is the amount you owe. If they owed you,

it would show as a 'credit'. And, let's face, it, they never owe us.

[lizziegrace]

6. Balance from a supplier usually means money owed

unless there's a minus in front of it. But since that just confuses people more, the statement would say credit balance...

[oscar111]

8. thanks lizzie,

you've been a real help this week.

same, to midlodem.. seen him/her twice on my "newbie question" threads.

[lizziegrace]

10. Happy to help

:)

[oscar111]

3. will be back on thread in an hour, keep posting replies please

i will catch up on your fine ideas when i get back , have to do some chores here.

till then , i remain your loyal servant and etc.,
oscar

[IsIt1984Yet]

5. If it's a bill, as you've indicated - balance is what you owe them.

If they owed you, it'd be a negative balance.

[oscar111]

7. thanks! everyone. Much appreciated.. and some more grousing fm me

in general/

the word balance in my bank statement means just the

Opposite!

so the bare word should never be used to the public, i claim.

....ps... one mail order firm used the negative balance to pretend they did not really know what that meant, and used it to BILL me!


No doubt they owed me. I had all the papers to prove it.

slime.

[NewJeffCT]

9. It probably means you have a balance due

I'm an accountant - one of those rare librul ones.

I get confused by the terminology myself, sometimes, though.

[oscar111]

11. welcome, accountant

good to see you. I know there are good ones, as with every profession.

i hope you were not offended by my questions in the OP.

and the terminology is confusing. Is there any central terminology standards bureau for your field?

[NewJeffCT]

16. not offended at all

Other than an accounting textbook, I don't know if there is a master list of accounting terminology... there is the IRS, the FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board); GASB (Government ASB); the SEC, other regulatory agencies, etc that all have their own terminology. Heck, I work for an insurance company and we also have the NAIC and 50 different state insurance commissions to deal with, and a whole different type of accounting.

[lizziegrace]

12. so am I

and WCGreen too. We're not all conservatives...

[NewJeffCT]

13. Oh, there are a few

Underpants, I know. Liberalism is just less common among accountants than say, teachers.

[lizziegrace]

14. Absolutely

I worked for a Big 8 firm back in the 80's. Yikes...

[NewJeffCT]

17. that shows your age

and mine that I can name all the Big 8...
Arthur Young
Arthur Andersen
Peat Marwick
Deloitte Haskins & Sells
Touche Ross
Ernst & Whinney
Coopers & Lybrand
Price Waterhouse

I never worked in public accounting, though. Didn't have the grades in college to make the Big 8, and had a good opportunity in the private world when I got out of college, and did that.

[liontamer]

15. is it pos or neg?

on a bill, negative means they owe you

[Telly Savalas]

18. I'm not an accountant, but I work with a lot of accountants

and it's my understanding that a balance is something you use to weigh a bag of weed.