AWRA OpsHub Search

Accounting · Definition

Accrued Expense

A cost incurred but not yet invoiced or paid.

An accrued expense recognises a liability for something already consumed but not yet billed — electricity used, services delivered, goods received without an invoice. It is posted at period end and reversed when the invoice arrives.

Accruals are where period-end judgement lives. Understating them flatters current profit at the cost of the next period, so the estimates need to be evidence-based, not convenient.

Also called

  • accrual
  • accrued liability

Related terms

Accrual Accounting

Recognising income and expenses when they are earned or incurred, not when cash moves.

Prepaid Expense

A payment made in advance for benefit not yet received.

Goods Received Not Invoiced

GRNI

Stock received into the books before the supplier invoice has arrived.

Accounts Payable

AP

Money your business owes to suppliers for goods or services received.

More in Accounting

Accounts Receivable (AR) Aging Report Bad Debt Provision Balance Sheet Bank Reconciliation Break-Even Point Budget Variance Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC)

Accrued Expense is not just a definition here

Accounting runs on this vocabulary every day in AWRA OpsHub — 51 of our 257 glossary terms describe things the platform actually does.

Take the product tour Book a demo