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Accounting · Definition

Bad Debt Provision

An estimated allowance for receivables you do not expect to collect.

A bad debt provision reduces the carrying value of receivables to what you realistically expect to recover, usually by applying loss rates to each aging bucket.

It is prudence, not defeat — recognising likely losses in the period the risk arose rather than the period the debt is finally abandoned. A specific provision targets a known problem debtor; a general one covers the portfolio.

Also called

  • allowance for doubtful debts
  • expected credit loss

See it in AWRA OpsHub

Aging Reports

Bad Debt Provision 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.