ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DEFINITION OF “ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE” AND METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO ITS CLASSIFICATION

Abstract

The current problems of accounts receivable management are investigated in the article. The purpose of the article is to study the existing approaches to the essence and methodological approaches to the classification of accounts receivable of an enterprise. It has been found that accounts receivable constitute the lion’s share of current assets and are an important factor in stabilizing the financial condition of an enterprise since its management should be based on the optimal ratio between liquidity and profitability. It is revealed that the essence of accounts receivable is considered by scientists according to their scientific interests through the prism of economics, law, and accounting. It is proved that the essence of accounts receivable can be based on the concept of crediting under the economic approach; on the concept of an asset (property) under the accounting approach and on the concept of debt under the legal approach. The use of economic, accounting, and legal approaches to understanding the nature of accounts receivable will make it possible to increase the efficiency of its management at an enterprise and to distribute functional responsibilities between the enterprise services involved in the process of formation and repayment of accounts receivable. It is established that the classification of accounts receivable is an effective method of studying this phenomenon, and provides an opportunity to identify the causes of occurrence, existence, and composition of accounts receivable to apply effective methods and tools for its management. The classification of accounts receivable, which is the starting point for building analytical accounting of settlements with buyers and customers at an enterprise, is studied. It has been found that the classification allows the allocation of the general principles of the division of accounts receivable into types and identifies their specific features. Specific directions for improving the classification of accounts receivable based on its division by the tax status of debtors and by counterparties of business processes of the enterprise are formulated, which will improve the information support of tax management.