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accounts payable

Definition

accounts payable

Accounts payable is a liability account in the general ledger (GL). Accounts payable documents money the business owes for purchases of goods or services.

Accounts receivable can be contrasted with accounts receivable, an asset account in the GL that documents money owed to a business by customers who have purchases goods or services on credit.

Accounts receivable, accounts payable and payroll are oftenlisted as the top three mission-critical business processes in a disaster recovery plan (DRP).

Related glossary terms: asset liability management, BIC (bank identifier code), e-invoicing, chart of accounts (COA), account, SQL-ledger, general ledger (GL), AR-to-GL reconciliation, BAI2 file format, ghost asset

This was last updated in March 2012

Posted by: Margaret Rouse

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