Credit loss journal entries: the allowance, write-offs and recoveries
The entries an allowance needs at a period end, under US GAAP and IFRS 9, worked through with the FASB’s own example. Bring your aging report or loan tape and the calculator writes yours, from your own figures.
Credit loss allowance
The allowance, the journal entry and a draft disclosure note.
The period-end entry
The allowance is a balance, so the entry posts how far it has to move — not the balance itself. Write-offs have already taken it down during the period, and under US GAAP recoveries have put some back, so both come out of the figure:
provision = closing allowance − opening allowance + write-offs − recoveries
Debit credit loss expense and credit the allowance by that amount. A negative provision is a release, and the entry runs the other way. Under IFRS 9 the same entry is the impairment gain or loss that brings the loss allowance to the amount required at the reporting date (IFRS 9.5.5.8), posted to “impairment loss on financial assets”.
The FASB's Example 9, run here
Bank K’s loan to Entity L has an amortized cost of $500,000 and an allowance of $375,000. Entity L files for bankruptcy and the loan is written off; two years later $50,000 is recovered (ASC 326-20-55-51 to 55-53). The example is a loan measured on its own. The entries are the same for a receivable. The amounts below come from the calculator’s own provision formula, and each matches the ASU.
The write-off
Nothing of the loan is expected, so the allowance it needs is the whole $500,000. It holds $375,000, so the provision is closing $0 (the loan is gone) − opening $375,000 + written off $500,000 = $125,000, as the ASU records it. Then the loan comes off against the allowance.
| Dr | Credit loss expense | $125,000 |
| Cr | Allowance for credit losses | $125,000 |
| Dr | Allowance for credit losses | $500,000 |
| Cr | Loan receivable | $500,000 |
The recovery
The cash goes back into the allowance. At the quarter end the estimate is unchanged, so the allowance is now $50,000 more than it needs to be, and the provision is ($50,000) — a release, as the ASU records it.
| Dr | Cash | $50,000 |
| Cr | Allowance for credit losses | $50,000 |
| Dr | Allowance for credit losses | $50,000 |
| Cr | Credit loss expense | $50,000 |
The ASU allows the shorter route too: credit the $50,000 straight to credit loss expense. Profit is the same either way (55-53).
Under IFRS 9
- The period-end entry is the impairment gain or loss that adjusts the loss allowance to the amount required (5.5.8): closing, less opening, plus write-offs.
- A write-off directly reduces the gross carrying amount once there is no reasonable expectation of recovery, and it is a derecognition event (5.4.4). Against the loss allowance, the entry is the same as above.
- IFRS 7.35L asks for the contractual amount still outstanding on assets written off in the period and still subject to enforcement.
What the calculator does with this
On its last step it asks for the allowance you were carrying at the start of the period, what was written off and, under US GAAP, what was recovered — and writes the entry and the roll-forward from them. Without the opening figure it leaves a placeholder rather than posting the closing balance. See it on the CECL calculator or the IFRS 9 provision matrix.
Questions
What is the journal entry for the allowance for credit losses?
- Debit credit loss expense and credit the allowance for the provision: the change in the allowance once write-offs and recoveries are taken out. Closing allowance, less opening, plus write-offs, less recoveries. A negative figure is a release, and the entry reverses.
Why is the entry not the closing allowance?
- Because the allowance is a balance that already holds every earlier provision. Posting the closing figure each period would charge the same losses again every year.
How is a write-off recorded?
- Debit the allowance and credit the receivable (ASC 326-20-35-8; under IFRS 9 a write-off directly reduces the gross carrying amount, 5.4.4). The loss reaches profit or loss through the allowance, not the write-off: where the allowance does not yet cover the balance, it is topped up first — by $125,000 in the FASB's Example 9.
How is a recovery of a written-off amount recorded under CECL?
- Debit cash and credit the allowance, then true the allowance up to the current estimate through credit loss expense — or credit the expense directly. ASC 326-20-55-53 shows both, and they give the same result.
What does IFRS 9 call the entry?
- An impairment gain or loss: the amount needed to adjust the loss allowance to what the standard requires at the reporting date, recognised in profit or loss (IFRS 9 5.5.8). IFRS 7 35L asks for the contractual amount still outstanding on assets written off in the period and still subject to enforcement.