When, for whatever reason, it is determined that an individual account should be removed from the normal accounts receivable system, that is called a Write-off . Write-off means credit Accounts Receivable . If the business knew that a customer were not going to pay, they would not sell to the customer on credit terms. Businesses take the risk and sell to customers on credit to increase sales. Businesses realize that there will eventually be Bad Debts for which to account, they just don't know which customers at the time of the sale.
Different texts use different names for the expense account.
For simplicity, think of Bad Debt Expense and Uncollectible Accounts Expense as the same. Do nothing until you Write-off an account. There is only one entry. Establish a contra account to Accounts Receivable to hold an estimate of what will be written off in the future. Does not match revenues to expenses or report expenses when they actually occur.