Article: For companies with a relatively large number of smaller accounts (customers that only buy small amounts of product), or companies that historically have experienced only a very small amount of unpaid accounts, the best and easiest option is to estimate the allowance as a percentage of sales. Calculate a reasonable percentage of sales by: Examining historical records of unpaid sales accounts. Look over your records and find out when sales accounts went unpaid. It's generally a good idea to look over the past five years and find out your total sales for each year and the total value of unpaid accounts for each year. Finding the average percentage of total sales that this debt accounted for. For each year, divide the value of unpaid accounts by your total sales figures. This will give you a percentage of total sales that went unpaid. Applying that percentage to the current sales figure. For example, if 3% of debts historically went unpaid, the company will adjust the allowance for doubtful accounts to 3% of total sales for the current accounting period. If your company deals with a relatively small number of clients, use an individualized risk analysis for each customer. This requires organizing clients into categories based on historical risk of unpaid accounts. For example, some clients might be deemed high-risk, while others might be low-risk or medium-risk. Each category is then assigned a doubtful accounts percentage that reflects the likeliness of customers in that category failing to pay their accounts. Multiply these percentages by total sales in each customer category to arrive at an estimated allowance for doubtful accounts. This method can be more art than science. For example, you cannot assign a historical risk rate to a new customer. In this case, you can use either a historical percentage of sales for all accounts (see previous step) or you can use your own personal judgement of the customer. Additionally, a customer that has historically let his purchases go unpaid may become more reliable with time or improving business. This might be reason enough to raise his risk rating higher than a historical analysis would suggest. For a more specific example, imagine a customer that has historically paid his debts every time or almost every time, perhaps only faltering once during hard times. Classify sales by this customer, and others like them, as "low-risk" and assign them a very low bad debt percentage, like 0.5%. Then, multiply this bad debt percentage by total sales in these accounts to get the bad debt expense for "low-risk" accounts. If your company has a large amount of clients, but also a few large clients that make up a disproportionate share of total sales, consider combining the two above methods. Specifically, use the risk analysis method for the larger clients and the percentage of sales method for the smaller clients. This requires separating total sales for large clients from total sales for smaller clients, but is more accurate than simply using a historical sales percentage across the board. Imagine for example that you have three clients that, combined, make up 60% of your total sales. All of these clients are in good standing and almost always pay for your products on time. Assign these clients a low bad debt allowance percentage, like 0.5%, and multiply this number by total sales to these customers to get an estimate bad debt expense. The other 40% of your business is made up of smaller customers that only order a few products at a time. For these customers, you would examine total unpaid debts and total sales to these customers to create a historical unpaid debt percentage to use for these customers, maybe at 4% or so. This additional option is for all types of customer bases, and is a more complex process that uses historical data to determine the likelihood of payment based on how many days past due an invoice is. Essentially, decide on an average point at which very late accounts typically become uncollectible accounts and estimate your doubtful accounts by age. This schedule categorizes accounts as either current (not due yet), 130 days late, 3060 days late, 6090 days late, or 90 plus days late. Figuring out bad debt percentages using this process is complicated and is generally best left to accounting software, which can calculate this information accurately and quickly.
Question: What is a summary of what this article is about?
Use a percentage of total sales. Use risk analysis. Use a combined analysis. Create a receivables aging schedule.

Problem: Article: Use this section to cool your food down to an edible temperature. Do not leave it sitting out for more than two hours. If you want to cool your food down for storing in the fridge or freezer, or if you think it will take longer than 2 hours for your food to cool, click here. A small amount of food will cool faster than a large amount of food. If you are trying to cool off a solid, such as a piece of steak or a potato, try cutting it into smaller pieces. If you are trying to cool off a liquid, try pouring it into a larger, but shallower containeror into two, smaller containers. The moving air will help shift the heat away from your food. Be sure to stir the food often so that it cools evenly. If you don't have a fan, try fanning it with a stiff sheet of paper or folder instead. You can also blow on your food, in a pinch. The food closest to the surface will cool down the fastest. By stirring your food up, you will be bringing the hot food up to the surface so that it can cool down. The already-cool food will sink to the bottom and help cool the rest of your meal down. Stir the soup every so often to help distribute the coldness. The one downside to this is that the melting ice can dilute the flavor of the soup. You can also use plastic, reusable ice cubes instead. They won't melt and release water into your soup. Press down on the bowl (or plate) so that it sits snugly on top of the pack. Stir the food every so often so that it cools evenly. Keep a lid over the food to keep moisture from building up in your fridge. Note that this should only be used for small, single-serving amounts of food. If you are trying to cool down an entire family meal, try one of the methods from this section instead. Avoid placing hot food into the freezer, however; this can cause the rest of the food in the freezer to thaw and spoil.
Summary: Don't leave your food out on the counter for too long. Divide the food into smaller portions. Set the food down in front of a fan. Stir or toss the food around in its bowl. Add an ice cube to hot soup. Place the bowl of food on top of a gel-filled ice pack. Place the over heated food in the fridge for about 3 minutes.

You will need one cup of epsom salt, one cup of baking soda, two tablespoons of liquid glycerin, and essential oils. Adding dried herbs or flowers can also add extra scent and beauty to your bath salts. Start by mixing the epsom salt and baking soda together. Then, add the liquid glycerin and combine well. Use as much scented oil as you would like, but make sure that you thoroughly mix it with all of the ingredients. Pour all of the bath salt mixture into a container with a lid, and store it between uses. Add a few tablespoons to hot bathwater and enjoy the skin-softening effects!
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One-sentence summary --
Measure your ingredients. Mix the ingredients. Store the finished product.