what is the difference between bad debt expense and write off
You determine that a customer who owes you $180 is never going to pay. To write off the debt, reduce both accounts receivable and the allowance by the amount of the bad debt -- $180. You now have an accounts receivable balance of $19,820 and an allowance of $120. Net accounts receivable remains the same: $19,700.hey do this by taking bad-debt expenses and performing write-offs. A bad-debt expense anticipates future losses, while a write-off is a bookkeeping maneuver that simply acknowledges that a loss has occurred.