Liabilities

1. Financial reporting - balance sheet.

In financial reporting, liabilities are present amounts or present obligations of a reporting entity arising from past transactions or events, the settlement of which may result in:

• The transfer or use of assets, for example payments of money
• The provision of services or
• Other yielding of economic benefits in the future.

Examples include overdrafts, trade payables, accruals and provisions.

Under the usual 'double entry' bookkeeping convention, liabilities are represented in the balance sheet by credit balances (often abbreviated to CR).

2. Lending - borrowing.

More generally, liabilities are any obligations or amounts owed to others (whether or not they are obligations of a financial reporting entity).

See also

• Accrual
• Assets
• Balance
• Balance sheet
• Capital
• Compound instrument
• Credit
• Credit balance
• Debit
• Disaggregation
• Discharge
• Equity
• Exemption clause
• Fair value
• Financial liability
• Financial reporting
• Indemnity clause
• Interest gap
• Liabilities and equity
• Mismatch
• Net assets
• Net worth
• Off balance sheet finance
• Offset
• Overdraft
• Provision
• Reporting entity
• Trade payables
• Wealth