Glossary
Accrual
If you pay an annual insurance of 12,000 kr. in January, January has not become 12,000 kr. more expensive than February. An accrual spreads the amount over the twelve months it covers, so each month's result shows that month's costs. The principle applies to expenses and income alike. In Danish it is periodisering.
Updated 21 October 2026
What is an accrual?
The basic rule is that a cost belongs to the period in which the service is consumed, and an income to the period in which it is earned. A prepaid expense is therefore first booked on a balance sheet account for prepaid costs and moved to the cost account month by month. The other way round, a cost you have not yet received an invoice for has to be owed in the period, for example the accountant's work on the annual accounts.
Example: the insurance of 12,000 kr. is paid on 2 January and booked on prepaid costs. Every month a voucher moves 1,000 kr. to the insurance cost account. At the end of the financial year the whole amount has been expensed and the balance account is zero. Accruals matter most at the turn of the year, because the annual report must show the year's costs, neither more nor less.
Accrual in Veneti
In Veneti an accrual is a general journal entry in the journal: the cost account as the account, the prepaid costs account as the offset account and the month's amount, dated in the month it belongs to. The reports show the journal's entries beside the booked ones, so you can see the month's result with the accrual before it is booked. Profit and loss under Reporting then shows each month with its share.
If you are unsure which accounts to use, you can ask Luca. The basics of debit and credit: Bookkeeping for beginners.
Related terms
- General journal entry: the voucher an accrual is written on.
- Financial year: the period the annual report has to hit exactly.
- Income statement: what the accrual makes true.