What is the difference between bad debt and doubtful debt?

A bad debt is an account receivable that has been clearly identified as not being collectible. This means that you remove that specific account receivable from the accounts receivable account, usually by creating a credit memo in the billing software and then matching the credit memo against the original invoice; doing so removes both the credit memo and the invoice from the accounts receivable report.

A doubtful debt is an account receivable that might become a bad debt at some point in the future. You may not even be able to specifically identify which open invoice to a customer might be so classified. In this case, create a reserve account (also known as acontra account) for accounts receivable that may eventually become bad debts, estimate the amount of accounts receivable that may become bad debts in any given period, and create a credit to enter the amount of your estimate in this reserve account, which is known as the allowance for doubtful accounts. The debit in the transaction is to the bad debt expense.

Bad Debt is the confirmed amount which we won't recover and doubtful debt is the doubtful amount which may or may not be receive

Thanks for the invitation

Bad debt means the amount of money that is not gonna get from the debtors and doubtful debt means debtors might pay or not. Doubtful debt is considered during creation of provision for bad dept.

Addressing these two terms in perspective of banking that Bad Debt is an account which is write off means at financial closing certain amounts of account for which an already created reserve account will be debited and bad debt will be credited.

On the other side doubtful bad debt is the reserve account with certain amount which we create whenever our debts/loans become delinquent.

In Pakistan Loans classified as Substandard when overdue amount is still unpaid for more than 90 days,i this scenario bank park 25% of outstanding principle amount as allowance for bad debt to fulfill the accounting standards at the time of expected/doubtful default of the loan amount.

Bad debts are the debts which are assumed that cannot be recovered while doubtful debts are the debts which can be collected in future.

A bad debt is an amount that is written off by the business as a loss to the business and classified as an expense because the debt owed to the business is unable to be collected, and all reasonable efforts have been exhausted to collect the amount owed. This usually occurs when the debtor has declared bankruptcy or the cost of pursuing further action in an attempt to collect the debt exceeds the debt itself.

oubtful debts are those debts which a business or individual is unlikely to be able to collect. The reasons for potential non payment can include disputes over supply, delivery, and conditions of goods or the appearance of financial stress within a customer’s operations. When such a dispute occurs it is prudent to add this debt or portion thereof to the doubtful debt reserve. This is done to avoid over-stating the assets of the business, as trade debtors are reported net of Doubtful debt. When there is no longer any doubt that a debt is uncollectable the debt becomes bad.

Doubtful debts are those debts which a business or individual is unlikely to be able to collect. The reasons for potential non-payment can include disputes over supply, delivery, the condition of item or the appearance of financial stress within a customer's operations

Bad debts are amount owed to a business that can not be recovered after all possible efforts have been made to recover them.

WHILST doubtful debts are amounts owed to a business that are unlikely to be recovered.

Parting is that bad debts have been written off and did not get it either never Institute for Economic doubtful debts it is possible to be collected in the case to prove that these debts are not collected

Bad debt is a specifically identified account receivable that will not be paid and so should be written off at once, while a doubtful debt is one that may become a bad debt in the future and for which it may be necessary to create an allowance for doubtful accounts.

http://www.vantageacceptance.com/debt-consolidation-debt-relief/