Back Charge Meaning

Examples

  • Mr. X is a vendor who supplies raw materialsRaw MaterialsRaw materials inventory is the cost of products in the inventory of the company which has not been used for finished products and work in progress inventory. Raw material inventory is part of inventory cost which is reported under current assets on the balance sheet.read more to his customers. Each month Mr. X sends a bill of $500 to his customer. In March, Mr. X sent a similar bill of $500. After sending the bill, Mr. X realized that raw materials had increased. Next month, Mr. X sent a back charge of the increased amount along with the current month’s bill. So this charge was due to an error caused by Mr. X. The charge will be an extra burden to the customer.Bank XYZ planned to increase the service fee of their credit cards from January. The bank didn’t inform the customers until February. So in February, back charges were sent to customers along with interest. It is common for credit card issuing banks as the interest is charged daily, and they try to delay the communication to the customers to charge interest on the charges.

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Who can take Back Charge?

A back charge can be taken by suppliers, service providers, or any company engaged in a transaction with other parties. Whenever a company produces a bill for services or goods supplied, they have the authority to produce such a charge in case of an error in billing or default in the payment received from the customers.

Back Charge vs. Change Order

The entire billing amount changes as the quantity changes and items change. The back charge doesn’t require any authorization as this is an outstanding expense that the supplier forgot to charge to the customer. On the other hand, the change order is a modification of the existing order and requires authorization. Say the customer ordered a particular arrangement, and due to some reason, if the supplier/customer is changing the order, then it will require authorization.

Advantages

  • It allows suppliers to recover money if a wrong bill was sent to the customer. If the previous bill were less than the original revised bill, the supplier would lose. It also allows suppliers to recover money in case of mistakes in the billing process.If customers fail to make previous payments, then back charges give them another opportunity to clear dues and continue the transaction with the supplier. If there were no such mechanism, then a single default in bill payment would have ended the relationship between supplier and customer.These charges either increase your accounts payableAccounts PayableAccounts payable is the amount due by a business to its suppliers or vendors for the purchase of products or services. It is categorized as current liabilities on the balance sheet and must be satisfied within an accounting period.read more, if you are a customer or, increase accounts receivableAccounts ReceivableAccounts receivables is the money owed to a business by clients for which the business has given services or delivered a product but has not yet collected payment. They are categorized as current assets on the balance sheet as the payments expected within a year.
  • read more if you are a supplier. So this is important in accounting. The auditor needs the true picture of accounts receivable or payable to draw financial statementsFinancial StatementsFinancial statements are written reports prepared by a company’s management to present the company’s financial affairs over a given period (quarter, six monthly or yearly). These statements, which include the Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Cash Flows, and Shareholders Equity Statement, must be prepared in accordance with prescribed and standardized accounting standards to ensure uniformity in reporting at all levels.read more correctly.

This has been a guide to what back charge is, and its meaning. Here we discuss examples and who can take back charge along with advantages. You may learn more about financing from the following articles –

  • 363 Sale DefinitionFinance ChargeCredit PeriodDays Payable OutstandingBilling Statement Template