[Meli083]

Hello,

I am starting two Accounting classes in the University of South Carolina, Financial Accounting and Survey of Commercial Law.
I already earned credits from my GCE's in accounting from a year ago. Right now I am having trouble with Financial Accounting and figuring out the main differences between the UK system and the US system of Accounting. I have searched near and far but can't seem to find the main differences. Now I am starting homework and do not know what to do.
So what are the differences? For example, does accounts payable=creditors and accounts receivable=debtors? I need to know the differences so I can start on my homework.

[morgaine300]

It sounds like you're having more issues with terms, which will be different. I've had trouble with posts on here because I know how to do the material, but not the terms being used. It could also be taught differently.

However, I don't know that there's any way that someone would just have some kind of list of every possible difference that exists. In terms of the rules themselves, you might be able to Google and find that. I have an updated intermediate accounting book that goes over some basic differences in rules, without details. But that is about GAAP rules, not about technicalities like whether a payable is a creditor. I suspect that's nothing but U.S. vocabulary you're having trouble with.

A payable is a creditor, although there are some payables I personally would not term that way. (For instance, salaries payable. That's due to the employees and I wouldn't call them 'creditors.') Payables are what you owe to someone else. Receivables are what other people owe to you. Receivables are an asset because it represents something you have a claim on - it's the promise of someone else to pay you. Whether you want to call it a debtor or not depends on whose side you want to look on. The customer is the debtor, but no one I know would call receivables "debtors." Accounts (or trade) receivables is your everyday customers and clients - that's just extending short-term credit to your customers, paid like in 30-60 days. You may also see Notes Receivable, which then is a promissory note, with terms, interest, etc. (But you must specify that it's a Notes Receivable.) You can also have like interest receivable or other things that are not related to your normal everyday business dealings. If you just say "receivables" that's mostly implying accounts receivable.

If you need to deal with differences between rules, I just did a Google for "GAAP vs i..." and it popped up with a list of stuff just from that. Here's just one site:
IFRS GAAP | International Financial Reporting Standards | Accounting, Accountant | Barry Epstein, Ph.D., CPA, Author, Expert

If it's basic vocabulary or methods (not rules) you're having trouble with, just ask as you run across things and someone can try to help. It's easier for me to just say how we do things, cause I don't know what all the differences are, but we do have lots of non-U.S. people around - guess it depends on whether they've been reading enough to recognize some of these differences.