Lynda ArtesaniLegal Accountant and Data Migration Specialist at The Proper Trust

Accounting Confusion - Cash vs Accrual Basis

23 Jun 2025 · 0 min

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0:23

In this brief monologue, the speaker recounts a situation where they provided cash-basis financial reports to a coach who expected accrual-basis reports for their analysis. The discrepancy caused surprise and required the speaker to explain the fundamental differences between cash and accrual accounting. Additionally, the speaker notes the presence of many open invoices, indicating further discussion needed about outstanding receivables and their treatment under each accounting method.

Your numbers are drastically different than mine and something's got to be wrong. I just pulled it down for the coach. I pulled those financials down for the coach and their reports in accrual basis. And I gave them cash basis reports because that's how they do their taxes. And then if I bring that up, they're like, oh, oh wow. Oh, I didn't realize that. And what's— then you have to explain to them what the difference is. And you know, you have a lot of open invoices and that's another whole conversation. That's it.