Provision pour dépréciation des C/C

English translation: provision for impairment of accounts receivable

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

French term or phrase:	Provision pour dépréciation des C/C
English translation:	provision for impairment of accounts receivable
Entered by:	Joshua Parker

19:29 Apr 10, 2020

French to English translations [PRO]
Bus/Financial - Accounting / État des provisions / Rapport du commissaire aux comptes

French term or phrase: Provision pour dépréciation des C/C

One line in a table entitled "État des provisions", part of a statutory auditor's report for a French company.

C/C = créances clients ? comptes clients ? comptes courants ? I have found results for all three.

The surrounding rows are as follows:

Provision pour dépréciation des titres
Provision pour dépréciation des prêts
**Provision pour dépréciation des C/C**
Sur stocks et en cours
Provision pour dépréciation clients douteux

The other columns are "Solde au 31.12.17", "Dotations", "Reprises", "Solde au 31.12.18".

Into U.S. English.

Joshua Parker KudoZ activity Questions: 149 (none open) (7 without valid answers) (6 closed without grading) Answers: 160 Mexico
Local time: 07:10

provision for impairment of accounts receivable

Explanation:
To get this right, you have to know that "depreciation" is not depreciation (which would be "amortisement'… except that in English, depreciation applies only to tangible assets, so couldn't apply to accounts receivable anyway) but rather impairment.

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Note added at 13 hrs (2020-04-11 08:36:43 GMT)
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Just noticed that the first occurrence of "dépréciation" in my explanation above has no accents. Damnable autocorrect.

Selected response from:

Rob Grayson
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:10

Grading comment

This is what I used; many thanks to Adrian, too, who I acknowledge did a lot of the heavy lifting here.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

5 +3

provision for impairment of accounts receivable

Rob Grayson

4 +1

(US) bad debts allowance for uncollectible accounts (UK) Bad debts provision for receivables

Adrian MM.

Answers

18 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +1

Provision pour dépréciation des C/C > comptes clients (US) bad debts allowance for uncollectible accounts (UK) Bad debts provision for receivables

Explanation:
Note, otherwise, the terms of art of depreciation *allowance* in the USA and depreciation *charge* in the UK for the 'provision' component.

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Note added at 49 minutes (2020-04-10 20:19:33 GMT)
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Point taken, Joshua, but I disagree that a bad and doubtful debt are the same thing and treated the same way in the a/cs, namely a bad debt is written off until paid - sometimes happens when it is brought back into the a/c and taxed accordingly. A doubtful debt is still a 'live' issue and account receivable:

'It is highly unlikely that the provision for doubtful debts will always exactly match the amount of invoices that are actually unpaid, since it is only an estimate. Thus, you will need to adjust the balance in this account over time to bring it into closer alignment with the ongoing best estimate of bad debts.'

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Note added at 1 heure (2020-04-10 20:51:58 GMT)
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Wouldn't normal (i.e. non-bad) receivables also depreciate over time...

I believe 'depreciation' is a faux ami here. Bad debts don't depreciate in AmE / BrE: they are written off or written back if recovered....

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Note added at 2 heures (2020-04-10 21:46:15 GMT)
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Yes, impairment of *trade receivables*: good one, IAS 36 being re-issued in 2014, so 40 years after my 'time' https://www2.deloitte.com/ng/en/pages/audit/articles/financi...

Example sentence(s):

In accountancy we refer to such receivables as Irrecoverable Debts or Bad Debts. Accounting entry required to write off a bad debt is as follows: Debit Bad Debt
The provision for doubtful debts is the estimated amount of bad debt that will arise from accounts receivable that have been issued but not yet collected. It is identical to the allowance for doubtful accounts.

Reference: http://www.proz.com/personal-glossaries/entry/13571347-provi...
Reference: http://accounting-simplified.com/accounting-for-bad-debts.ht...

Adrian MM.
Austria
Specializes in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 41

Notes to answerer

Asker: The last part is "accounts receivable" in the U.S., I think (which is what I had). C/C = créances clients? As opposed to bad debt "doubtful accounts", accounted for in the last line "Provision pour dépréciation clients douteux" - otherwise it would seem to be saying the same thing twice...?

Asker: OK - but where did you get "bad debts" from in the source? Wouldn't normal (i.e. non-bad) receivables also depreciate over time, between invoicing and actual payment?

Asker: Ah, yes, of course. I was confusing it with "amortissement" (which of course has the added difficulty of translating it as amortization vs. depreciation). But couldn't "impairment" work for "dépréciation"?

1 hr confidence:

peer agreement (net): +3

provision for impairment of accounts receivable

Rob Grayson
United Kingdom
Local time: 15:10
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 156

Grading comment

This is what I used; many thanks to Adrian, too, who I acknowledge did a lot of the heavy lifting here.

Notes to answerer

Asker: Right you are!

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English translation: provision for impairment of accounts receivable

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