Thursday, August 22, 2013

Total Liabilities and Total Current Liabilities explained

Total Liabilities

Total liabilities consist of current liabilities and long term liabilities. Current liabilities are the liabilities that the firm is to pay in the current year where long term liabilities like bonds payable, mortgage payable, long-term notes payable, lease liabilities, and pension liabilities those the firm is to pay after one year or after the current financial year. This is presented in the balance sheet side by side with total assets to show exact financial picture of an organization.

Importance of Total Liabilities

Every firm must correctly and precisely calculate its total liabilities to compare those liabilities with assets outstanding currently. This also helps compare total liabilities in previous years and total liabilities of its competitors. This is also an important indicator of future performance of the organization.

Total Current Liabilities

Total current liabilities are the obligations that the organization is to pay within the coming year. Most common forms of current liabilities are accounts payable, wages payable, bank loan payable, interest payable, and taxes payable. Summation of all these current liabilities will be total current liabilities. Current maturities of long-term obligations are also included in the total current liabilities. This is included under total liability of balance sheet.

Importance of Total Current Liabilities

Total current liabilities are used to find out current ratio which helps us to know the company’s ability to pay all the current obligations with the current assets the company currently holds. Having more current liabilities indicate that the firm is not efficient in managing its liabilities properly where the firm must maintain more carefully to sustain in the market. Current ratio facilitates comparison of the firm’s ability to pay current obligations with that of its competitors.

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