Distribute Footnote Warranty For Free

Warranty costs and service agreement costs are not capitalized if the warranty costs or service agreement costs are listed as separate line items on the purchase orders or invoices. Otherwise, warranty costs and service agreement costs are capitalized with the value of the asset.

Use the following steps as a guide to account for warranty expenses: Find the total number of products sold.Determine the percentage of defective products.Calculate the number of products needing replacement.Evaluate the cost of product replacement.Estimate the total warranty expense.

To estimate the warranty expense for a company, we need to know three main things: Number of units sold during a particular accounting period. Percentage of the sold products that will probably need a repair or a replacement based on previous experiences. Average cost of repairing or replacing products under warranty.

To record the liability, the company would debit warranty expense and credit accrued warranty, which is a liability on the balance sheet. The purpose of this is to record the cost of the warranty in the same period that the revenue is recognized.

Warranty costs and service agreement costs are not capitalized if the warranty costs or service agreement costs are listed as separate line items on the purchase orders or invoices. Otherwise, warranty costs and service agreement costs are capitalized with the value of the asset.

An assurance-type warranty guarantees the product will perform as promised and is not a performance obligation. A service-type warranty provides an additional service to the customer and is a separate performance obligation.

You reduce, or amortize, the warranty liability as you receive warranty claims. The accounting entry is a debit to warranty liability and a credit to inventory or cash for the warranty costs in the period. You book no new expense when you repair or replace a warrantied item.