Accounts payable

Money your business owes to suppliers, vendors, or service providers for goods and services already received but not yet paid for. In UAE bookkeeping, proper AP management is essential for VAT reconciliation and cash flow forecasting.

AP sits on the liability side of your balance sheet. In UAE bookkeeping, managing AP well matters for two reasons: cash flow timing and VAT reconciliation. Every outstanding supplier invoice represents both a cash obligation and, if the supplier is VAT-registered, an input VAT amount you can potentially reclaim.

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Watch out: If you pay a supplier who issued a tax invoice but you never recorded the AP entry, you lose the input VAT reclaim. This is one of the most common bookkeeping errors in UAE SMEs.

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See also: Accounts Receivable (AR), Input VAT, Balance Sheet