- Reporting current liabilities on the financial statements
As you can see from The Home Depot, Inc. partial balance sheet, current liabilities are presented in some detail. Income taxes payable are presented as a separate line item even though the amount is much smaller than the others, rather than being included in “Other accrued expenses” because it is of interest to investors.
| in millions, except per share data | February 2, 2020 | February 3, 2019 |
|---|---|---|
| Subcategory, Current liabilities: | ||
| Short term debt | $ 974 | $ 1,339 |
| Accounts payable | 7,787 | 7,755 |
| Accured salaries and related expenses | 1,494 | 1,506 |
| Sales taxes payable | 605 | 656 |
| Deferred revenue | 2,116 | 1,782 |
| Income taxes payable | 55 | 11 |
| Current installments of long-term debt | 1,839 | 1,056 |
| Current operating lease liabilities | 828 | – |
| Other accrued expenses | 2,677 | 2,611 |
| Total current liabilities | Single line 18,375 |
Single line 16,716 |
| Single line | Single line | |
On this balance sheet, short term debt is listed before accounts payable which indicates it may be rolled over even more rapidly than the regular trade payables, which are probably 30-day due dates. More information on that line item is available in Note 4 of the financials, along with information on the current portion of long-term debt and leases.
Look up any publicly traded company’s financial statements, and you’ll see on the balance sheet, current liabilities are reported separately from long-term liabilities. We will be covering long-term liabilities in detail in another module.