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Disbursements

Disbursements are payments of money from a business, fund, or account to outside parties, such as suppliers, employees, lenders, or shareholders, as opposed to money coming in.

What Are Disbursements?

Disbursements are outflows of cash. When a company, government agency, investment fund, or household pays money out to someone else, that payment is a disbursement. Common examples include paying a supplier's invoice, making payroll, repaying a loan installment, paying dividends to shareholders, or buying equipment. The term is used in both everyday budgeting and formal accounting, and it is the counterpart of receipts, which are amounts of money received.

How Disbursements Are Tracked

Organizations record disbursements in a cash flow statement, which groups cash outflows into operating, investing, and financing activities. Disbursements also appear in a general ledger and in bank records, where each payment reduces the account balance. Comparing planned disbursements with actual ones is a routine part of budgeting and cash management, because it shows whether spending is running ahead of or behind expectations.

Example

Suppose a small company starts a month with $50,000 in its bank account. During the month it receives $30,000 from customers and makes $42,000 in disbursements: $25,000 for salaries, $10,000 to suppliers, and $7,000 for rent and utilities. Its ending balance is $38,000. The disbursement total is what drives the decline, and the company can see from this figure how quickly its cash is being used.

Why It Matters to Investors

Disbursement figures help investors judge how a company spends its money. Large or rising outflows are not automatically bad, since a business may be investing in growth, but persistent outflows that exceed incoming cash can signal financial strain. Investors often read disbursements alongside revenue, operating cash flow, and debt payment schedules to get a fuller picture of a company's financial health.

Updated November 4, 2026. For general education only; not financial, tax or legal advice.

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Related Terms

Loan

A loan is a sum of money that a lender provides to a borrower, which the borrower agrees to repay over time, usually with interest and according to set terms.

Dividend

A dividend is a payment a company makes to its shareholders, usually in cash or additional shares, as a way of distributing part of its profits.

Receipt

A receipt is a document or record confirming that money was paid or received in a transaction, and in investing, a depositary receipt represents shares of a foreign company.

Cash Flow Statement

A cash flow statement is a financial report that summarizes the actual cash coming into and going out of a company over a set period, grouped into operating, investing, and financing activities.

General Ledger

The general ledger is a company's master record of all its financial transactions, organized into accounts, from which financial statements are prepared.

Cash Management

Cash management is the process of collecting, storing, monitoring and spending cash so that an individual or organization can meet obligations while keeping idle funds working productively.

Operating Cash Flow (OCF)

Operating cash flow is the cash a company generates from its regular business activities, excluding money from investing and financing, showing whether core operations produce enough cash to sustain themselves.

Accounts Payable (AP)

Accounts payable is the money a business owes to its suppliers and vendors for goods or services bought on credit, recorded as a short-term liability on its balance sheet.