Accrued interest

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1. A term used to describe an accrual accounting method when interest that is either payable or receivable has been recognized, but not yet paid or received. Accrued interest occurs as a result of the difference in timing of cash flows and the measurement of these cash flows.

2. The interest that has accumulated on a bond since the last interest payment up to, but not including, the settlement date.

Investopedia Says:
1. For example, accrued interest receivable occurs when interest on an outstanding receivable has been earned by the company, but has not yet been received. A loan to a customer for goods sold would result in interest being charged on the loan. If the loan is extended on October 1 and the lending company's year ends on December 31, there will be two months of accrued interest receivable recorded as interest revenue in the company's financial statements for the year.

2. Accrued interest is added to the contract price of a bond transaction. Accrued interest is that which has been earned since the last coupon payment. Because the bond hasn't expired or the next payment is not yet due, the owner of the bond hasn't officially received the money. If he or she sells the bond, accrued interest is added to the sale price. 

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The interest accumulated on a bond since the last payment was made. The buyer of the bond pays the market price plus accumulated interest. Exceptions include bonds that are in default and income bonds.

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In finance, accrued Interest is the interest that has accumulated since the principal investment, or since the previous interest payment if there has been one already. For a financial instrument such as a bond, interest is calculated and paid in set intervals. Accrued income is an income which has been accumulated or accrued irrespective to actual Receipt, which means event occurred but cash not yet received.

Formula

The primary formula for calculating the interest accrued in a given period is:

where is the accrued interest, is the fraction of the year, is the principal, and is the annualized interest rate.

is calculated as follows:

where is the number of days in the period, and is the number of days in the year.

The main variables that affect the calculation are the period between interest payments and the day count convention used to determine the fraction of year, and the date rolling convention in use.

A compounding instrument adds the previously accrued interest to the principal each period, applying compound interest.

References

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