The total amount of loss to the the ceding company prior to credits such as salvage or subrogation.

The US acquired the territory of Florida from Spain ceding it to the US.

ceding

Book debt represents payments due the company by customers (typically in the form of accounts receivable). When a company cedes book debt, they are effectively giving some creditor the rights to some or all of that book debt, so when it is paid, the creditor, not the company, gets the payments.

Book debt is sometimes used when companies have cash flow challenges. Some companies will cede their book debt to cover what they already owe so they are able to move on with their business.

A standard type of ceding of book debt is known as "Non-Recoverable Factoring," effectively a company ceding their accounts receivables to another organization. In turn, the second organization gives them between 50% and 85% of the value of those receivables. The "Non-Recoverable" portion means that if the buyer is able to collect more than what they paid, the buyer keeps it and they do not pass it on to the company ceding the debt.