What Is a Sundry Account?

A sundry account is a business account where miscellaneous income is reported. This income is not generated by the sale of the company’s products or services, but must be accounted for because it increases the company’s overall profits and thus its net worth.

If a company lends its name or intellectual creations to other, for-profit companies, it can receive royalties from those transactions. These can include record companies, large multi-national product manufacturing corporations and service companies that sell individually owned franchises around the world. These royalties would be included in sundry accounts because the business did not directly produce or service the people or accounts that produced the income.

If a company sells part of its real estate holdings, the money earned from those transactions would also generally be included in sundry account earnings. Land, stocks, bonds and other types of investment sales would also be counted as sundry account revenue.

The word sundry is synonymous with the word miscellaneous. Therefore, sundry accounts generally list all revenue streams that do not fit into other revenue categories. Although the term suggests that each individual revenue stream is minor, in actuality, a business can earn substantial amounts that must be accounted for in sundry funds.