Which of the following items would likely NOT be recorded in accounts receivable?

In the context of financial accounting, accounts receivable represents money that is owed to a business by its customers for goods or services that have been delivered but not yet paid for.

Cash sales do not typically appear in accounts receivable because they represent transactions where payment is received immediately at the point of sale. Since there are no outstanding payments owed by customers for cash sales, these transactions are recorded directly in cash or sales revenue accounts instead of accounts receivable.

Sales on credit, pending customer payments, and short-term loans to clients all involve situations where money is expected to be received in the future, thus they would be recorded in accounts receivable. Sales on credit indicate that goods or services have been provided to the customer with an agreement for later payment. Pending customer payments are amounts that customers still need to pay and fall into the category of receivables. Similarly, short-term loans to clients represent funds that the business expects to collect from clients in the near future, also classifying as accounts receivable.

Therefore, cash sales are uniquely characterized by the receipt of payment at the time of the transaction, thereby excluding them from being part of accounts receivable.