The account payable is an amount owed to a supplier or vendor for goods or services that were provided in advance of payment. However, some people use the term only if the amount is already recorded in the general ledger account Accounts Payable. (Until it is, they refer to the amount as one of the company’s accrued liabilities.) For others, it is an account payable even if it is not yet recorded in Accounts Payable.
(acountingcoach.com)