The following is a portion of the current assets section of the balance sheets of Avanti's, Inc., at December 31, 2017 and 2016:

	12/31/17	12/31/16
Accounts receivable, less allowance for bad debts of $9,169 and $15,285, respectively	$176,662	$234,082

Required:

a. If $11,544 of accounts receivable were written off during 2017, what was the amount of bad debts expense recognized for the year? (Hint: Use a T-account model of the Allowance account, plug in the three amounts that you know, and solve for the unknown.)