The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course: Finance for Non-Financial Managers 3/E, 3rd Edition

CHAPTER 4KEEPING SCORE: EXPENSES

EXPENSES: WHAT ARE THEY? HOW ARE THEY REPORTED?

This seems like a silly question, doesn’t it? Expenses … we all have too many of the darn things—food, clothing, house payments, and so forth. Anyone who has made it through the first grade understands expenses for lunch, candy, and so on. If you’re the neat and orderly type, you probably keep track of your expenses by categories—housing, food, clothing, entertainment, and so forth. If, like so many of us, you are not the orderly type, you probably keep track of expenses by watching them soak up the money. When it’s all gone, there are no more expenses. (That ignores credit cards.)

Accountants define expenses a little more precisely: Expenses are costs that contribute ...