Accounting glossary
What is expense?
A cost consumed in running the business: rent, wages, utilities, software. Expenses reduce profit in the period they occur — unlike assets, which park value, and drawings, which are not costs at all.
Example
Rent of $3,000, wages of $12,000 and insurance of $400 in a month are expenses — costs of running the business, distinct from the cost of the goods you sold.
Expenses reduce profit but are not the same as cash: an unpaid rent bill is an expense today and a cash outflow later.
In SeroBooks
Expenses post through the posting map to the accounts your P&L reports on. Reading a P&L →