expense

expense ex‧pense [ɪkˈspens] noun

1. [countable, uncountable] ACCOUNTING an amount of money that a business or organization has to spend on something:

• Most advertisers look upon advertising as an expense and not an investment, which is a mistake.

• The company's cost-cutting program is expected to reduce expenses by $28 million next year.

acˌcrued exˈpense [countable usually plural] ACCOUNTING

the value of goods or services that were bought by a business or organization during a particular period of time, even if it pays for them in a later period

ˌcapital exˈpense [countable usually plural] ACCOUNTING COMMERCE

money that a business or organization spends on investing in new equipment, buildings etc, rather than on running the business or producing goods:

• With plans for new airport facilities and aircraft, the airline is facing a lot of capital expenses.

diˌrect exˈpense [countable usually plural] ACCOUNTING

money that is spent directly on making one particular product or performing one particular service, rather than money spent on general costs, such as management costs

enterˈtainment exˌpense [countable usually plural] ACCOUNTING

money that a business or organization spends on taking customers to restaurants, bars, theatres etc, as a way of making business deals easier to complete:

• Entertainment expenses are bona fide business expenses only when someone besides you or your employee is being entertained.

ˌfixed exˈpense [countable usually plural] ACCOUNTING

money that a business or organization has to pay that does not change with the amount of goods or services it produces or sells

ˌgeneral exˈpense also ˌgeneral and adˈministrative exˈpense [countable usually plural] ACCOUNTING

money that is spent on the general running of a business or organization, rather than money spent on producing goods or selling services:

• Operating profit was knocked down 15% by higher sales, administrative and general expenses.

ˈhandling exˌpense [countable usually plural] ACCOUNTING TRANSPORT

the extra costs of buying and selling goods, for example packaging, shipping, storing, and insurance:

• Last year sales of paintings totalled £1.3 million, out of which the administration and handling expenses had to be paid.

ˌindirect exˈpense [countable usually plural] ACCOUNTING

money that is spent on general costs, such as management costs, rather than money spent directly on making one particular product or performing one particular service

ˈinterest exˌpense [countable usually plural] ACCOUNTING

money that a business or organization has to spend on paying interest on money that it has borrowed:

• Planned debt reductions will reduce annual interest expenses by about $15 million.

ˈmarketing exˌpense [countable usually plural] ACCOUNTING MARKETING

money that a business or organization spends on advertising and marketing:

• Research and development went from $28 million to $45 million, while sales and marketing expenses increased even more.

ˈoverhead exˌpense also ˈoperating exˌpense ACCOUNTING [countable usually plural]

other names for general expense:

• A reduction in overhead expenses would free funds for workers' pay.

ˈsales exˌpense also ˈselling exˌpense [countable usually plural] ACCOUNTING MARKETING

the money that a business or organization spends on selling its products, for example running sales offices, paying salespeople etc:

• The company's first-quarter earnings are likely to be hurt by higher selling expenses related to new marketing programs.

ˈtravel exˌpense also ˈtravelling exˌpense [countable usually plural] ACCOUNTING TRAVEL

money that a business or organization spends to pay for its employees to travel to attend meetings etc

2. expenses [plural] ACCOUNTING money that an employee spends while doing their job on things such as travel and food, and which their employer then pays back to them:

• Come on, have another drink — it's on expenses.

• He gets an annual salary of $1.5 million; in addition he gets reimbursed for travel and other expenses.

* * *

Ⅰ.

expense UK US /ɪkˈspens/ noun

► [C or U] ACCOUNTING an amount of money that a person or business spends in order to do something: a big/major expense »

Waste disposal is a major expense for us.

cut down on/reduce/cut expense »

We need to cut down on our expenses.

cover/meet expenses »

He said the business needed to borrow to meet future expenses.

bear/incur an expense »

In your tax return you can include tax-deductible expenses incurred as a result of employment.

»

a business/operating/running expense

»

legal/medical/administrative expenses

unnecessary/additional/extra expense »

Money can be moved into the account without the unnecessary expense of being converted into sterling.

► [U] the large amount of money that something costs: »

Buying a bigger car has proved to be well worth the expense.

»

He just had his office remodelled at great expense.

»

Having gone to the expense of hiring an exhibition stand, you need to make the most of the selling opportunity.

● expenses — Cf. expenses

● all expenses paid — Cf. all expenses paid

● at sb's expense — Cf. at sb's expense

● on expenses — Cf. on expenses

● spare no expense — Cf. spare no expense

→ See also ACCRUED EXPENSE(Cf. ↑accrued expense), CAPITAL EXPENSE(Cf. ↑capital expense), DIRECT EXPENSE(Cf. ↑direct expense), ENTERTAINMENT EXPENSES(Cf. ↑entertainment expenses), FIXED EXPENSE(Cf. ↑fixed expense), GENERAL EXPENSE(Cf. ↑general expense), HANDLING EXPENSE(Cf. ↑handling expense), INDIRECT EXPENSE(Cf. ↑indirect expense), INTEREST EXPENSE(Cf. ↑interest expense), MARKETING EXPENSE(Cf. ↑marketing expense), OPERATING EXPENSE(Cf. ↑operating expense), OVERHEAD EXPENSE(Cf. ↑overhead expense), SALES EXPENSE(Cf. ↑sales expense), TRAVEL EXPENSE(Cf. ↑travel expense)

Ⅱ.

expense UK US /ɪkˈspens/ verb [T] ACCOUNTING

► to show the full amount of money paid for something as a cost in a company's accounts, rather than showing it as a lower and lower amount over a period of time: »

The accounting rule allows research-and-development costs to be instantly expensed or deducted from profits.