Finance & Accounting / Technical Accounting
Capitalize vs Expense (CapEx vs OpEx)
Whether a cost hits the income statement now (expensed) or lands on the balance sheet and bleeds into earnings over years as depreciation or amortization (capitalized).
The fork, why two teams get different numbers
The line between the two is a judgment call, and the choices materially move reported profit.
In the Metric Library
- The full fork, both definitions worked all the way through
- The trap that makes the number lie, on a real export
- Every formula variant, spelled out
- The reconciliation anchor, what to tie it to and when to refuse
Reference: FASB ASC 360 (PP&E) · ASC 350-40 (Internal-Use Software) · ASC 730 (R&D) · ASU 2018-15 (Cloud Implementation) · IAS 38 (Intangibles)