Definition of Selling General and Administrative SG&A Expenses Finance Glossary

Now the woolen goods line showed a profit, while the other lines showed reduced net income. Operating expenses and selling, general, and administrative expenses (SG&A) are both types of costs involved in running a company, and significant in determining its financial well-being. While generally synonymous, they each can be listed separately on the corporate income statement. Let’s discuss the main differences between the two types of expenses. You might encounter a problem when you’re analyzing income statements from two firms in the same industry.

For example, rent most likely will be a fixed dollar value every period. On the other hand, advertising expenses will vary with the strategic decisions a company makes during the given period. Selling expenses included in SG&A are often divided into direct and indirect costs. Operating income is a company’s profit after deducting operating expenses such as wages, depreciation, and cost of goods sold. There are also a few specific accounts that may warrant specific accounting treatment that exclude them from SG&A. For example, research and development costs are often not to be included in SG&A. In addition, depreciation costs are often reported in this section of the income statement but excluded from SG&A as well.

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Other costs classified as sg&a meanings include travel, entertainment and advertising expenses. Bad debt — the amount of accounts receivable estimated as uncollectible — is an SG&A expense, as well as professional fees such as those paid for legal and audit services. The percent-of-sales method for allocating SG&A costs can be especially troublesome when sales of one product line constitute a very small percentage of total sales. The CEO of a sunglasses manufacturing company decided to add a line of hair combs. Because demand for sunglasses is seasonal, he had excess capacity on his plastic-molding machines.

COGS includes direct labor, direct materials or raw materials, and overhead costs for the production facility. Cost of goods sold is typically listed as a separate line item on the income statement. A company must incur many different types of costs to run a business, and many of those expenses are not directly tied to making specific products. These broad costs are classified as selling, general, and administrative costs. Reported separately from COGS, these expenses are deducted from gross margin to determine a company’s net income. The only real difference between operating expenses and SG&A is how you record them on the income statement. Some businesses prefer to list SG&A as a subcategory of operating expenses on the income statement.

What Is the SG&A Sales Ratio (or Percent of Sales Method)?

Indirect selling expenses include advertising and marketing costs, the company’s telephone bills and travel costs, and the salaries of its sales personnel. Such expenses occur throughout the manufacturing process and even after the product is finished. Selling costs can include advertising, sales commissions, and promotional costs. General expenses would be things such as rent, utilities, office supplies, and insurance.

SG&A Expensesmeans the US GAAP calculation of selling, general and administrative expenses of the Borrower Group. A firm with high fixed costs is said to have high operating leverage. Since G&A expenses are not lumped in with other expenses that are directly allocated to researching, producing, and selling a product or service , they are delegated to their own line item. SG&A costs are typically the second expense category recorded on an income statement after COGS, like on this simple income statement for XYZ Soaps Inc.

Chart of Accounts Example for SG&A Expenses

Form your business with LegalZoom to access LegalZoom Tax services. Mergers And AcquisitionsMergers and acquisitions (M&A) are collaborations between two or more firms. In a merger, two or more companies functioning at the same level combine to create a new business entity. In an acquisition, a larger organization buys a smaller business entity for expansion.

• Some companies may prefer more discretion when reporting employee salaries, pensions, insurance, and marketing costs.
• We will now see some live examples of companies selling General & Administrative expenses.
• The ownership percentage depends on the number of shares they hold against the company’s total shares.
• Warehousing costs, for example, could be parceled out according to the space used in serving the different market groups.
• It’s a broad “catch-all” category that basically includes anything you spend money on that isn’t a production cost, also known as cost of goods sold .
• We need to choose an income statement to view the SG&A expenses.

While these may seem like easy eliminations at first, you should consider the potential implications before striking these from the expense list. However, https://www.bookstime.com/ many contracts for larger office spaces may not allow this immediate flexibility but may provide options to downsize the space over time.

On the income statement, total revenue is shown and reduced by COGS to arrive at gross profit. This shows how much revenue remains to cover operating expenses and hopefully still leave a profit. Other selling expense is indirectly related to the number of units sold. Rather, these are expenses incurred throughout the manufacturing process to earn more sales, such as base salaries of salespeople, marketing, and out-of-pocket travel expense.

SG&A is an important point to remember when calculating a company’s profitability. Excessive SG&A Expenses will hurt the company’s profit figures and, in return, reduce the shareholder’s returns. The screenshot above is taken from CFI’s financial modeling courses, which cover forecasting SG&A expenses. Investopedia requires writers to use primary sources to support their work. These include white papers, government data, original reporting, and interviews with industry experts. We also reference original research from other reputable publishers where appropriate. You can learn more about the standards we follow in producing accurate, unbiased content in oureditorial policy.