Meaning of Revenue Expenditure

Revenue expenditure refers to those expenditures which are incurred during normal business operation by the company, benefit of which will be received in the same period and the example of which includes rent expenses, utility expenses, salary expenses, insurance expenses, commission expenses, manufacturing expenses, legal expenses, postage and printing expenses, etc.

Explanation

Revenue expenditure is the sum of the expense that the business incurs in the production of goods and services which helps for revenue generation of the company in an accounting period.

It is primarily two types – one is related to the cost of sales and the other is related to Opex. Cost of sale is the expense done on acquiring of goods or service which need to sale in the market and operating expense is an expense which needs to be done to run business and its operations properly.
These expense to be recorded in the same time period when revenue is generated on produced of goods or service (matching principle)

Examples of Revenue Expenditure

Revenue expenses are those expenses which are incurred by the business in the daily working of the business and the effect of which will completely be utilized within the current accounting year in which it is incurred. These costs are recurring in nature and do not form the part of the fixed asset cost, thus they are shown in the statement of income of the year in which they are incurred.

Repair and Maintenance of the Assets – The expenditure incurred on the repairs and maintenance of the assets generating the revenues are considered as the revenue expenditure as expenses are incurred for providing the support to the current operations of the business and do not affect the life of the assets.
Wages paid to workers of the Factory – The wages are paid to the workers are required for the purpose of working of the company and running of the business for generating revenues. So, these are considered to be revenue expenditures.
Utility Expenses – Utility expenses such as expenses incurred on phone bills, water bills, electricity bills, etc are required to be spent by the company in order to continue its business operation and generate revenue. Without the use of these resources, the working of the businesses cannot take place in an effective manner and thus are part of revenue expenditures
Selling Expenses – Selling expenses are required for selling the products timely. It is used to promote and market the products to the customers. As it is spent on increasing the sales of the business they form part of the revenue expenditure.
Rent Expense – The expenses incurred in renting the premises on which the business is operating or renting the other materials will be considered as part of revenue expenditure as they are essential for running the business.
Other Expenses – Any other expenses which are related to generating the revenue of the business or maintenance of revenue-generating assets are to be considered as the revenue expense.

Practical Examples

Case Study #1

Consider a company XYZ Ltd manufacturing and selling the packets of the pen. The company spends each year for various expenditures such as manufacturing of pens, salaries to employees, Utility bills, repairs and maintenance, acquisition of the assets, etc. It is not sure about which expenditure to be treated as revenue expenditure.

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The amount which is spent every year that is required for generating the revenue or maintenance of revenue-generating assets will be considered as the revenue expenditures and the expenses incurred in order to acquire any of the assets or improve the capacity or life of the assets will be treated as the CAPEX.
In the present case amount spent every year for making pens and packing it, to employees, Utility bills, wages to workers, insurance, rent, etc will be categorized as the revenue expenditure.
Apart from this, any cost of repair on the machines which are used for the manufacturing of the pens will also be considered as the revenue expenditure.
On the other side, any amount which the company spends on acquiring the assets or for the purpose of upgrading the machinery used for the manufacturing of the pens for increasing capacity, life or quality, etc will be treated as the capital expenditure of the company.

Case Study #2

Company ABC Ltd. started the business of manufacturing and selling bakery items in the market. For that purpose, it buys a machine so that the bakery items can be produced. The owner of the company is arguing that it should be treated as revenue Expenditure. How it should be treated?

In the present case, the initial purchase cost of the machinery along with the installation costs will be classified by the business as the capital expenditure because the benefit of the machinery will be derived by the business for the several accounting periods and not in the single accounting period.
However, any subsequent cost incurred on the repair and maintenance of the company will be considered as the revenue expenditure because when the cost of repair and maintenance is incurred, that neither increase the earning capacity of the machine.
The machine will be going to produce the same quantity of the bakery products as it used to do earlier when first it was put to use by the business nor it will increase the life expectancy of the machinery i.e., the life of the machinery will remain the same as it was at the starting and the cost is incurred just for the maintenance of the asset. So, the initial purchase of the machinery will be considered as capital expenditure and not revenue expense.

Types of Revenue Expenditure

They are of two types –

Direct Expense
Indirect Expense

#1- Direct Expense

The direct expense is expense occur from the production of raw material to final goods and service. The direct expense example is wages of labor, shipping cost, power, and electricity bill cost, rent, commission, legal expense, etc.

#2- Indirect Expense

The indirect expense is expenses occur indirectly they are generated in connection with the selling of goods and services and its distribution. Indirect expense examples are machinery, depreciation, wages, etc.

Conclusion

Revenue expenditure is the expenditure incurred by the company during its normal course of business operations for which the benefit will also be received in the same accounting period in which it is incurred and is shown as the expense in the income statement of the company. Generally, such expenditures will be divided into two categories i.e., expenses on maintenance of revenue-generating assets and the expenses on things used for generating the revenue of the business.

It includes the spending by the company on the expense which will match with the reported revenues on the statement of income of the current year. It is charged at the expense in the statement of income as soon as the cost is incurred as by this business is using the accounting principle of matching for linking the expense incurred with the revenues generated in the same reporting period. With this concept, the income statement results will give more accurate results to the user of the income statement of the company.

Revenue Expenditure