When you have a business, you have direct and indirect costs. Tracking these expenses is key to having up-to-date books, receiving tax deductions, and making business decisions. So, what’s the difference between direct vs. indirect costs?
Direct vs. indirect costs
将费用汇集在一起是一个不准确记录，报告和决策的配方。了解直接和间接费用之间的差异，以避免这些问题。
Direct cost definition:
直接成本是商业费用您可以直接适用于产生特定的成本对象，如良好或服务。成本对象是分配费用的项目。
直接成本的例子包括：
- Direct labor
- Direct materials
- Manufacturing supplies
直接成本可以是可变的或固定的。可变成本是根据您生产的商品数量或您提供的服务数量来更改的费用。例如，您将花费更多的资金生产200个玩具，而不是100个玩具。固定成本是每月保持不变的费用。
Knowing your direct costs is a key part of determining your product or service pricing. You want to make sure customers pay you more than what you pay to produce your products or offer your services.
Example
让我们说你有一名员工汇集玩具。员工的工作被认为是直接的劳动力。为了创造玩具，员工需要木材，被认为是直接材料。而且，员工必须使用木材胶水，这是一种制造供应。
Knowing the costs that go into producing the toys helps you better price the goods and turn a profit.
Indirect costs definition:
间接成本是适用于多个业务活动的费用。与直接成本不同，您无法将间接费用分配给特定的成本对象。
indirec的例子t costs include:
- Rent
- Utilities
- 一般办公费用
- Employee salaries (e.g., administrative)
- Professional expenses
- Other overhead costs
Like direct costs, indirect expenses can be either fixed (e.g., rent) or variable (e.g., utilities).
您可以分配间接成本，以确定与您的销售相比的费用支出。为此，找到开销率或间接成本比。
Here is the overhead rate formula:
开销率=开销费用/销售
Example
让我们说你租用和公用事业支付，以保持您的业务。而且，你必须购买电脑。这些成本与生产特定产品直接相关或执行服务，因此它们是间接成本。间接地，它们帮助您生产商品并执行服务，但您无法直接将它们应用于特定产品或服务。
To get an idea of how your overall expenses compare to your overall sales during a period, you find your overhead rate.
You had $4,000 in indirect costs and $16,000 in sales during the period. Your overhead rate would be 0.25, or 25% ($4,000 / $16,000). This means that you spend 25 cents on indirect costs for every dollar you earn. If your direct costs are also high, you won’t be turning much of a profit.
Overhead rates vary from industry to industry. But, you should try to keep your overhead rate minimal. The smaller your overhead rate, the better.
Why does the difference between direct and indirect cost matter?
总而言之，直接费用是直接生产商品或提供服务的费用，而间接成本则是通用的商业费用，可让您运行。但是，为什么有差异？
Direct vs. indirect expenses for income statements
知道哪个成本是直接的与间接有助于您在您的书籍和您的书籍中录制费用business income statement.
Your income statements break down your business’s profits and losses during a period. When creating your income statement, you have different line items for income and expenses like revenue,销售商品的费用(COGS), and operating expenses.
You wouldn’t record an indirect cost under COGS on the income statement. Instead, you should list indirect costs under business expenses.
直接成本与间接税收成本
When it comes to claiming tax deductions, you need to know the difference between direct vs. indirect costs.
Why? Because the IRS says so.根据美国国税局, you must separate your business expenses from the expenses you use to determine your cost of goods sold (e.g., direct labor costs).
您必须从业务的总收据中减去您的COGS，以弄清楚您的毛利business tax return. When you classify an expense in your COGS, you can’t deduct it as a business expense.
商业费用如租金和员工工资只是您可以申请的一些扣除。但是这样做，您需要有准确和详细的记录来备份您的索赔。
Misclassifying your direct and indirect expenses when claiming deductions could cause you to come under IRS scrutiny. Not to mention, failing to break down your costs could cause you to miss out on a tax deduction.
Pricing products with direct cost vs. indirect cost
To run your business, you must take all expenses into account. Doing so is key to budgeting. But, what about pricing products? How can you apply your direct and direct costs to an individual product or service?
当然，你可以看看你的商品成本，看看产生良好的成本。但是，COGS仅向您展示直接成本，而不是间接的成本。
To find out how much it truly costs you to produce a product or perform a service, you might also consider anactivity-based costing(ABC) system.
With the ABC system, you can allocate your overhead costs to certain activities, and thus products, to get a more specific picture of your cost by product.
This article has been updated from its original publication date of March 22, 2018.
This is not intended as legal advice; for more information, please点击这里。