SG&A Expense Selling, General & Administrative Guide, Examples

SG&A expense depends on the structure of the company, whether the company has more fixed costs than variable costs and vice versa. Our in-house bookkeeping team completes your books and generates a monthly income statement and balance sheet for you. Bench’s easy-to-use software let’s you quickly see how your business is doing so you can make smarter decisions with your money and master your spending.

For example, companies are often required to maintain insurance and may find it impossible to operate without incurring a cost of maintain its headquarters. SG&A expenses are closely related to operating expenses, though there are some small, technical differences. Most companies group record SG&A as a single line on the Income Statement. Apple groups selling, general and administrative activities together into a single expense line. As a reminder, SG&A stands for Selling, General & Administrative. To better understand this line item, it helps to disaggregate SG&A into two parts. Then, we’ll go over what’s included in “General & Administrative”.

What is an SG&A Expense?

A company’s management will try to grow revenue while simultaneously keeping operating expenses under control. SG&A expenses are incurred in day-to-day business operations and may be required as part of operating any type of business.

These costs are not related to specific products, so they are categorized separately from the cost of goods sold on the income statement. SG&A expenses are sometimes referred to as period costs since they relate to the time period in which they are incurred, and they do not relate directly to production. For many companies, operating expenses and SG&A are the same thing. SG&A stands for Selling, General, and Administrative expenses and includes the day to day expenses not directly related to manufacturing the product or selling the service.

Examples of SG&A Expenses in a sentence

There are several subtle differences between SG&A expenses and operating expenses. Larger companies often separate these types of costs into smaller, specific SG&A categories as this is often easier for https://www.bookstime.com/ companies to track and monitor costs in these groups. Management often has discretion how many of these costs are reported on the income statement in respects to how to group these types of costs.

• Getting tax return and payment filing done on time is easier when you know what to expect and when they are due.
• This is often related to in-person events or trade obligations such as trade shows or client meetings.
• Often, these companies launch and market a unique idea, product, or service that in some way offers fresh benefits to the society.
• SG&A expenses include all of the day-to-day operating costs of running a company that aren’t directly related to producing a product or service (i.e., non-production costs).
• Generally speaking, the lower the SG&A ratio, the better – but the average benchmark varies significantly based on industry.
• SG&A expenses include most expenses related to running a business outside of COGS.
• Typical G&A expenses include rent, utilities, insurance payments, and wages and salaries for administrative and management staff other than salespeople.

SG&A is an important point to remember when calculating a company’s profitability. DepreciationDepreciation is a systematic allocation method used to account for the costs of any physical or tangible asset throughout its useful life.

Selling, General, and Administrative Expenses

Direct selling expenses are incurred only when the product is sold and are related to the fulfillment of orders. They include the costs of shipping and shipping supplies, delivery charges, and the payment of sales commissions.

While the banks function as community banks, the company strives to provide their customers with a broad range of competitive services generally provided only by larger, regional banks. Similar to selling, it’s extremely unlikely that a successful business can scale and grow without any administrative activities.

How Can You Reduce SG&A Expenses?

They work with our client research team to get the answers you need to make informed decisions for your business strategy. 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 . SG&A expense ratios vary widely by industry and should therefore only be used in comparison with like industries. Pharmaceutical and healthcare have sg&a some of the highest SG&A expenses as a percent of revenue, while energy typically has a much lower ratio. Financial Intelligence takes you through all the financial statements and financial jargon giving you the confidence to understand what it all means and why it matters. Ask questions and participate in discussions as our trainers teach you how to read and understand your financial statements and financial position.

Selling expenses include both indirect and direct business costs. Companies may aggregate all of these expenses in a single SG&A line, or it may segregate selling costs from general and administrative costs. The Company is a commercial real estate finance company that is managed and advised by ACREFI Management, LLC, a indirect subsidiary of Apollo Global Management, LLC. Your income statement reports your business’s profits and losses over a specific period of time. Company ABC’s total selling, general, and administrative expenses for the period is $8,600.

But as mentioned earlier, the line item can be broken out individually depending on the size of the cost and relevance to the core business model. If unchanged in recent years, the ratio assumption for projected periods can be extended throughout the entirety of the forecast period. The SG&A ratio measures what percentage of each dollar earned by a company is impacted by SG&A. From here, you can divide EBIT by revenue to calculate the operating margin.

• SG&A expenses are an important benchmark as to the company’s break-even point.
• It’s important to note that not all expenses have been recorded when calculating operating expenses.
• Reducing non-sales personnel salaries and cutting travel costs will help to regularize these costs.
• Chris B. Murphy is an editor and financial writer with more than 15 years of experience covering banking and the financial markets.
• This is most often the cost of renting an office or headquarter space but may encompass other items necessary for rent not related to the manufacturing process.

But that only makes this month’s income statement look good at the risk of impacting next quarter’s sales. Depending on how your financial books are configured, SG&A may be broken down into subcategories (e.g., rent, utilities) to show what comprises the sum of your SG&A expenses. If you’re familiar with operating expenses, you might be wondering what the difference is between SG&A and operating costs. FINSYNC, Inc. provides a financial technology platform which includes a payments and partner network for the benefit of US-based businesses. Included in the partner network are banks, credit unions, lenders and institutional investors, who may extend business loans directly or via the Collect Early program. The SG&A sales ratio gives an organization a big picture of your business expenses compared to the money coming in.