Depreciation expense can be a big portion of a company’s total expense. And since expenses decrease income, it affects the overall value of a company. Understanding what it is and the methods can help ...

Accumulated depreciation is the sum of an asset’s depreciation expense. It’s calculated from the start of its use to a specific date. It’s also a contra-asset account. That means it decreases the ...

Amortization and depreciation are accounting methods used to allocate the cost of assets over their useful lives. Amortization applies to intangible assets like patents and trademarks. Depreciation ...

Depreciation is the recovery of the cost of a physical asset, like property or equipment, over multiple years. It allows companies to spread out the cost of some expenses, reduce taxable income and ...

Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and ...

Depreciation is a common accounting concept that helps adjust the value of a deteriorating asset over time as it becomes less efficient. A business can depreciate an asset with an expected useful life ...