Cost Category

Definition

The classification bucket assigned to every cost item. Standard set: OPEX, CAPEX, Marketing, Overhead, Depreciation, Amortization. Determines how the cost flows into financial statements and metrics.

Worked Example

One month, six categories:

OPEX           $62,820   payroll, hosting, tools
CAPEX          $12,500   laptops (capitalized, not expensed)
Marketing      $18,000   campaigns + salaries
Overhead        $6,000   allocated admin
Depreciation      $347   laptop schedule
Amortization    $1,000   software license schedule

Interpretation & Pitfalls

Categories must be mutually exclusive and assigned at entry. Recategorizing later silently rewrites historical reports — if it must happen, do it through an audited correction.

In TupicFinance

Category is a required stored field on every cost item and the primary axis of the Cost of Sales breakdown.