OPEX — Operating Expenses

Definition

Day-to-day costs of running the business that are consumed within the current period. OPEX is expensed immediately and reduces profit in the period it occurs. Typical items: salaries, cloud hosting, SaaS subscriptions, rent, utilities, marketing.

Worked Example

A startup's March operating costs:

AWS hosting              $4,200
Payroll (5 engineers)   $55,000
Figma + GitHub + Slack     $620
Office rent              $3,000
------------------------------
Total March OPEX        $62,820

All $62,820 hits the March income statement. Nothing carries over to April.

Interpretation & Pitfalls

OPEX is recurring and consumable: stop paying it and the benefit stops almost immediately. Contrast with CAPEX, which buys multi-period value.

In TupicFinance

Every cost item can be categorized as OPEX; OPEX flows directly into monthly P&L views and per-service cost breakdowns.