Amortized Cost
Amortized cost measures a financial asset or liability at initial amount adjusted for repayments, amortization, and impairment.
Accounting terms for amortized cost, asset expensing, betterment, capital expense, capitalization, capitalized cost, and gross cost.
Capitalization, Expensing, and Cost Bases covers amortized cost, asset expensing, betterment, capital expense, capitalization, capitalized cost, and gross cost.
Use these pages when asset measurement changes book value, earnings timing, impairment risk, return metrics, collateral value, or valuation assumptions. It sits inside Carrying Value, Cost, and Capitalization, so readers can move up when the broader accounting context matters.
Use the table below to choose the narrower accounting branch before applying a term to a statement line, model input, audit trail, tax schedule, covenant test, or management report.
| Area | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Amortized Cost | Amortized cost measures a financial asset or liability at initial amount adjusted for repayments, amortization, and impairment. |
| Asset Expensing | Asset expensing recognizes a cost immediately in the income statement instead of capitalizing it on the balance sheet. |
| Betterment | Capital improvement that increases an asset’s capacity, efficiency, useful life, or value rather than merely maintaining it. |
| Capital Expense | A capital expense is spending to acquire, improve, or extend the useful life of a long-term asset. |
| Capitalization in Accounting and Finance | Capitalization records certain costs as assets or measures a company by its market or capital structure value. |
| Capitalized Cost | A capitalized cost is a cost recorded as an asset and expensed over time through depreciation or amortization. |
| Gross Cost | Gross cost refers to the initial expenditure necessary to acquire an asset, without taking into account any subsequent income, benefits, or deductions. |
Asset-accounting content is educational and does not provide accounting, audit, tax, appraisal, investment, or valuation advice.
Choose a subsection first. Deeper term pages live inside each subsection, which keeps large topic hubs readable.
Amortized cost measures a financial asset or liability at initial amount adjusted for repayments, amortization, and impairment.
Asset expensing recognizes a cost immediately in the income statement instead of capitalizing it on the balance sheet.
Capital improvement that increases an asset's capacity, efficiency, useful life, or value rather than merely maintaining it.
A capital expense is spending to acquire, improve, or extend the useful life of a long-term asset.
Capitalization records certain costs as assets or measures a company by its market or capital structure value.
A capitalized cost is a cost recorded as an asset and expensed over time through depreciation or amortization.
Gross cost refers to the initial expenditure necessary to acquire an asset, without taking into account any subsequent income, benefits, or deductions.