Depreciation Video Lecture - Economics

So we have a company here.
Let's just say it's
a widget factory
again or a widget company.
And what I'm going to do is I'm
going to actually write
out its income statement over
a given number of years.
What we did in the first video
on this series is we just did
one snapshot of the
income statement.
I think it was 2008.
But here we're looking at the
income statement over a bunch
of years, and in this case, I'm
just assuming that they
have a very stable revenue base,
that they bring in a
very stable amount of
revenue every year.
Now, their cost of goods, I'm
going to split up this time,
because there's two components
of cost of goods, so I'll just
make a cost of goods category
right here.
COGS, but that just stands for
Cost of Goods Sold, but
sometimes you'll hear someone
say our COGS were this or our
COGS were that.
Cost of Goods Sold.
So they're the variable costs.
And this video isn't a video
on variable versus fixed
costs, but you might learn
a little bit about it.
So they're the variable costs,
and that's literally the
actual costs of making
those widgets.
So if the widgets are made out
stainless steel, it's the cost
of buying the stainless steel
and maybe the electricity bill
of melting it and reforming it
or however you have to work
with stainless steel.
So let's say the variable costs
each of these years--
and I'm assuming stainless
steel prices
don't change-- is $100,000.
Minus $100,000 every year.
And actually, let's
just say that also
includes employee costs.
They have people on hourly wages
that are forming these
stainless steel widgets, so that
incorporates everything.
And then the fixed costs
will essentially be
the cost of the factory.
And let's say that they
essentially have to build a
new factory every two years, or
let's say they have to do
major repairs to the factory
every two years.
So let's say repairs
on factory.
Because that's part of the cost
of building the widgets,
because if you continue to make
widgets at this kind of
$1 million a year pace, your
factory has to be retooled or
revamped every two years.
So let's put this fixed cost.
So the factory retooling.
And most times, and we'll see
this when you look at an
actual company's income
statement, they're not going
to break up the variable and
fixed costs within their cost
of goods sold like this, because
really, they actually
want to hide it from a lot
of their competitors.
They don't want their
competitors to have too much
intelligence on what their
cost structure is like.
It could be used against them
potentially, or maybe they
don't want their customers
to know.
Anyway, factory tooling.
So the way I just described it,
one way to account for it
is when you do the factory
retooling, you essentially
just mark it as an expense.
So let's say a factory retooling
costs $500,000.
So let's say it's
minus $500,000.
But they do it every
two years.
So you did it in 2005.
They didn't have to do
it in 2006, then they
can do it in 2007.
They don't have to
do it in 2008.
Fair enough.
And then we have their
gross profit.
Here it's $1 million
minus $600,000.
It's $400,000, then it's
$900,000, then it is $400,000,
then it's $900,000.
And let's say that their
SG&A-- SG&A is Selling,
General and Administrative
expenses.
I'll leave out marketing
for now.
They're SG&A, let's say it's
another $500,000 every year.
So minus $500,000.
And that never changes.
$500,000 every year.
Minus $500,000.
And so their operating profit,
the amount of pre-tax income,
but you know, we're not
considering financing either,
so this is their operating
profit or their EBIT.
So operating profit.
And this year, it's
minus $100,000.
Here it's also minus $100,000.
But then in these years,
they make money.
It's $400,000 and $400,000.
And then we could
take this down.
Let's say they have no
interest expense.
They have no interest expense,
because that's not the point
of this video.
And then their pre-tax profit is
going to be the same thing
as the operating profit, so
minus $100,000, minus
$100,000, $400,000--
I'll make the good
years in green-- $400,000.
And then, let's just say they're
in the Caribbean and
they don't have to pay taxes.
Because that's not the point
of this, but you can apply
some tax rate to this
and figure out what
their net income is.
But the point of this is, even
though their business is ultra
stable, they do the exact same
thing every year, when we look
at the pre-tax or the operating
income, or if we tax
it, or even at the net income,
we see a super lumpy business,
because in one year they
lost $100,000.
If you're looking at the
business, you're like, oh,
what a horrible business.
But then the next year they make
$400,000, and then they
lose $100,000.
And you're like, gee, how
is that possible?
That you have such a sleepy,
stable business that's just
making COGS year in year out,
and they have the exact same
amount of revenue?
How is it possible that their
actual income is so lumpy?
And I think you know, because
you have this every other year
factory retooling, where they
have to spend $500,000 to
essentially rebuild their
factory because of all of the
wear and tear that happened
over the last two years.
So the question is, is this a
good way to account for it,
where when you have to--
I guess you could
say-- buy new equipment.
Let's say this $500,000 is to
buy actual new stainless steel
shaping tools, so is it a good
idea to account for it only in
the period that you spend it?
Because it's not like you're
only using these tools in this
period and that period?
You're using these tools
throughout the period.
So the answer is, well, no,
it's not a good idea.
Because the whole purpose of
accounting is to give the
person reading the income
statement in this case as
accurate a picture of the actual
state of the business
as possible.
And this, in my opinion, isn't
an accurate picture, where it
creates this huge lumpiness and
it creates the impression
of a volatile business even
though it's a super, super
stable business.
So what you do, instead of just
saying, oh, I had to buy
$500,000 worth of equipment in
2005, so I literally put a
$500,000 expense there, and I
didn't have to do that in
2006, so I have no expense.
I had to do it in 2007,
so I put the expense.
Instead of doing that, what
you do is-- I'll put the
balance sheet down here-- so
whatever the balance sheet was
in-- so I'll draw both hand
sides of the balance sheet.
So this is the asset side
of the balance sheet.
And just so you don't get
confused, there's always a
liability side of the balance
sheet as well.
So in 2007, maybe before I spent
the $500,000, right when
I do it, I probably had $500,000
of cash sitting here.
Let me write that down.
So I have cash.
I'll just put a C there.
Cash, $500,000.
And instead of just using this
an expense, and we'll go in
the future on kind of how you
account for things in a little
bit more detail and how you
actually do the debits and
credits, but a simple way to
think about it, instead of
using this $500,000 as an
expense, we just transferred
this $500,000 to buy an asset.
So when you use cash to buy an
asset, and that asset has a
useful life that's more than
just that period, you're
essentially capitalizing the
expense or you're essentially
creating that asset on
the balance sheet.
So instead of this $500,000 just
disappearing expense, you
say, no, now I have-- let's call
it F for factory tools.
I have factory tools worth
$500,000, and then that cash
will go away.
So your assets will not have
really changed, the absolute
value of the assets.
You'll have just had $500,000
going from cash
to new factory tools.
And so this might be at the
beginning of when you do it.
Let's say this is 1/1/2007.
And what you say is, I'm going
to use these factory tools.
They're usable over two years.
So what you do is you depreciate
the tools.
So the way you'd think about
this is instead of having
factory retooling, you could
say factory tool.
Instead of retooling I'll
call that depreciation.
I don't know if you
can read that.
So it essentially spreads
out the cost of
that $500,000 a year.
So you say, I had a $500,000
piece of capital equipment,
and its useful life
is two years.
So I used half of
it in year one.
So instead of putting $500,000
there, the depreciation is
minus $250,000.
Likewise, in this year, no cash
went out the door, but my
equipment got a little
bit older, so I used
half more of it.
So it's $250,000.
And then my equipment
is worthless.
So this is in 1/1/2005.
I have this tool that's
worth $500,000.
Then on 1/1/2006, I will have
used half of the tool.
So now this balance sheet-- I
copied the numbers, too, but
that's 2006.
I'm going from 2005 to 2006.
So now I will have used
up half of it.
So according to the accounting,
this equipment is
no longer worth $500,000.
It's now worth $250,000.
You know, that actually
might make sense.
Maybe if I were to sell it in
the open market, someone might
say, you know what?
I'm only willing to pay
$250,000, because you've
already used it for a year and
it only has one year of useful
life left, so it's of $250,000
of value to me.
And then the other $250,000
essentially went to an expense
called depreciation, which
is right there.
So every year, you're going to
have this asset go down on the
balance sheets by $250,000.
So here at the beginning
of this year, the
asset is worth $500,000.
So I'll write that up here.
So this is what the
asset's valued.
I'll do it in this
orange color.
So over here, let's say you did
it right at the beginning
of the year, the asset's
worth $500,000.
Now, it's worth $250,000.
Now, the asset's worth zero, but
at the beginning of this
year, you buy a new asset
worth $500,000.
Then it's worth $250,000
again.
And this is just an arguably
long-winded way of saying that
the way you account for this
is you spread out the cost
over time, over its useful life,
and this spreading out
is called the depreciation
of an asset.
And I'm running out of time in
this video, and I'll cover it
in the next, but you might have
also heard of the word
"amortization." Amortization
is to spread out a
non-tangible cost over
a period of time.
So for example, depreciation,
this was factory equipment,
and it gets old as I use it,
so I spread out its cost.
That's what depreciation does.
And it accurately reflects
what's actually happening in
the business.
It's not like I didn't
have any cost here.
I did have cost. I'm
using an asset up.
So therefore, I put
it down there.
Amortization is the exact same
thing as depreciation, but it
applies to things that
aren't equipment.
It applies to-- and I'll do it
in the next video-- but let's
say I had one big expense in
terms of I had to pay a bunch
of fees to the bank, but the
benefit of those fees are
going to be over time.
Then I would amortize
those fees.
I'll do that in the
next video.
Anyway, hopefully, you found
this vaguely useful.