Numbers dressed up in fancy suits pretending to be words.
The process of distributing indirect costs across products or departments, often using arbitrary methods that accountants swear are reasonable. It's making sure everyone shares blame for the heating bill and executive salaries.
The degree to which a company's costs are fixed versus variable, determining how profits change with sales volume. High operating leverage means each additional sale drops straight to the bottom line—until sales drop and you discover fixed costs are indeed fixed.
Operating income divided by revenue, showing what percentage of sales remains after covering operating expenses but before interest and taxes. It's the profitability measure that reveals whether your business model works or you're just moving money around creatively.
Assets, liabilities, or financing activities that don't appear on the balance sheet through various legal structures and accounting loopholes. It's the financial equivalent of having a secret family—technically possible, but eventually problematic.
A lease treated as a rental agreement rather than an asset purchase, historically kept off the balance sheet in a beautiful accounting loophole. Airlines loved these for planes; retail loved them for stores.
All the things you're legally, morally, or socially required to do, whether you want to or not. In finance, they're debts and contractual promises that keep accountants up at night. In life, they're the responsibilities that make you wonder if freedom is just an illusion. Basically, the adult version of homework that never stops coming.
A binding commitment that transforms 'I'd like to' into 'I legally have to' faster than you can say 'terms and conditions.' It's the formal requirement—legal, moral, or contractual—that keeps society functioning and accountants employed. The thing that makes you show up even when you'd rather fake your own death.
The time it takes to convert cash into inventory, inventory into receivables, and receivables back into cash—essentially how long your money is tied up in operations. Shorter is better unless you're a fine wine producer.
In betting, odds that are set way higher than they should be—essentially free money if you're lucky enough to spot it. In printing, a medieval hack for making some parts darker by layering paper. Betters love talking about overlays like they're spotting market inefficiencies.
The costs of running your business that aren't directly tied to production—salaries, rent, and executive compensation.
Structuring transactions so debt or liabilities don't appear on your balance sheet—the accounting equivalent of hiding stuff in a closet.