jdmwoolley(a)ihug.co.nz wrote:
Steve Wray wrote: [snip] 2. There are two types of money to be spent - OPEX and CAPEX (OPerational expenditure and CAPital expenditure).
3. OPEX is evil. Accountants see it as a black hole that money is thrown down. It is not an investment. It is paying some guy for something you already own. OPEX is constantly cut. [snip] 4. CAPEX is ok - it is investing money in something with the expectation of a return at some point in time. Dig a hole, lay a cable, charge people to use it, eventually they've paid you more than it cost you to lay - this is CAPEX. You need a business case to spend CAPEX. This will consist of
I've been thinking about how I approach this problem. Clearly, as a systems administrator, OPEX is very important for me. So how does one explain to bean-counters (who don't like spending money) and suits (who often have their heads way up in the clouds) that OPEX is essential? The approach I use is fairly straightforward: CAPEX creates assets. OPEX stops assets from becoming liabilities. A few examples about things like fleets of cars, lack of maintenance, ensuing accidents and uneccesary deaths seems to do the trick. :)