What are Office Supplies?

Office Supplies are the tangible, traditional

office items, like pens, staplers, paper clips, USB
thumb drives, and printer ink cartridges that get
used up by employees. Also included in office
supplies are:
•Record keeping supplies, like invoices and sales
receipts
•Janitorial and cleaning supplies,
•Bathroom tissue
• Places to keep supplies, like fixing cabinets
and storage lockers
• Paper plates, paper towels, and plastic
utensils
• Beverages
• Low-cost office furniture (a used desk, for
example) that costs less than $2500.
What is a Contra Asset Account?

In bookkeeping, a contra asset is an asset account in which

the balance of the account will either be a zero or a credit
(negative) balance. A contra asset account offsets the
balance in the respective asset account that it is paired with
on the balance sheet.

A normal asset account includes a debit balance, while a

contra asset account includes a credit balance. Therefore, a
contra asset can be regarded as a negative asset account.
Offsetting the asset account with its respective contra asset
account shows the net balance of that asset.
Examples of Contra Assets
Common examples of contra assets include:

Accumulated depreciation
Allowance for doubtful accounts
Reserve for obsolete inventory
What are Office Expenses?
Office Expenses are the other expenses of running
an office. These expenses are used for the
operations of the office, so they are often called
"office operating expenses."
Office operating expenses include:
•Web site services, cloud services (like Dropbox or
iCloud)
•Internet hosting fees and website maintenance,
domain names, monthly costs for apps (like
Dropbox).
• Software, including web based software like
QuickBooks products,
• Merchant account fees (banking for selling
• Desktop computers, laptops, iPads, and
tablets
• Smartphones , and most software and
hardware. You might also put cell phone
expenses in office expenses (or in utilities).