Repairs to office equipment are period costs. That is, the cost of the repairs to office equipment will be reported as a selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expense in the period in which the repairs take place.
Repairs to factory equipment are not period costs. Rather, the costs of repairs to factory equipment are product costs. The repair costs within the factory are part of the factory overhead (also known as manufacturing overhead) which is assigned to the products when they are manufactured. When those products are sold, the costs of the products (raw materials, direct labor, and factory overhead) will be expensed as the cost of goods sold. Until the products are sold, the products’ costs will be reported as the current asset Inventory.
