Expenses vs Costs

Expenses and cost are terms that are often used interchangeably. Further is covered the difference between them.

Expenses is cash flow in the organization - this is the money decreases. In contrast, costs are material flows in monetary terms - thus they may not be immediately understood as money decreases.

Cash flows can accompany, precede or follow the material flows. Differences arise mainly in short term, and are caused by differences in profit values compared to cash flow.