1. Investing a sum of money is providing a service.
However, this service is only the end of an economic exchange when it is remunerated.
2. The "financial assets" of account plans are investments.
Some of these investments do not yield anything. This is often the case with security deposits.
This is always the case with a free loan.
3. Non-financial fixed assets are equipment.
The acquisition by an enterprise of a patent or a trademark is an intangible asset58. It is part of the equipment together with tangible fixed assets58.
4. Equipment Equipement is usable for at least one year.
There are many easy-to-remember illustrations. A pan is a piece of equipment, what you cook in it is not a piece of equipment. Cloth tablecloths and napkins are equipment, their paper ersatz are not. A boiler is equipment, a fuel purchase is not. Etc.
5. In theory, any stock that has a market value is an asset.
In practice, exceptions are allowed. Neglecting, on the day of the closing of the accounts, small stocks of supplies gradually modifies the result as well as the net position. This is all the more acceptable since the accounting principle of the permanence of methods is applied.
6. The distinction between investment and expense is essential.
An investment increases the stock of assets that the entity that does so owns. A load is a flow. Of course, investments are always based on what is expected of them. However, this does not mean that a charge is not also made for what it will allow to obtain in the medium or long term. The confusion between charge and investment stems from the insufficiently detailed distinction between flows and stocks. An economic vocabulary that strives to get as close as possible to the reality in which it is specialized does so better by making expense a hyperonym59, as lexicographers say, of "burden" and "investment."
7. In any management of economic affairs, the amalgamation of expenses and investments is prone to errors.
Of course, charges and investments are expenses. But a reduction in expenses accompanied, in due proportion, by an increase in investments keeps the sum of expenses unchanged. In economic policy, opinions based on the amalgamation of the two types of public spending are still rarely criticized.