General and administrative expenses (G&A) are the costs of managing and administering a business or business unit as a whole. Common examples include administrative payroll, legal and accounting fees, insurance, facilities, and some information-technology costs. What a company includes depends on the expense’s function and its accounting and reporting context.
What G&A means
U.S. federal Cost Accounting Standards define G&A as “any management, financial, and other expense which is incurred by or allocated to a business unit and which is for the general management and administration of the business unit as a whole.” The definition is in 48 CFR § 9904.410-30.
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That definition is specifically useful in federal contract cost accounting. It is not a universal rule that dictates how every business must classify expenses in its external financial statements.
What expenses may be included in G&A?
There is no exhaustive list that applies identically to every company. Company filings show how expenses may be grouped when they support general management and administration.
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- Administrative and management personnel: Payroll and related personnel costs for functions such as executive leadership, finance, legal, business development, commercial operations, and administration. The mix varies by company.
- Professional and compliance services: Legal, audit, accounting, tax, consulting, and—in some businesses—patent-related fees.
- Facilities and shared operations: Rent, utilities, equipment, depreciation, insurance, and other overhead allocated to general functions.
- Information technology: IT costs supporting general operations, where the company’s accounting policy assigns them to G&A.
For example, Xenon Pharmaceuticals’ 2026 annual-report disclosure describes personnel costs across several functions, insurance, audit, tax and legal fees, intellectual-property costs, and allocated facilities and IT costs not otherwise included in research and development. IDEAYA Biosciences’ 2025 annual-report disclosure lists payroll and personnel costs, legal, patent, consulting, accounting and tax fees, allocated overhead such as rent, equipment, depreciation, IT and utilities, and other operating costs not otherwise classified as R&D. These are issuer-specific examples, not a standard checklist: Xenon Pharmaceuticals’ filing and IDEAYA Biosciences’ filing.
How G&A differs from selling, production, and R&D costs
The distinction is primarily functional: what activity the cost supports. G&A relates to managing the organization as a whole; selling costs support sales activity; production costs relate to making or delivering a product or service; and research and development costs support research and development activity. A cost’s classification can depend on how directly it relates to a particular product, service, or other cost objective, as well as on the company’s accounting policy.
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Companies do not all display these categories in the same way. Some report a combined selling, general and administrative line—SG&A—instead of a separate G&A line. Further detail may be in the notes or management discussion. Check the company’s statement presentation and disclosures rather than assuming a particular layout; the filing examples above and this financial-statement primer illustrate why presentation can vary.
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External financial statements
For financial reporting, classification and presentation depend on the company’s applicable accounting framework, policies, and disclosures. A G&A label on one company’s statement does not guarantee that another company groups the same kind of cost the same way. Read the accounting-policy notes and expense descriptions when comparing businesses.
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Federal contract cost accounting
For federal contract costing, CAS 410 addresses how a business unit allocates G&A to final cost objectives. Its criteria connect allocation to the beneficial or causal relationship between costs and those objectives, and it discusses cost input and allocation bases. The standard also excludes from G&A management expenses whose relationship to cost objectives can be measured more directly using a base other than a cost-input base representing total activity during a cost-accounting period. See 48 CFR § 9904.410-40. These federal cost-accounting rules should not be treated as a universal formula for financial-statement classification.
Non-GAAP measures
When a public company presents an adjusted or non-GAAP measure, how it treats G&A costs can affect whether the measure gives a fair picture. SEC staff guidance identifies excluding normal, recurring cash operating expenses necessary to run a registrant’s business as an example of a presentation that could be misleading. This is a caution about context and presentation, not a rule that every G&A exclusion is automatically prohibited. See the SEC staff guidance on non-GAAP financial measures.
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How to assess a company’s G&A disclosure
- Find the expense presentation. Check whether the income statement shows G&A separately or combines it with selling costs in SG&A.
- Read the related notes and management discussion. Look for descriptions of personnel, professional fees, facilities, IT, and other allocated overhead.
- Check the stated accounting policy and purpose. Distinguish external financial reporting from internal analysis or federal contract cost accumulation; a classification used for one purpose may not settle another.
- Compare like with like. When comparing companies, consider which functions and shared costs each includes and how much detail each discloses. A difference in reported G&A may reflect presentation or classification as well as underlying spending.
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