Unusual Item
Categories: Accounting
Grandpappy was plowing his land, when he unearthed a huge treasure chest. In it, among bones and alien body parts and a rubbing-lamp, was $14 million in gold coins. When his tractor company reported its quarter, it cited that $14 million as an unusual item, as the company isn't in the business of hunting for buried treasure.
Finding it there and then was a happy accident, where, most of the time, "unusual items" are bad surprises. Like when a company gets sued and loses some product liability issue...when, in fact, product liability is something that they always live with. Yet they don't "expense it," instead referring to it as a one-time charge, or an unusual event that they then ignore and move on.
