*What are sundry expenses?

* sundry expenses are expenses that are small in amount and do not occur often. Since these items are not significant, a company might use one general ledger account with the title Sundry Expenses for recording the debit amounts.

*If some items recorded in Sundry Expenses begin to occur frequently and/or become significant, the related amounts should be transferred to a new separate general ledger account.

*Sundry expenses could also refer to a line on a company's income statement. Often it includes the combined total of several (or many) expense accounts that have small balances.

Today, you are likely to find Sundry Expenses being replaced with Miscellaneous Expenses.

 *They can be related to a particular area within a business such as sundry office expenses, sundry retail expenses etc.

Miscellaneous expense

*Miscellaneous expense is often a general ledger account in which very small amounts are recorded. 

*Miscellaneous expense could also be a line on the income statement that reports the amounts from many general ledger accounts whose balances are not significant.

For example, a $10 donation would be better recorded in an account Donations rather than in Miscellaneous Expense. Checking account fees would be better recorded in Bank Service Charges rather than Miscellaneous Expense.

*Examples of Sundry Expenses

As mentioned above these type of expenses do not usually have a separate ledger account however they can be grouped together and clubbed together as sundry expenses. 

There are no hard and fast rules for categorizing a expenses as sundries but they should definitely not include any regular payments or capital expenses. 

Examples may include expenses related to 

1.Bank service charges, 

2.Gifts & flowers, 

3.festival celebration, 

4.donations, etc.

*Treatment in Financial Statements

*Sundry expenses are shown on the expenses side (left) of a profit and loss account (Income statement). 

*Size, industry practice & nature of an expense plays an important role to determine whether it should be included in Sundry expenses or be given a separate ledger account.