Assets

An asset brings future economic benefits.  That's why you don't expense an asset but amortize or depreciate it over a certain periods of time.  Kind of matching the expense with revenue as some accountants will tell you.  Or actually you don't really want to hit the P&L with a big amount in one single period.  Hit the balance sheet, nobody really cares.  You want to hit the P&L with a sum certain amount over a period of time like 5 years so as to smooth out the numbers.