Capitalize

Don’t hit Shift + and the small letter “c.” It’s not that kind of capitalize.

On the accounting side of the world, we use the term capitalize when focusing on the balance sheet. When you move something on your balance sheet from the expense category to over and record it as an asset…you’ve capitalized that item. In most cases, we’re talking about fixed assets.

Think of it this way. Your company buys a computer. In one quarter, the firm will expense the item on a balance sheet. But in the next year, this is now an asset. If the company were liquidated, the computer could be sold. It has value to the company...so it's a capitalized asset.