Office Stationery

This Overheads code records the cost of office stationery incurred in running the business. As an expense account, it normally carries a debit balance: debit entries increase the balance (recording new costs) and credit entries decrease it (for example, correcting an error or a refund received).

Real-world examples

Professional services (law or accountancy)

Paper-heavy compliance work — printed client files, court bundles, letterheads — means a genuinely material monthly spend under a dedicated office supplies contract. A £2,520 invoice (£2,100 net of VAT) is a debit of £2,100 to 7502 (Office Stationery), a debit of £420 to 2201 (Purchase Tax Control Account), and a credit of £2,520 to 2100 (Creditors Control Account).

Construction or trades

Usage is minimal — site diaries, health and safety forms, delivery notes — and it's often bought alongside materials on the same builders' merchant invoice. Only the stationery element belongs in 7502; the rest of that same invoice (timber, fixings and so on) is materials cost and belongs in 5000, so a mixed invoice needs splitting rather than posting in full to one code.

Retail

Back-office stationery here is limited to till rolls, price-tag guns and admin supplies — small and easy to confuse with packaging (5003), which is a cost of getting goods to the customer rather than running the office, so the two need keeping apart even though both come from a similar supplier.

Commonly confused with

Because code 7501 (Postage and Carriage) sits right next to this one in Overheads, it's a common mis-posting target. Code 7502 is specifically for office stationery, while 7501 covers postage and carriage — similar in nature, but keeping them separate is what makes the overheads section of your management accounts meaningful rather than a single lumped total.

What a mis-posting here costs you

An error posting to Office Stationery won't change total overhead spend, but it will distort the overheads breakdown that's usually reviewed line by line each month to spot cost creep.

Other codes in Overheads