Laundry

This Overheads code records the cost of laundry 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

Hotels and hospitality

A hotel sends bed linen, towels and tablecloths out to a commercial laundry service weekly — one of the larger recurring costs in this code, since volume is driven directly by occupancy. A weekly invoice of £684 (£570 net of VAT) is a debit of £570 to 7802 (Laundry), a debit of £114 to 2201 (Purchase Tax Control Account), and a credit of £684 to 2100 (Creditors Control Account).

Hairdressing and beauty

A hairdressing or beauty salon launders towels and gowns at a much smaller scale than a hotel but still a genuine recurring cost — some salons send them to an external laundry service (which lands here), while others simply run their own washing machine on-site, in which case the cost shows up as utilities and consumables instead. Where a salon does use an external service, a weekly invoice of £84 (£70 net of VAT) is a debit of £70 to 7802, a debit of £14 to 2201, and a credit of £84 to 2100.

Office and professional services

An office-based business — a consultancy, an accountancy firm, a software company — will typically never post anything to this code at all. There's no laundry to speak of, so a permanent nil balance here is normal rather than a sign something's missing.

Commonly confused with

Because code 7801 (Cleaning) sits right next to this one in Overheads, it's a common mis-posting target. Code 7802 is specifically for laundry, while 7801 covers cleaning — 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 Laundry 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