Total Depreciation and Amortization

Total Depreciation and Amortization is the total amount of depreciation and amortization a company has in the current period. It is important in accrual accounting to understand the use of an asset's life and its writedown.

Depreciation is the measuring how much of a tangible asset was used during that period. For instance, if a computer was purchased for 500 dollars and had a expected usefulness of 5 years, a straight line depreciation for this would be about 100 dollars.

Amortization is the measure of use of an intangible asset's cost during a period. Intangible assets include assets such as goodwill and patents.