what is a one time charge 
a one time charge in corporate accounting is a charge against a company s earnings that the company s managers expect to be an isolated event and is unlikely to occur again a one time charge can either be a cash charge against earnings such as the cost of paying severance expenses to laid off former employees or a non cash charge such as the writing down of the value of assets such as a piece of real estate whose market value has fallen due to changes in business fundamentals or consumer preferences financial analysts routinely exclude one time charges when they evaluate a company s ongoing earnings potential understanding one time chargessome one time charges do indeed only take place once in such a case they should not recur and would not impact the long run performance and growth of a company as a result they may be excluded from pro forma financial statements or labeled as an extraordinary item however some companies incorrectly record charges that they repeatedly incur in the course of their usual business activities as one time charges this practice may make the company s financial health look better than it really is and it is a practice that investors should be aware of many consider this practice to be a dangerous trend some companies even use restructuring charges as a device to improve future earnings and profitability by taking large restructuring charges firms reduce depreciation in future periods and thus increase earnings this is accentuated when profitability is measured on a return basis since the book value of capital and equity is also reduced by large restructuring charges thus many analysts regard one time charges with skepticism and the adjustments should reflect what they see if the one time charges are really operating expenses they should be treated as such and earnings estimated after these charges if one time charges are actually one time charges earnings should be estimated prior to these charges 