The Cost of Goods Sold, or COGS, represents the overhead associated with the materials and labor, which were needed to produce the goods sold during a given period.

The COGS calculation is only concerned with the production costs of a good, and does not take distribution and sales force costs into account. It will always include the direct materials cost and direct labor cost for each item, but indirect overhead associated with production, such facility costs, are distributed between Inventory and COGS, according to Generally Accepted Accounting Practices (GAAP).

The COGS reported on an income statement can be used to find the company's gross profit margin, like so:

Revenue - COGS = Gross Margin.