Opex, Capex, EBITDA, Depreciation & Amortization—What You Don’t Control, and What You Absolutely Do

As an IT leader, you’re held accountable for outcomes and budget adherence, but you don’t control the accounting rules that turn Capex into Depreciation/Amortization (D&A). That’s Finance’s domain (useful life, straight-line vs. accelerated, intangible amortization, etc.).

Good news: you don’t need to control D&A to run a tight budget. Your impact comes from how spend is created, classified, used, and governed. Think of D&A as a downstream accounting effect. Your levers sit upstream.

Quick refresher (30 seconds)

• Opex: Run costs that hit this period’s P&L and reduce EBITDA now (e.g., cloud, SaaS, support, managed services, staff/contractors).
• Capex: Build costs that create assets and are expensed over time as D&A (e.g., hardware, eligible software implementation/dev).
• EBITDA: Profit proxy before D&A; D&A doesn’t touch EBITDA but reduces EBIT and taxable income.
• D&A: Finance-controlled schedules that expense past Capex over time.

You don’t set D&A—but you influence it by shaping today’s spend (Opex vs. Capex) and the service portfolio consuming it.

What IT Leaders Can Control (10 levers)

1) Demand management

Shape intake (projects/enhancements) with business cases and unit-rate transparency. Fewer, higher-ROI asks = lower run-rate pressure

2) Service portfolio & unit economics

Define service owners, map costs (Opex + D&A) to services, publish unit rates ($/user, $/GB, $/API). Unit rates change behavior faster than top-down cuts.

3) Opex vs. Capex structure at the decision point

You may not set GAAP policy, but you can choose architectures and deal structures (cloud commit vs. owned gear; build vs. buy). These choices drive whether tomorrow’s costs are Opex now or Capex that becomes D&A later.

4) Usage & rightsizing

Cloud FinOps basics: commit/spot, autoscaling, storage tiers, idle resource kills, license true-ups/downs, SaaS seat hygiene. Usage discipline beats accounting wizardry every time.

5) Vendor & contract terms

Term lengths, ramp clauses, price protections, EULAs, implementation fees, and renewal timing impact Opex profile and future D&A.

6) Lifecycle management

Refresh cadence for hardware and platforms affects future Capex (and thus future D&A). Consolidation stretches useful life where it makes sense.

7) Capitalization eligibility (with Finance)

You don’t write policy, but you can tag work correctly (e.g., Jira epics that meet capitalization criteria). Good tagging ensures eligible work is captured; ineligible work stays Opex.

8) Resource mix

FTE vs. contractors vs. managed services changes Opex run-rate, velocity, and risk. Align mix to demand volatility.

9) Architecture choices

Multi-tenant SaaS vs. licensed on-prem, data egress patterns, integration methods—these architectural decisions drive unit costs and Opex variability.

10) Forecast & scenario discipline

Multi-year forecast with renewal calendars, cloud commits, and service growth assumptions prevents “surprise Opex.” Run “what-ifs” (grow/flat/trim) quarterly.

How to Manage the Budget When You Don’t Control D&A

A. Separate the views you run on

• Run-rate Opex (this quarter/this year)
• Committed Opex (renewals, cloud commits, long-tail SaaS)
• Capex pipeline (approved vs. proposed)
• D&A overlay (for transparency, even if you don’t set it)

Treat D&A as read-only context that explains the total cost of services. Your active controls are Opex consumption and new Capex decisions.

B. Manage by service TCO and unit rates

• Roll up Opex + allocated D&A to each service (e.g., Digital Workplace, Data Platform, Core Apps).
• Publish unit rates with trends. When a service owner sees $/employee or $/GB rising, they act.

C. Lock in a renewal & commit calendar

• 120/90/60-day alerts, consumption vs. commit dashboards, “break glass” levers pre-agreed with vendors.

D. Run scenarios before decisions hit the P&L

• Example: “Renew SaaS for 3 years” vs. “Buy & implement” vs. “Optimize + 1-year bridge.”
• Compare EBITDA impact this year, cash, unit rate, and risk.

E. Quarterly operating rhythm

• QBR with Finance: variance analysis (price vs. volume vs. mix), unit-rate trends, top 10 actions, updated scenarios.
• Action tracker rightsizing tasks, contract fixes, architecture changes, lifecycle deferrals/accelerations.

KPI Set That Works for ITLT-1

• Opex run-rate by service & vendor
• Unit rates (e.g., $/employee, $/workspace, $/GB, $/API) with QoQ trend
• Coverage ratio: committed vs. actual cloud/SaaS usage
• Renewal exposure next 3/6/12 months
• Savings pipeline (validated/realized)
• Capex pipeline and post-go-live Opex impact
• D&A overlay per service (transparent, not controllable)

Where Altios ITFM Fits

Altios ITFM is built around what IT leaders actually control:

1) Unified mapping & auto-classification

• GL/AP, contracts/POs, cloud bills, SaaS, timesheets, Jira.
• Policy-aware Opex/Capex tagging and capitalization eligibility flags.
• Automatic mapping of Opex + D&A to TBM-aligned services.

2) Service TCO & unit-rate analytics

• Opex you control + D&A you don’t, in one view.
• Unit-rate trends, variance (price/volume/mix), and benchmark ranges.

3) Renewal & commit calendar with guardrails

• 120/90/60-day alerts, commit-coverage dashboards, overage risk indicators.

4) Scenario modeling for decisions you do control

• Cloud vs. on-prem, term options, ramp structures, build vs. buy.
• Side-by-side EBITDA, cash, unit cost, and risk impact.

5) Quarterly operating rhythm baked in

• QBR pack generator, action tracker, savings pipeline, and realized savings attribution.

Bottom line

You don’t need to control depreciation to control outcomes. Control the inputs (demand, usage, contracts, architecture), publish unit economics, and enforce a renewal/scenario discipline. Altios handles the plumbing and turns this into an operating system for IT finance.