overhead expenses

CIDE DICTIONARY

overhead expenses,  

 Those general charges or expenses in any business which cannot be charged up as belonging exclusively to any particular part of the work or product, as where different kinds of goods are made, or where there are different departments in a business; -- called also fixed charges, establishment charges, or (in a manufacturing business) administration charges, selling charges, and distribution charges, etc.  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]