A back office in most

corporation A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and ...

s is where work that supports ''

front office The front office is the part of a company that comes in contact with clients, such as the marketing, sales, and service departments. The term has more specific meaning in different industries. Types General offices The function of front office ...

'' work is done. The

is the "face" of the company and is all the resources of the company that are used to make sales and interact with customers and clients. The back office is all the resources of the company that are devoted to actually producing a product or service such as data entry, payroll, accounting and all the other labor that is not seen by customers, such as administration or logistics. Broadly speaking, back office work includes roles that affect the costs side of a business's

trading statement The trading statement is an expanded version of sales portion of the Income statement. The trading statement's main objective is to determine sales, cost of sales and gross profit. The trading statement it's part of effective book keeping within t ...

and front office work includes roles that affect the income side of a business's trading statement. Although the operations of a back office are seldom prominent, they are a major contributor to a business's success. They can include functions such as accounting, planning,

inventory management Field inventory management commonly known as inventory management is the function of understanding the stock mix of a company and the different demands on that stock. The demands are influenced by both external and internal factors and are balan ...

, supply-chain management,

human resources Human resources (HR) is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms include ...

and

logistics Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. In a general business sense, logistics manages the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of consumption to meet the requirements of ...

. Back offices are often located somewhere other than company headquarters. Many are in areas and countries with cheaper rent and lower labor costs. Some

office park A business park or office park is a designated area of land in which many office buildings are grouped together. These types of developments are often located in suburban areas where land and building costs are more affordable, and are typically ...

s provide back offices for tenants whose front offices are in more expensive neighborhoods. Back office functions can be outsourced to consultants and contractors, including ones in other countries.

References

{{Office types Business terms

See also

References