Exercises E11-1 - The use of property, plant, and equipment and intangible assets represents a consumption of benefits, or service potentials, inherent in the assets. The matching concept requires that the cost of these inherent benefits or service potentials that were consumed be recognized as an expense. As there very seldom is a direct relationship between the use of assets and revenue production, accounting resorts to arbitrary allocation methods to achieve a matching of expenses with revenues. (p. 587)