Before reading this quick reference about amortisation, please read the following posts:  Capital Expenses and Operating Expenses, and ‘Depreciation‘

Amortisation is an allocation of an expense over specified periods of time.

In financial accounting, amortisation is very similar to depreciation, except that it is typically applied to ‘intangible assets’ while depreciation is applied to ‘tangible or physical’ assets.

Intangible assets are assets that can’t be seen or touched – they’re not physical.  An examples of an ‘intangible asset’ is intellectual property.