A one-time charge, in corporate accounting, is a charge against a company's earnings that the company's managers expect to be an isolated event and is unlikely to occur again. A one-time charge can either be a cash charge against earnings such as the cost of paying severance expenses to laid-off former employees or a non-cash charge such as the writing down of the value of assets such as a piece of real estate whose market value has fallen due to changes in business fundamentals or consumer preferences.