Key Difference: An office is a physical place that exists and is a room where people come together to work or do some sort of business. A company does not have to be a physical entity. It refers to a business entity that has been created with the aims of earning profit.

 The terms office and companies are often confusing as they can refer to the same thing. However, these two terms are quite different from each other. The term ‘office’ refers to a place where people work, while a company is a collection of people coming together to conduct business.

An office is a physical place that exists and is a room where people come together to work or do some sort of business. The office exists within a company or an organization and can be considered as a subset of it. The term office can also denote a position that a person may attain in an organization such as officer, office-holder, etc. In legal writing, a company or organization has offices in any place that it has an official presence. An office can be small or big, depending on the company. Offices these days require supplies such as pens, paper, staplers, computers, etc. It is also referred to a place where white-collared workers are employed.

Dictionary.com defines ‘office’ as:

• a room, set of rooms, or building where the business of a commercial or industrial organization or of a professional person is conducted.
• a room assigned to a specific person or a group of persons in a commercial or industrial organization.
• a business or professional organization
• the staff or designated part of a staff at a commercial or industrial organization.
• a position of duty, trust, or authority, especially in the government, a corporation, a society.

 A company does not have to be a physical entity. It refers to a business entity that has been created with the aims of earning profit. A company can be into a physical entity by opening offices in a building. The term ‘company’ is also used to refer to an association or collection of people in one place. In this particular comparison, the company is just the name of the business, which is registered. Under this name, the company and its people will conduct its business and even pay taxes.

Merriam Webster defines ‘company’ as:

• association with another
• companions, associates
• a group of persons or things
• a body of soldiers; especially : a unit (as of infantry) consisting usually of a headquarters and two or more platoons
• an organization of performing artists
• the officers and crew of a ship
• an association of persons for carrying on a commercial or industrial enterprise
• those members of a partnership firm whose names do not appear in the firm name

When comparing both terms in relation to business. It can easily be said that a company is an entity under which various people come together to conduct business. Now, this business is required to be conducted in a certain place, where meetings can be taken or people can sit down together and work, and information regarding the business transactions can be stored. Here is where a company comes into contact with an office. An office is where the people working for the company meet, official meetings are taken place and in-all many business related work is taken care of. A company also does not have an official address, whereas an office has a proper address. Most commonly, the office address is what is used as a company address.

Image Courtesy: damselsinsuccess.com, paperthin.com