Revenue Definition

Their gross revenue was $1.5 million and their COGS was $500,000, leading to a gross income of $1 million. But now the remainder of the business’s expenses have to be taken into account, and combined they total up to $400,000.

But getting a grasp on these concepts is the first step toward evaluating your company’s efficiency and profitability. The revenue number is the income a company generatesbeforeany expenses are taken out. Therefore, when a company has “top-line growth,” the company is experiencing an increase in gross sales or revenue.

Revenue vs. Profit: What’s the Difference?

This means that each year that the equipment or machinery is put to use, the cost associated with using up the asset is recorded. The rate at which a company chooses to depreciate its assets may result in a book value that differs from the current market value of the assets. If you’re new to business, or just unfamiliar with the accounting aspects of business, terms such as net sales, net revenue, cost of sales and gross margin may be confusing, even intimidating.

Travel expenses are deducted from revenue, as are expenses related to the company’s office. The money spent on advertising, marketing, events and client-related expenses is also deducted.

Whereas sales revenue only considers the amount of income a business generates through the sale of its goods or services, profit considers both income and expenses when it is calculated. Profit can be broken down further into gross profit (sales minus cost of goods sold), operating profit (gross profit minus operating expenses) and net profit (remaining income after all expenses have been paid). In accounting, revenue is the income that a business has from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. Some companies receive revenue from interest, royalties, or other fees.

e.g. raw material for shirts (cloth, buttons etc.), purchase and upkeep of machinery, personnel costs and other capital and operational expenses. Let’s say the total expenses in 2011 for this business were $8 million.

So the income, or net profit, for this company in 2011 is $2 million. From an accounting standpoint, the company would recognize $50 in revenue on itsincome statementand $50 in accrued revenue as an asset on its balance sheet. When the company collects the $50, the cash account on the income statement increases, the accrued revenue account decreases, and the $50 on the income statement will remain unchanged.

Your income statement shows your revenue, followed by your cost of goods sold, and your gross profit. The next section shows your operating, interest, and tax expenses. Revenue is known as the top line because it appears first on a company’s income statement. Net income, also known as the bottom line, is revenues minus expenses.

Income vs. Revenue

what is revenue

The cost of goods is then deducted from the net sales to figure out the gross profit. Gross profit is the total sales profit without including overhead costs or, operating expenses, like rent, utilities, payroll and taxes. The net income is calculated by deducting the cost of goods and services and the operational costs from the revenue. The course financial accounting can help you understand these financial terms better and give you guidance to managing your own finances. In a company’s financial statement (or Profit and Loss statement or income statement), the first line — also called the top line — is revenue.

Sometimes this revenue is broken out by business activity to provide investors more transparency into where the revenue is derived from. The cost of goods sold is listed next, followed by other expenses such as selling, general and administrative expenses, depreciation, interest paid and taxes. After all these expenses are subtracted from Revenue, the last line on the statement — the bottom line — is the net income (or simply “income”) of the business. When investors and analysts speak of a company’s income, they’re actually referring tonet income or the profit for the company.

For one, they appear on completely different parts of a company’s financial statements. Assets are listed on the balance sheet, and revenue is shown on a company’s income statement. The difference between net sales and net income is the difference between the top and bottom lines. Net sales, or net revenue, is the money your company earns from doing business with its customers. Net income is profit – what’s left over after you account for all revenue, expenses, gains, losses, taxes and other obligations.

  • The bottom line, or net income, describes how efficient a company is with its spending and managing itsoperating costs.
  • Income is often considered a synonym for revenue since both terms refer to positive cash flow.

Revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods or services related to the company’s primary operations. Profit, typically called net profitor the bottom line, is the amount of income that remains after accounting for all expenses, debts, additional income streams and operating costs. As long as you have those first two figures you can calculate your company’s gross profits. If revenue totaled $1,500,000 and the cost of goods sold (COGS) were $500,000, your business’s gross income would be $1,000,000. Record both gross and net profit on your small business income statement.

Example: Revenue vs. Profit

The bottom line, or net income, describes how efficient a company is with its spending and managing itsoperating costs. Income is often considered a synonym for revenue since both terms refer to positive cash flow. Net income appears on a company’s income statement and is an important measure of the profitability of a company. Profit is a business’s total revenues minus total costs and is often referred to as its bottom line. More specifically, profit is the amount of income that remains after all expenses, costs and taxes are accounted for.

That means their net income comes out to $600,000; significantly lower than the gross revenue, but still profitable. Net income, in deducting other expenses, involves more than just the most direct expenses related to the product sold. Selling expenses, aka expenses required for the labor in selling your product, is taken into account. That includes salaries and benefits for employees at the business.

Gross Profit, Operating Profit and Net Income

What is revenue and example?

Fees earned from providing services and the amounts of merchandise sold. Examples of revenue accounts include: Sales, Service Revenues, Fees Earned, Interest Revenue, Interest Income. Revenue accounts are credited when services are performed/billed and therefore will usually have credit balances.

To increase profit, and hence earnings per share for its shareholders, a company increases revenues and/or reduces expenses. Investors often consider a company’s revenue and net income separately to determine the health of a business. It is possible for net income to grow while revenues remain stagnant because of cost-cutting. Such a situation does not bode well for a company’s long-term growth.

In 2011, the company sells 1 million shirts to retailers, who pay them $10 per shirt. In the course of doing business, the company incurs various expenses.

When public companies report their quarterly earnings, the two figures that receive the most attention are revenues and earnings per share (“earnings” being equivalent to net income). Subsequent price movement in stocks generally correlates to whether a company beat or missed analysts’ revenue and earnings per share expectations. Using depreciation, a business expenses a portion of the asset’s value over each year of its useful life, instead of allocating the entire expense to the year in which the asset is purchased.

Revenue may refer to business income in general, or it may refer to the amount, in a monetary unit, earned during a period of time, as in “Last year, Company X had revenue of $42 million”. Profits or net income generally imply total revenue minus total expenses in a given period. In accounting, in the balance statement it is a subsection of the Equity section and revenue increases equity, it is often referred to as the “top line” due to its position on the income statement at the very top. This is to be contrasted with the “bottom line” which denotes net income (gross revenues minus total expenses).

Net income is calculated by taking revenues and subtracting the costs of doing business, such as depreciation, interest, taxes, and other expenses. When people speak of the bottom line in business, they’re talking about net income. Net income is simply profit, and the whole income statement flows toward this number.