What Is Below The Line In Film & Which Crew Members Qualify?

Categorizing certain items in the financial statements below the line helps to separately present results from the normal operations of a company. Looking for training on the income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows? At some point managers need to understand the statements and how you affect the numbers. Learn more about financial ratios and how they help you understand financial statements.

Jackie Jackson is a Senior Financial analyst and a community outreach specialist with over 10 years of experience in the field. To learn more about above the line vs below the line, be sure to read our article What Does Above the Line Mean? For a quick and easy-to-follow breakdown of film set hierarchy amongst below and above the line personnel, check out the video below. The Structured Query Language comprises several different data types that allow it to store different types of information… The returns on the initial investment are better and also the leads can be tracked better as compared to the ATL activities.

What Is Below The Line In Film & Which Crew Members Qualify?

So if you want to be in the 20 percent tax bracket and not the 30 percent tax bracket you want these above the line deductions. The below the line deductions are, value of them is often measured by what your adjusted gross income is. You’re only allowed to deduct anything that exceeds 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income. So the lower your adjusted gross income is the bigger of a deduction that you can take which is why you want more deductions above the line than below it. The COGS are the expenses incurred in the normal operations of the business to generate revenues. The update also eliminated the need for auditors and regulators to assess if extraordinary items had been identified and classified as required by GAAP.

ATL is an activity that has no specific target whereas the BTL consists of activities targeting a specific target group. Its total above-the-line costs for labor and raw materials are $4,000. Financial Intelligence takes you through all the financial statements and financial jargon giving you the confidence to understand what it all means and why it matters. Ask questions and participate in discussions as our trainers teach you how to read and understand your financial statements and financial position.

The Difference Between Above The Line And Below The Line Expenses

As an example, Nike Inc. reported $37.4 billion in sales in the year ending May 31, 2021. Therefore, Nike’s above-the-line costs for the quarter were $21.2 billion, which the company labels cost of sales on its income statement. Some people would consider ATL and BTL antiquated terminologies in an era which uses the internet and lightening speed changes in modes of communication to reach out to the consumer. “When you are communicating with a niche audience BTL is better. However, digital media has more or less broken these boundaries of ATL versus BTL as digital communication can address both at the same time.,” says Namrata Rana, Director, Futurescape.

The term ‘below the line’ first worked its way into filmmaking vocabulary as a purely budgetary term, but is now used to denote the level of importance and creative influence of crew members as well. Operating income looks at profit after deducting operating expenses such as wages, depreciation, and cost of goods sold. Above-the-line costs for service providers or utilities generally include all costs above operating profit. Above-the-line costs are often referred to as the cost of goods sold , while below-the-line is operating and interest expenses and taxes. Interestingly, there is a new phrase called Through the Line, or TTL, which integrates both ATL and BTL activities.

For financial and accounting professionals, above-the-line and below-the-line costs are an important concept to master. Understanding the differences between these two accounting terms and how to apply them to your financial process may contribute to your success in calculating gross and net profit. In this article, we define above-the-line and below-the-line costs, discuss examples of both cost types and provide a list of the key differences between them. In this sample income statement, you can see that COGS is “above the line” of gross profit and operating expenses and taxes are “below the line.” Amounts shown in thousands. Above and below the line may also relate to filmmaking or marketing. In filmmaking, above the line refers to the budget for directors, actors, story writers, and the likes, while below the line includes the rest of the production team or crew. In marketing, above the line is related to mass media marketing, while below the line is direct marketing.

Look Up Another Financial Concept:

Unlike below the line items, these items count when calculating the profit earned or loss incurred during an accounting period. Above-the-line costs are regular, expected expenses and income during the manufacturing of products and services. While the cost of inflation may influence them, companies can often estimate these costs and make adjustments to their processes in order to preserve their profit margin. Above-the-line costs are an important part of determining the gross profit of an organization.

Above The Line advertising is where mass media is used to promote brands and reach out to the target consumers. These include conventional media as we know it, television and radio advertising, print as well as internet. This is communication that is targeted to a wider spread of audience, and is not specific to individual consumers. ATL advertising tries to reach out to the mass as consumer audience. Also consider Expedia Inc., the travel website, which reported $3.2 billion in revenue in its second quarter of 2019 and an operating income of $265 million. The company is not involved in the production of goods so the company does not use gross profit as a metric in its income statement.

• In this sample income statement, you can see that COGS is “above the line” of gross profit and operating expenses and taxes are “below the line.” Amounts shown in thousands.
• Exceptional items are gains or losses that are part of a company’s ordinary business dealings but that must be specifically disclosed due to their large size.
• Advanced Filmmaking Techniques A visual medium requires visual methods.
• She has nearly two decades of experience in the financial industry and as a financial instructor for industry professionals and individuals.
• Learn accounting fundamentals and how to read financial statements with CFI’s free online accounting classes.

The restaurant owes its new suppliers a total of $500 in taxes. One of its staff members slipped while in the kitchen and required medical care totaling $1,000, which the restaurant pays in full.

Why Are Crews Divided This Way?

A restaurant sold $20,000 in food and beverages during its previous sales cycle. It paid its staff a total of $5,000, used a total of $2,000 worth of ingredients and supplies and paid its rent each month, totaling $3,000. A non-operating expense is an expense incurred by a business that is unrelated to its core operations. Hence, Below the line marketing is most effective when it is creative. The more creative you are with your BTL marketing, the more viral your brand will be, and the better returns you will get. On the other hand, Below the line marketing is much more measurable and also gives a good ROI. There is so much noise, that people don’t pay attention to hoardings, or internet ads.

GAAP requires these items to be noted on the company’s balance sheet for the year. Due to their material nature, exceptional items must be disclosed so that regulators and stakeholders know the actual financial standing of the company. Alternatively, a company may incur a large non-recurring cost that does not reflect the usual expenses incurred by the company. Excluding these items helps reveal the real financial results of the company without artificially inflating or understating the revenues for the accounting period.

How Do Operating Income And Revenue Differ?

Exceptional items differ from extraordinary items in that extraordinary items involve gains or losses that are not part of the company’s core business operations. Extraordinary items comprise gains or losses that result from events that are infrequent and unusual. They are not expected to recur in the future and must, therefore, be separated from the ordinary operating expenses or incomes. Such items must be explained in the notes to the financial statements. Depending on the type of business and products or services they provide, the process for determining above-the-line costs may vary. For manufacturing businesses, above-the-line costs are any costs necessary to make a gross profit or the cost of goods sold . For businesses that provide a service instead of a product, above-the-line costs are costs deducted from the operating profit.

Cost of goods sold is defined as the direct costs attributable to the production of the goods sold in a company. I am a serial entrepreneur & I created Marketing91 because I wanted my readers to stay ahead in this hectic business world. List your agency among the leaders of the industry, promote your work, create original content, find new team members and keep up with digital marketing events. A guide to compare & contrast above the line and below the line marketing to choose one that works best for your business and keeps your budget in check. Difference between ‘above the line’ and ‘below the line’ advertising. Above the line personnel are typically present for a film’s entire production span, but that might not necessarily be the case for below the line personnel.

“Above the line cost” has different meanings, depending on the industry and company. Some companies consider above-the-line costs to be costs above gross profit, while others consider them as costs above operating profit. For companies in the service sector, above-the-line costs are costs that are deducted in arriving at operating profit, which includes COGS but also all selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) costs. I’m Jackie Jackson, and I’m going to talk to you about the difference between above the line and below the line deductions.

– A company that’s in the business of manufacturing and selling water pumps to wholesalers may decide to dispose of one of its manufacturing plants. The company may sell the plant because it is underutilized or merely to improve its cash flow position. In any event, the company will receive a large, non-recurring revenue after selling the plant that might make the company appear financially healthy even if it is, in fact, in severe financial distress. A toy manufacturing company plans to produce and sell 100 model trucks during its next sales cycle. In order to produce one truck, it needs to pay an employee $30 in labor, and each truck has a cost of manufacturing of $10.

Below-the-line costs are unexpected costs or income for which organizations may be unable to prepare. A fixed cost is a cost that does not change with an increase or decrease in the amount of goods or services produced or sold.

Today, we’ll be providing a below the line definition, explaining where the term comes from, and who is considered below the line. Learn accounting fundamentals and how to read financial statements with CFI’s free online accounting classes.

BTL communications from brands is rapidly becoming a dying form of reaching out to the audience with agencies and clients going adopting the Integrated Communication approach. Above The Line and Below The Line advertising are two terms that are bandied around often these days in the advertising world and often have the lay person confused as to what they stand for. It might be worth our while to begin this by defining what constitutes the metaphoric ‘Line’. A different interpretation of the concept is that “above the line” refers to the gross margin earned by a business. Under this interpretation, revenues and the cost of goods sold are considered to be above the line, while all other expenses are considered to be below the line. The term relates to both the division of a film’s budget, and the division of a film’s crew. An example of a company that practiced creative accounting is Lehman Brothers.

Companies are still required to report and disclose unusual and infrequent transactions and their pre-tax effect on the company’s financials. In January 2015, the GAAP principles were changed, scrapping the concept of extraordinary items. It eased the preparation of financial statements since accountants were no longer required to distinguish the extraordinary items.

Gross Profit Vs Net Profit

Now what a deduction is is an item or an expense that reduces your taxable income and therefore reduces the amount of tax you have to pay. And when we talk about the line, what the line is is your adjusted gross income or your income minus those deductions that I just talked about. Frequently the above the line deductions are more valuable and here is why. They bring down the amounts of money you have to pay taxes on which determines the tax bracket that you’re in.