In
accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of
goods and services related to the primary operations of the
business.
Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some
companies receive revenue from
interest,
royalties
A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset o ...
, or other
fees.
[ This definition is based on IAS 18.] "Revenue" may refer to 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
In business and accounting
Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, whi ...
generally imply total revenue minus total expenses in a given period. In
accounting, in the balance statement, revenue 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).
In general usage, revenue is the total amount of income by the sale of goods or services related to the company's operations.
Sales revenue is income received from selling goods or services over a period of time.
Tax revenue is income that a government receives from taxpayers.
Fundraising
Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...
revenue is income received by a
charity from donors etc. to further its social purposes.
In more formal usage, revenue is a calculation or estimation of periodic income based on a particular
standard accounting practice or the rules established by a government or government agency. Two common
accounting methods,
cash basis accounting
A basis of accounting is the time various financial transactions are recorded. The cash basis (EU VAT vocabulary ''cash accounting'') and the accrual basis are the two primary methods of tracking income and expenses in accounting.
Both can ...
and
accrual basis accounting, do not use the same process for measuring revenue. Corporations that offer shares for sale to the public are usually required by law to report revenue based on
generally accepted accounting principles or on
International Financial Reporting Standards.
In a
double-entry bookkeeping system, revenue accounts are
general ledger accounts that are summarized periodically under the heading "Revenue" or "Revenues" on an
income statement. Revenue account-names describe the type of revenue, such as "Repair service revenue", "Rent revenue earned" or "Sales".
Non-profit organizations
For
non-profit organizations, revenue may be referred to as gross receipts, support, contributions, etc. This operating revenue can include donations from individuals and corporations, support from government agencies, income from activities related to the organization's
mission, income from fundraising activities, and membership dues. Revenue (income and gains) from investments may be categorized as "operating" or "non-operating"—but for many non-profits must (simultaneously) be categorized by
fund Fund may refer to:
* Funding is the act of providing resources, usually in form of money, or other values such as effort or time, for a project, a person, a business, or any other private or public institution
** The process of soliciting and gath ...
(along with other accounts).
Association dues revenue
For non-profits with substantial revenue from the dues of their voluntary members: non-dues revenue is revenue generated through means besides association membership fees. This revenue can be found through means of
sponsorships,
donations or outsourcing the association's
digital media
Digital media is any communication media that operate in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital media can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, and preserved on a digital electronics device. '' ...
outlets.
Business revenue
Business revenue is money income from activities that are ordinary for a particular corporation, company, partnership, or sole-proprietorship. For some businesses, such as
manufacturing
Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a ...
or
grocery
A grocery store ( AE), grocery shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, an ...
, most revenue is from the sale of goods. Service businesses such as
law firm
A law firm is a business entity formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. The primary service rendered by a law firm is to advise clients (individuals or corporations) about their legal rights and responsibilities, and to r ...
s and
barber shops
A barber is a person whose occupation is mainly to cut, dress, groom, style and shave men's and boys' hair or beards. A barber's place of work is known as a "barbershop" or a "barber's". Barbershops are also places of social interaction and publi ...
receive most of their revenue from rendering services. Lending businesses such as
car rentals and
bank
A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets.
Becau ...
s receive most of their revenue from fees and interest generated by lending
asset
In financial accounting, an asset is any resource owned or controlled by a business or an economic entity. It is anything (tangible or intangible) that can be used to produce positive economic value. Assets represent value of ownership that ca ...
s to other organizations or individuals.
Revenues from a business's primary activities are reported as sales, sales revenue or
net sales.
This includes product returns and discounts for early payment of
invoices. Most businesses also have revenue that is incidental to the business's primary activities, such as interest earned on deposits in a
demand account. This is included in revenue but not included in net sales. Sales revenue does not include
sales tax
A sales tax is a tax paid to a governing body for the sales of certain goods and services. Usually laws allow the seller to collect funds for the tax from the consumer at the point of purchase. When a tax on goods or services is paid to a govern ...
collected by the business.
Other revenue (a.k.a. non-operating revenue) is revenue from peripheral (non-core) operations. For example, a company that manufactures and sells automobiles would record the revenue from the sale of an automobile as "regular" revenue. If that same company also rented a portion of one of its buildings, it would record that revenue as “other revenue” and disclose it separately on its income statement to show that it is from something other than its core operations. The combination of all the revenue-generating systems of a business is called its
revenue model.
Accounting terms
:
Net sales =
gross sales
In bookkeeping, accounting, and financial accounting, net sales are operating revenues earned by a company for selling its products or rendering its services. Also referred to as revenue, they are reported directly on the income statement as ''Sal ...
– (customer discounts, returns, and allowances)
:
Gross profit =
net sales –
cost of goods sold
:
Operating profit =
gross profit – total
operating expenses
:
Net profit =
operating profit – taxes – interest
:
Net profit =
net sales –
cost of goods sold –
operating expense – taxes – interest
:
EBIT EBIT, Ebit or ebit may refer to:
*EBIT, or Earnings before interest and taxes, in finance
*EBIT, or Electron beam ion trap, in physics
*An ebit (quantum state), a two-party quantum state with quantum entanglement
Quantum entanglement is the ph ...
=
net profit + taxes + interest
:
EBITDA
A company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (commonly abbreviated EBITDA, pronounced , , or ) is a measure of a company's profitability of the operating business only, thus before any effects of indebtedness, stat ...
=
net profit + taxes + interest + depreciation + amortization
Accounting
While the current IFRS conceptual framework no longer draws a distinction between revenue and gains, it continues to be drawn at the standard and reporting levels. For example, IFRS 9.5.7.1 states: "A gain or loss on a financial asset or financial liability that is measured at fair value shall be recognised in profit or loss ..." while the IASB defined IFRS XBRL taxonomy includes OtherGainsLosses, GainsLossesOnNetMonetaryPosition and similar items.
Financial statement analysis
Revenue is a crucial part of financial statement analysis. The company's performance is measured to the extent to which its asset inflows (revenues) compare with its asset outflows (
expenses).
Net income
In business and accounting
Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, whi ...
is the result of this equation, but revenue typically enjoys equal attention during a standard
earnings call. If a company displays solid “top-line growth”, analysts could view the period's performance as positive even if earnings growth, or “bottom-line growth” is stagnant. Conversely, high net income growth would be tainted if a company failed to produce significant revenue growth. Consistent revenue growth, if accompanied by net income growth, contributes to the value of an enterprise and therefore the
share price.
Revenue is used as an indication of earnings quality. There are several
financial ratios attached to it:
*The most important being
gross margin and
profit margin; also, companies use revenue to determine
bad debt expense using the income statement method.
*Price / Sales is sometimes used as a substitute for a
Price to earnings ratio
A price is the (usually not negative) quantity of payment or compensation given by one party to another in return for goods or services. In some situations, the price of production has a different name. If the product is a "good" in the c ...
when earnings are negative and the P/E is meaningless. Though a company may have negative earnings, it almost always has positive revenue.
*
Gross Margin is a calculation of revenue less
cost of goods sold, and is used to determine how well sales cover direct variable costs relating to the production of goods.
*Net income/sales, or
profit margin, is calculated by investors to determine how efficiently a company turns revenues into profits.
Government revenue
Government revenue includes all amounts of money (i.e., taxes and fees) received from sources outside the government entity. Large governments usually have an
agency or
department
Department may refer to:
* Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility
Government and military
*Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...
responsible for collecting government revenue from companies and individuals.
HM Revenue & Customs (United Kingdom)Office of the Revenue Commissioners (Ireland)
[http://dor.mo.gov/ Missouri Department of Revenue
Louisiana Department of Revenue
Government revenue may also include reserve bank currency which is printed. This is recorded as an advance to the retail bank together with a corresponding currency in circulation expense entry, that is, the income derived from the Official Cash rate payable by the retail banks for instruments such as 90-day bills. There is a question as to whether using generic business-based accounting standards can give a fair and accurate picture of government accounts, in that with a monetary policy statement to the reserve bank directing a positive inflation rate, the expense provision for the return of currency to the reserve bank is largely symbolic, such that to totally cancel the currency in circulation provision, all currency would have to be returned to the reserve bank and canceled.
See also
* List of companies by revenue
* Legal tender#Demonetization
* Proceeds of crime
Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...
References
External links
*
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