Revenue vs Income Difference, Example, Statement

It is a critical measure of financial performance that reveals how well a company can generate money from its primary business operations. Generally, analysts and investors carefully assess the company’s revenues from different periods to identify their growth trends. While both measures are important and that income is derived from revenue, income is generally considered more important. The reason is that income is profit, which shows that a business is able to cover its expenses and use that profit to grow the business and not rely on outside sources, such as debt, to continue operating. Strong revenues will indicate that a business can sell its product or service but strong profits will indicate a business is in good financial health.

Technically, net sales refer to revenue minus any returns of purchased merchandise. Access and download collection of free Templates to help power your productivity and performance.

Businesses generate this money from many different avenues, but the figure does not include any company loans taken during the covered period. Operational efficiency can have a significant effect on revenue and income. Lean manufacturing practices, or investment in technology, streamline business operations, reduce costs, and increase profitability. Businesses with a well-planned pricing strategy can attract customers and generate higher revenue.

Applicable expenses for your business depend on its size, your company type, the industry you operate in, and your specific accounting practices.
By subtracting these costs, you will have created your operating profit.
The best accounting software packages make it easy to measure and track a business’s revenue.
The other mistake that people often make is to assume that if a company has a high revenue, it must be doing well.
Direct costs are expenses specifically related to the cost of producing goods and services—things like parts, raw materials, utility bills, direct labor, and commissions or professional fees.

Following are examples from two real companies – Apple and Walmart – to illustrate the difference between revenue and income. Jessica runs an ecommerce site that sells novelty t-shirts, mugs and keychains. At year-end, she adds up the total amount customers paid for each different product in order to calculate her revenue for the year.

It’s also important because businesses are valued differently using one number versus the other, and because only net income is taxable. Businesses and individuals can improve their financial performance and make better choices by considering the factors that affect revenue and income. We recommend analyzing revenue and income statements regularly and seeking professional financial advice when necessary to ensure financial success. While a company with robust revenues may show it can sell its product or service, a business with high profits is likely more financially sound.

Operating Revenue

To a financial specialist, the income might be discretionary or expendable. To an administration or the government office, the income might be available, tax absolved, or by the diminished tax. They are two basic terms that are valuable in deciding the monetary strength of an organisation. She has held multiple finance and banking classes for business schools and communities. In this article, we’ll explain what income is, what revenue is, and the difference between the two. The information in this article is intended for general information purposes only.

Nevertheless, the disparity between Walmart’s revenue and its profit demonstrates the potential weight of total expenses on a company’s bottom line. A well-run company will generally have both high revenue (plenty of success in sales) and well-proportioned income (ability to keep operating costs low). The optimal gross profit margin varies between companies based on the type of goods/service they sell and the cost to produce/provide it.

Revenue

Conversely, net income is revenue minus all expenses, including operating expenses and nonoperating expenses, such as taxes. Nonoperating revenue is the money that a business earns from side activities unrelated to its daily activities, such as profits from investments or dividend income. This type of revenue is generally less consistent than operating revenue. Revenue is the total amount of income that a company generates from the sale of goods and services.

Governments use the term revenue to describe the money they collect from taxes, fees, fines, and publicly-operated services. Revenue is the total income a company generates by the sale of goods or services that can be attributed to the company’s core operations. Apple posted $99,803 billion in net income (earnings) for 2022 (a $5 billion increase from the same period in 2021). Each of 13 things bookkeepers do for small businesses these types of profits has relevance, hence their existence. Top-line growth – the growth in revenue – might be explained by the introduction of a new product that drove more sales or a strong advertising campaign. The bottom-line growth – that of net income – could be due to the increased revenues, but it might also be enhanced by things like cost-cutting or using a cheaper supplier.

Real-Life Example of Revenue and Operating Income

Other non-operating revenue gains may come from occasional events, such as investment windfalls, money awarded through litigation, interest, royalties, and fees. Revenue is the amount of money that a company brings in from the sale of its goods or services. This number doesn’t account for expenses, and it’s a good indicator of how well a company is doing with finding customers to buy its products and services.

Difference Between Revenue vs Income

At the state level, some states use a flat-rate tax, while others impose a progressive system or have no state income tax at all. The expression ‘Revenue’ portrays the aggregate sum of money procured by an association by offering its services and products and at what cost is it sold or delivered. In this article, I only scratched the surface of financial terminology and concepts. If you need to structure your business’s income statement, I implore you to do a more extensive reading as real-world financial statements can be several magnitudes more complex. Accrued revenue is the money you have received but have yet to report as revenue.

Earnings, by contrast, reflect the bottom line on the income statement and are the profit a company has earned for a period. The earnings figure is listed as net income on the income statement. When investors and analysts speak of a company’s earnings, they’re talking about the company’s net income or profit.

If you’re looking at a cash flow statement, revenue is usually the number listed on the top line. Revenue and income are critical components in both business and personal finance. It indicates the company’s ability to cover all its expenses and further invest the profit into the business without relying on external funding like loans to keep it afloat.

Tax Documents

The COGS for tech companies are usually unique to the nature of the revenue model and can vary from one business to the next. Once you have identified the contributing costs to your COGS, you will also better understand your options or levers to minimize these costs down the road. To calculate your business’s income, you first need a complete accounting of all of those expenses so you can subtract them from your revenue. Individually it’s vital to understand the fundamentals of revenue vs income and how each indicates certain functions and levers within your business. Revenue is often called the top line of the business, as it is the first line you see when looking at an income statement. An income statement is a document that has the complete calculation from revenue down to income.