Income Statements

Income Statement

Income statement (also referred to as profit and loss statement [P&L]), revenue statement, a statement of financial performance, an earnings statement, an operating statement, or statement of operations) is a company's financial statement. This indicates how the revenue (money received from the sale of products and services before expenses are taken out, also known as the "top line") is transformed into the net income (the result after all revenues and expenses have been accounted for, also known as "Net Profit" or the "bottom line"). It displays the revenues recognized for a specific period, and the cost and expenses charged against these revenues, including write offs (e.g., depreciation and amortization of various assets) and taxes. The purpose of the income statement is to show managers and investors whether the company made or lost money during the period being reported.

The important thing to remember about an income statement is that it represents a period of time. This contrasts with the balance sheet, which represents a single moment in time.

Income statement

GAAP and IRS accounting can differ.

Two Methods

• The Single Step income statement takes a simpler approach, totaling revenues and subtracting expenses to find the bottom line.
• The Multi-Step income statement (as the name implies) takes several steps to find the bottom line, starting with the gross profit. It then calculates operating expenses and, when deducted from the gross profit, yields income from operations. Adding to income from operations is the difference of other revenues and other expenses. When combined with income from operations, this yields income before taxes. The final step is to deduct taxes, which finally produces the net income for the period measured.

Operating Section

• Revenue - cash inflows or other enhancements of assets of an entity during a period from delivering or producing goods, rendering services, or other activities that constitute the entity's ongoing major operations. It is usually presented as sales minus sales discounts, returns, and allowances. Every time a business sells a product or performs a service, it obtains revenue. This often is referred to as gross revenue or sales revenue.
• Expenses - cash outflows or other using-up of assets or incurrence of liabilities during a period from delivering or producing goods, rendering services, or carrying out other activities that constitute the entity's ongoing major operations.
• Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)/Cost of Sales - represents the direct costs attributable to goods produced and sold by a business (manufacturing or merchandizing). It includes material costs, direct labor, and overhead costs (as in absorption costing), and excludes operating costs (period costs), such as selling, administrative, advertising or R&D, etc.
• Selling, General and Administrative expenses (SG&A or SGA) - consist of the combined payroll costs. SGA is usually understood as a major portion of non-production related costs, in contrast to production costs such as direct labour.
• Selling expenses - represent expenses needed to sell products (e.g., salaries of sales people, commissions, and travel expenses; advertising; freight; shipping; depreciation of sales store buildings and equipment, etc.).
• General and Administrative (G&A) expenses - represent expenses to manage the business (salaries of officers/executives, legal and professional fees, utilities, insurance, depreciation of office building and equipment, office rents, office supplies, etc.).
• Depreciation/Amortization - the charge with respect to fixed assets/intangible assets that have been capitalized on the balance sheet for a specific (accounting) period. It is a systematic and rational allocation of cost rather than the recognition of market value decrement.
• Research & Development (R&D) expenses - represent expenses included in research and development.
• Expenses recognized in the income statement should be analyzed either by nature (raw materials, transport costs, staffing costs, depreciation, employee benefit, etc.) or by function (cost of sales, selling, administrative, etc.).

Non-operating Section

• Other revenues or gains - revenues and gains from other than primary business activities (e.g., rent, income from patents).
• Other expenses or losses - expenses or losses not related to primary business operations, (e.g., foreign exchange loss).
• Finance costs - costs of borrowing from various creditors (e.g., interest expenses, bank charges).
• Income tax expense - sum of the amount of tax payable to tax authorities in the current reporting period (current tax liabilities/tax payable) and the amount of deferred tax liabilities (or assets).
• Irregular items - are reported separately because this way users can better predict future cash flows - irregular items most likely will not recur. These are reported net of taxes.

Bottom Line

Bottom line is the net income that is calculated after subtracting the expenses from revenue. Since this forms the last line of the income statement, it is informally called "bottom line. " It is important to investors as it represents the profit for the year attributable to the shareholders.