Dictionary Definition
revenue
Noun
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Pronunciation
Noun
Translations
net gain before subtracting the loss
- Czech: výnos
- Danish: indtægt
- Finnish: tulot, voitto
- Greek: εισόδημα (eisódima)
- Japanese: (, shūeki)
- Russian: доход (doχód) , выручка (výručka)
- Spanish: rédito
- Swedish: omsättning-en
money flowing into some government or
administration cash by taxation
- Danish: skatteindtægt
- Finnish: verokertymä
- Greek: εισόδημα (eisódima)
- Japanese: (, sainyū)
- Spanish: recaudación
- ttbc Bulgarian: доход (dóχod)
- ttbc Chinese: 收支 (shouzhi)
- ttbc Dutch: opbrengst
- ttbc Estonian: tulu
- ttbc French: revenu
- ttbc German: Einkommen
- ttbc Italian: reddito
- ttbc Korean: 수익
- ttbc Latin: vectigal nominative, vectigalis genitive
- ttbc Malay: Pendapatan
- ttbc Norwegian: inntekt
- ttbc Polish: dochód
- ttbc Portuguese: faturamento
Synonyms
French
Etymology
Feminine form of past participle of verb revenirNoun
fr-noun f- ...
Extensive Definition
In business, revenue or revenues (turnover in
Europe) is income that a
company receives
from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of
goods and
services to customers. Some companies also receive revenue from
interest, dividends or royalties paid to them by
other companies. Revenue may refer to business income in general,
or it may refer to the amount, in a monetary
unit, received during a period of time, as in "Last year,
Company X had revenue of $32 million."
Profits or net income
generally mean total revenue minus total expenses in a given period. In
accounting and
financial
analysis, revenue 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.
For non-profit
organizations, annual revenue may be referred to as gross
receipts. This revenue includes donations from individuals and
corporations, support from government agencies, income from
activities related to the organization's mission,
and income from fundraising activities, membership dues, and
financial investments such as stock shares in companies. For
government, revenue
includes gross proceeds from income taxes on companies and
individuals, excise
duties, customs
duties, other taxes, sales of goods and services, dividends and
interest.
Usage
In general usage, revenue is income received by an organization in the form of cash or cash equivalents. Sales revenue or revenues is income received from selling goods or services over a period of time. Tax revenue is income that a government receives from taxpayers.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 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
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".
Business revenue
Business revenue is income from activities that are ordinary for a particular corporation, company, partnership, or sole-proprietorship. For some businesses, such as manufacturing and/or grocery, most revenue is from the sale of goods. Service businesses such as law firms and barber shops receive most of their revenue from rendering services. Lending businesses such as car rentals and banks receive most of their revenue from fees and interest generated by lending assets to other organizations or individuals.Revenues from a business's primary activities are
reported as Sales, Sales revenue or Net sales. This
excludes 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
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.
A public
company reports its total annual revenues based on its fiscal year.
Public companies also report quarterly revenues.
Revenue recognition and unearned revenue
main article revenue recognition Standards vary as to when revenue should be recognized. The Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB) Statement of Financial Accounting Concept 5 states that revenues should be recognized when they are “realized or realizable” and “earned”. Revenues are “realized or realizable” when products are exchanged for assets (such as cash) or claims to assets (such as promises to pay). Revenues are “earned” when the entity has performed all duties necessary to the purchaser.Often one of the two situations will arise but
not both. If assets are received before revenue is earned, a
liability account is
created called Unearned revenue. An example of when this would
happen is in the event of magazine subscriptions: suppose a company
sold 12 month magazine subscriptions on July 1, 2005 for $10,000 cash.
At the company’s year end, December 31,
the company is still obligated to deliver 6 months, or $5,000,
worth of magazines to subscribers. In this case, the company would
recognize $5,000 as revenue for 2005, and $5,000 would be seen in
the liability account Unearned revenue. A similar situation occurs
when a property-casualty insurance enterprise receives
premium at the start of the period insured. The insurer establishes
an "unearned premium reserve" for the portion of the premium
pro-rated for the unexpired portion of the policy period. (See
earned
premium.)
In general, for US GAAP purposes,
revenue should be recognized at time of delivery of the goods or
performance of the service. If cash is received prior to this time,
revenue is unearned. If cash has not yet been received at time of
performance, the asset account Accounts
receivable is used to record the revenue. This is in contrast
to IRS
revenue recognition policies, which call for revenues to be
recognized on a cash received basis. In the above magazine example,
the company would have to pay taxes on $10,000 of "revenue" for
2005.
Financial analysis
main article financial analysis Revenue is a crucial part of financial analysis. A company’s performance is measured to the extent to which its asset inflows (revenues) compare with its asset outflows (expenses). Net Income 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 income growth would be tainted if a company failed to produce significant revenue growth. Consistent revenue growth, as well as income growth, is considered essential for a company's publicly traded stock to be attractive to investors.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 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 comes primarily from taxes but includes all amounts of money received from sources outside the government entity. Large governments usually have an agency or department responsible for collecting government revenue from companies and individualsSee also
Notes and references
revenue in Danish: Omsætning
revenue in German: Erlös
revenue in Spanish: ingresos
revenue in French: Chiffre d'affaires
revenue in Indonesian: Pendapatan
revenue in Italian: Fatturato
revenue in Dutch: Omzet
revenue in Japanese: 収益
revenue in Norwegian: Omsetning
revenue in Polish: Przychód (ekonomia)
revenue in Portuguese: Receita (economia)
revenue in Slovak: Výnos (opak nákladov)
revenue in Finnish: Liikevaihto
revenue in Swedish: Omsättning
revenue in Ukrainian: Дохід
revenue in Chinese: 收入
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
avails,
box office, commissions, credit, credits, disposable income,
dividend, dividends, earned income,
earnings, gain, gains, gate, gate receipts, get, gross, gross income, gross
receipts, income,
intake, interest, make, net, net income, net receipts,
output, proceeds, produce, profit, profits, receipt, receipts, receivables, returns, royalties, salary, take, take-in, takings, unearned income,
wages, yield