What Is the Difference Between Net Revenue & Operating Income? (2024)

By Fraser Sherman Updated March 01, 2019

In casual conversation, revenue and income can mean the same thing. On your financial statements, net revenue and operating income are separate, distinct terms. Net revenue or net sales is the money you made from selling goods or services for the month, quarter or year. Operating income is the dollar amount left after you subtract expenses from net revenue.

Tip

Net revenue and operating income are two distinct items, and the difference between them shows how much expenses take out of your revenue stream.

Crunching the Numbers

Your company's income statement is the place you report both net revenue and operating income. Net revenue is up at the top, alone or under gross sales. It represents the income that the business generated during the reporting period covered by the statement.

To calculate net revenue, you add up sales income – not just what customers paid but also credit sales – and adjust it for discounts, allowances and returns. For example, if you run a store and allow customers to return items, you reduce sales revenue to reflect the possibility some sales aren't final.

How to Find Operating Income

Operating income sits a few lines lower on the income statement. To get there, you subtract many of your business expenses from net revenue. You subtract the cost of goods sold, such as the price to you of the inventory you sold during the period. Then, you subtract operating expenses: marketing, advertising, employee salaries, rent, insurance and other costs of doing business. You don't include taxes, interest payments and other nonoperating expenses. Those are handled elsewhere on the statement.

After subtracting the cost of goods sold and operating expenses to net revenue, you have your operating income.

What the Terms Signify

Operating income is one of the most important lines on the income statement. It shows how much your regular business activities earned during the reporting period. It's separated on the statement from other income, such as investment earnings. That way anyone reading the income statement can see how much income your business activities earn and whether your business is profitable. That information is important not only to you but also to lenders and investors. Lumping money from investments in with operating income would muddy the image.

Net revenue is important mostly in relation to other items on the statement. For example, when net sales figures are significantly under gross sales, the product may be defective, causing a lot of returns, or the company's returns policy is too generous. The difference between net revenue and operating income shows how much expenses take out of your revenue stream. If net sales are high but operating income is low, it may be time to trim the budget.

What Is the Difference Between Net Revenue & Operating Income? (2024)

FAQs

What Is the Difference Between Net Revenue & Operating Income? ›

Operating income is revenue less any operating expenses, while net income is operating income less any other non-operating expenses

non-operating expenses
Non-operating expense, like its name implies, is an accounting term used to describe expenses that occur outside of a company's day-to-day activities. These types of expenses include monthly charges like interest payments on debt and can also include one-time or unusual costs.
https://www.investopedia.com › terms › non-operating-expense
, such as interest and taxes. Operating expenses include selling, general & administrative expenses (SG&A), and depreciation and amortization.

What is the difference between net revenue and operating income? ›

The main difference is that revenue is a company's income before deducting expenses, while operating income represents the profit after subtracting expenses. Nevertheless, both revenue and operating income are essential in analyzing whether a company is performing well.

What is the difference between operating revenue and revenue? ›

Operating revenue is expressed as the total of your sales excluding any one-time costs such as items purchased for resale. Total revenues, on the other hand, also include all one-time costs and this makes it a more meaningful statistic to calculate your business growth (or decline).

What is the difference between net operating income and total income? ›

Net operating income is revenue less all operating expenses while net income is revenue less all expenses, including operating expenses and non-operating expenses, such as taxes.

What is the difference between revenue and income? ›

While revenue is the total earned from sales or other sources, income is the profit earned after accounting for all expenses. Understanding the difference between revenue vs income is crucial for making informed financial decisions, such as budgeting, investing, and pricing strategies.

What is the difference between operating income and net income quizlet? ›

DIFFERENCE IS TAXES: Operating income does NOT include taxes and net income does include taxes!!!!! Define contribution margin, contribution margin per unit, and contribution margin percentage.

Why is operating income better than net income? ›

The Bottom Line To Understanding Startup Income Metrics

Operating income determines the efficiency of your production, services, and sales. However, net income gives a holistic view of your startup's financial health.

What is the net operating income? ›

Net operating income (NOI) is a formula that real estate professionals often use to quickly calculate the profitability of a particular investment. NOI determines the revenue and profitability of investment properties after subtracting necessary operating costs.

What do you mean by operating income? ›

Operating income refers to the adjusted revenue of a company after all expenses of operation and depreciation are subtracted. Expenses of operation or operating expenses are simply the costs incurred in order to keep the business running.

What is the difference between cost of revenue and operating expenses? ›

Operating expenses are often limited to expenses not tied to the manufacturing process. Though some of these costs may still be considered cost of revenue expenses, these are a more indirect type of cost. Cost of revenue is a broader group of expenses with many of the costs tied to the cost of goods sold.

What is an example of operating income? ›

Operating Income Example

Assume that in the current year, company ABC earned sales revenue worth $350,000. For the time period, the cost of goods sold was $50,000, rent was $15,000, maintenance fees were $3,000, insurance $5,000, and employee net pay $50,000. The operating income of the business is $227,000.

What does EBITDA stand for? ›

Share. EBITDA definition. EBITDA, which stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, helps evaluate a business's core profitability. EBITDA is short for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

Can net income be higher than operating income? ›

Let's say your company owns a bunch of fully depreciated buildings and decides to sell them. They would record a one-time gain on the sale of their fixed assets, which would cause the pretax earnings, along with net earnings to be greater than the operating income.

What's the difference between revenue and income on the income statement quizlet? ›

- Revenue is the total amount of income generated by a company for the sale of its goods or services before any expenses are deducted. - Operating Income is the sum total of a company's profit after subtracting its regular, recurring costs and expenses.

Is the revenue the income? ›

Revenue and income are sometimes used interchangeably. However, these two terms do usually mean different things. Revenue is often used to measure the total amount of sales a company from its goods and services. Income is often used to incorporate expenses and report the net proceeds a company has earned.

What is included in the operating income? ›

Operating income—also called income from operations—takes a company's gross income, which is equivalent to total revenue minus COGS, and subtracts all operating expenses. A business's operating expenses are costs incurred from normal operating activities and include items such as office supplies and utilities.

How do you calculate operating income? ›

Operating income is a company's profit after deducting operating expenses such as cost of goods sold, wages and depreciation. Operating income = Gross income − Operating expenses. Operating income reflects the profitability of a company's core business and does not account for extraordinary income or expenses.

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