Revenue

Revenue is the top line of the income statement: the money a company earns from selling its products and services over a period, usually a year or a quarter. Nothing has been deducted yet, so revenue says how big a business is, not how profitable it is.

Companies often split revenue by product, region or business unit (segments). That split is where the slide “Where the money comes from” in every breakdown begins.

Some businesses report “net revenue”: a payment company, for example, may process huge volumes but only count the fee it keeps as revenue.