Revenue vs Profit

Publication Date :

02 Jun, 2018

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Table Of Contents

Differences Between Revenue and Profit

The key difference between Revenue and Profit is that Revenue refers to the income generated by any business entity by selling their goods or by providing their services in an accounting period during the normal course of its operations whereas Profit refers to the amount realized by the company after deducting the expenses from the total amount of revenue.

If revenue is a superset, the profit would be a subset. When a company doesn’t generate revenue, there’s no question of earning profits. Why?

Here’s why. Let’s say that Gigantic Inc. has made $100,000 at the end of the year 2017. Now, let's say the profit is 10% of the revenue, i.e., $10,000 at the end of the year. Now, if there’s no revenue, what would be the profit? Yes, nil.

But at the same time, without revenue, the loss can exist.

Let’s say a business just started its operations. And upfront, it has incurred $40,000. But unfortunately, at the end of the year-end, they generated no revenue. As a result, the entire expense of $40,000 would be considered a loss.

To understand the revenue vs. profit, one needs to master the income statement. Once you understand how the income statement works, the rest would be easy.

The first item on the income statement is “gross sales.” “Gross sales” is the product of the number of units sold and the selling price per unit. We can say that this is revenue, but from this amount, the firm needs to deduct any sales return or sales discount (if any).
Deducting the sales discount/sales return from the gross sale will give us “net sales.” And this is what we call “revenue.”
Now, revenue can be of two types – operating revenue (revenue that’s generated via operations) and non-operating revenue (revenue that’s generated from other sources).
In the income statement, we would deduct the cost of goods sold from net sales, and we would get the gross profit. And then, from gross profit, we will deduct the operating costs, and we would get an operating profit, which is also called EBIT (Earnings before interests and taxes).
Then from EBIT, we would deduct the interest and taxes (and add back any other incomes if at all), and we would get PAT (Profit After Taxes). PAT can also be termed as net profit.

Differences Between Revenue and Profit

Profit vs Revenue Infographics

Key Differences

Profit cannot exist if there’s no revenue. Revenue isn’t dependent on profit. Rather revenue can exist without it (for example, if a start-up has more expenses than revenue, then there would be no profit, but revenue would exist).
Profit is the result of deducting expenses from the revenue. On the other hand, we can calculate revenue by multiplying the number of goods sold with the selling price per unit.
Profit can be of two types – gross profits (close to operating profit) and net profit (including the incomes from other sources). Revenue can also be of two types – operating revenue (revenue earned from the operations of the organization) and non-operating revenue (revenue earned from other sources).
Both profit and revenue can be found in the income statement. If one understands the income statement well, understanding them would be quite easy.

Profit vs. Revenue Comparative Table

Basis for comparison	Profit	Revenue
Meaning	It is the amount left after deducting the expenses from the revenue.	Revenue is the product of the number of goods sold and the selling price per unit. We can also include other incomes as part of the revenue.
Equation	Profit = Revenue - Expenses	Revenue = No. of units sold * Selling price per unit
Superset & Subset	It is a subset of revenue.	It is a superset of profit.
Dependence	Without it, there can be no profit.	Without it, revenue can be earned (if the revenue is lesser than expenses, there will be loss).
Types	Profit can basically be of two types – net and gross profit.	Revenue can also be of two types – operating revenue and non-operating revenue.
Found in	Profit can be found on the income statement. Rather net profit is the last item on the income statement.	It can also be found in the income statement. It’s the first item (if we start with net sales) of the income statement.

Final Thoughts

Profit is a part of revenue. And profit is an indicator that a company is financially healthy. When a business starts its operations, it may generate revenue, but rarely it makes profits since the upfront costs are quite high. After a few years of operations, an organization can break even and go beyond the break-even point to enjoy the profit.

Both are direct indicators of where a company is traversing.