Accounting Basics - What is Income Statement?

While learning accounting basic, you can find thatwere sold to the customers during the period for
income statement is defined as a report thatwhich income statement is prepared or cost of
provides accounting information about a businessservices provided to the customers for that
to shareholders, government entities, and otherperiod. These expenses are attributed to cost of
interested parties. The accounting informationsales as they directly relate to the revenue
provided in this statement is a result ofearned.
operations, i.e. profit or loss, during the particular- Third part - gross profit. This is a difference
period. Income statements are produced by abetween total revenue and cost of sales
business at various periods. They may be- Fourth part - operating expenses. These are
produced daily, monthly, yearly, etc. Thisexpenses uncured by the business for the period,
statement allows the users quickly get simplifiedwhich are also related to earning the total
and accurate knowledge on the financial status ofrevenue, however not directly. Usually in operating
the entity. Income statements may be comparedexpenses we can find salaries to administrative
to evaluate the progress of a business, financialemployees, taxes paid, other charges which are
status over several accounting periods or tonot directly related to sales.
predict the future progress and development- Fifth part - operating profit. It is a difference
trends of business.between gross profit and operating expenses. In
Usually income statement has the following mainfinancial literature operating profit usually is called
parts:Earning Before Interest and Tax.
- First part - total revenue. This is a gross amountThe other parts of income statement depend on
for which goods were sold or services werethe particular business. If the business has loans,
provided to the customers of the business. Grossthe income statement will include interest
means that no expenses related to these salesexpenses indicated after the operating profit in
were subtracted from the revenue number. It isthe income statement. If the business is profitable
important to understand that when accrualand pays corporate taxes, these expenses will
accounting principle is applied, revenue reflected inalso be indicated in the income statement.
the income statement is not equal to the cashAt the bottom of the income statement is the
received from customer for the goods, i.e. undernet income, or the increase in equity, earned
accrual accounting revenue is the amount businessduring the particular accounting cycle. Net income
can claim from the customers for goods sold oris a difference between all revenue earned for
services provided.the period and expenses incurred to earn this
- Second part - cost of goods sold or cost ofrevenue.
services provided. This is a cost of goods which