Understanding the Bottom Line

What’s there to understand? The bottom line is the last line on the Profit & Loss (P&L) statement and it is either a profit or a loss. That’s all you need to know, isn’t it? Yes, it is important to know whether you are making a profit or losing money, but understanding how financial statements work is knowing the nature of each account and how it fits into the scheme of things. In other words, did you know that the entire P&L statement is just an extension of one number in the Equity section of your Balance Sheet?

If you have a set of business financial statements, take a quick look at them. First look at the Net Profit or Loss line on your P&L statement. Let’s say it reads $48,567.32. Now look at your Balance Sheet and find the Equity section. You should see that same number $48,567.32 on a line called Net Profit or Loss or something similar.

Why is this? Net Profit means an increase (credit) in Equity and Net Loss means a decrease (debit) in Equity. Equity is what is yours. Therefore, if you have an increase in Equity (credit) then it makes sense to think that you have an increase in Assets (debit), probably in the form of cash, receivables, inventory or property. Or, you might have a decrease in Liabilities (debit) indicating an increase in Equity since you now no longer owe as much to creditors.

Similarly, it stands to reason that if you have a loss, indicating a decrease in Equity, that you will be showing a decrease (credit) in your Assets. In other words, you now own less. You may find it helpful to print a copy of the Accounting Model which is the formula that explains how transactions are recorded as debits or credits depending whether they are an Asset, Liability, Equity, Revenue, or Expense item, and whether they represent an increase or decrease. By using the Accounting Model to trace through the above debits and credits, you will begin learning how accounting logic works. The Accounting Model can be found on my website.

It may also help to think of the Balance Sheet as working the same way as a reservoir of water. At any point in time you can measure how much water a reservoir contains. In addition, there is always a river that flows into and fills the reservoir and an outlet, such as a dam, where the reservoir is drained. The reservoir level always reflects whatever water came in and went out.

The Balance Sheet, like the reservoir, is a reflection of the financial activity of your business at a given point in time. This is usually measured at the end of an accounting period, i.e., month, quarter, and year-end. The P&L statement can be thought of as the river that flows into and out of the reservoir. The P&L statement is a measure of the revenue and expense activity that occurred during an accounting period, such as at the beginning of a month to the end of the month, etc. The point to remember is that a Balance Sheet always reflects the activity of revenue and expense that has occurred in the past and current accounting periods.

Now that we have that concept established, here is a tip: When your business is a sole proprietorship, the way you pay yourself is through an account called “Owner’s Draw.” This account is located in the Equity section of the Balance Sheet and represents a decrease in Equity when you take a personal draw. However, sometimes owners get mixed up as to whether they are taxed on the draw amount or net profit, so let’s clear up the confusion.

When a draw is taken, cash is being decreased, but where did the cash come from in the first place? Here are a couple of possibilities:

1. Maybe you borrowed some money and put it in the business, but then decided to use some of the money for personal purposes. You don’t have to pay tax on borrowed money.

2. Or maybe a while ago, you contributed some personal money that had previously been taxed and are now paying back. You certainly wouldn’t have to pay taxes on the same money twice. Because the money withdrawn from the business may include previously taxed money, the rule is that you pay tax on Net Profit because Net Profit relates to newly earned income not previously taxed. If you keep your books on an accrual basis, then Net Profit may be quite different than your cash draws. This is because your revenue may include sales that haven’t yet been paid (Accounts Receivable) and expenses you haven’t yet paid (Accounts Payable).

Even if your books are recorded on a cash basis, your Net Profit may not relate directly to cash. For instance, usually a business has some depreciation that is a non-cash deduction. Or, you may have expenses charged on credit cards that have not yet been paid.

Perhaps you can now see that there are several reasons why the Owner’s Draw is something different than Net Profit even though there is a loose relationship between the amount of money available to the owner and Net Profit.

Understanding the Bottom Line - To learn more about this author, visit John Day's Website.

Like this article? Share it with your friends

E-Mail | Print | More

Related Articles
How do you create corporate values?
	How should the corporate values be created? Where do they come from? Can the brands a company has have their own values? Can these extend the corporate core values? Where do the brand values come from?...
10 WAYS TO HAVE FUN AT WORK WITHOUT BREAKING THE BANK
	10 easy ways to have fun at work that wont break the bank.
RISKY BUSINESS
	Human Resources is its own quagmire of risk. Compliance, employee relations, interviewing, and on and on. There are certain basic rules in the world of hiring and managing employees where risk-taking is not advisa...
GREEN Business Practices
	RecycleReduce -- Reuse -- Recycle. We have heard those words for quite some time now. Some of us take those words more seriously than others, however, did you know that by going "green" with your business you can:...
100 Ways to Succeed #93
	Bottom Line

---

Related Forum Posts
	Advice for starting a business
	Re: Teen Investors
	Site after-posting problems?
	profit line
	Re: Teen Investors
	New Year's Resolutions
	Re: Franchising? Why pay franchise fees?
	Maybe We Can't Beat Them

---

Related Businesses - Evan Elite Authors

Dr. John Oda John Oda Ph.D NLP is a business peak performance expert, an author, and speaker frequently called upon to provide corporate training, workshops and seminars for many companies in the United States. He is an expert in coaching sales and business professionals in overcoming the behaviors and obstacles that may impede their sales results and affect their bottom line. Since 1995, John has created a speaking bureau such topics, which include: time management, sales training, human diversity, leadership programs and etc. He provides companies with a strategic plan to increase their bottom line by over 25 percent yearly. - Visit Dr. John Oda's Website

Dave Kurlan Dave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website

The Evan Elite Authors program is currently in beta phase. For details please contact us.