revenue: see finance.

Funding arrangement in which one government unit grants a portion of its tax income to another government unit. For example, provinces or states may share revenue with local governments, or national governments may share revenue with provinces or states. Laws determine the formulas by which revenue is shared, limiting the controls that the unit supplying the money can exercise over the receiver and specifying whether matching funds must be supplied by the receiver. Forms of revenue sharing have been used in several countries, including Canada, India, and Switzerland. From 1972 to 1986 the U.S. pursued a revenue-sharing program in which state and local governments received federal funds to spend as they saw fit.

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or limited obligation bond

Bond issued by a municipality, state, or public agency authorized to build, acquire, or improve a revenue-producing property such as a waterworks, electric generating plant, or railroad. Unlike general-obligation bonds, which are repaid through a variety of tax sources, revenue bonds are payable from specified revenues only, usually the revenues from the facility for which the bond was originally issued. Revenue bonds typically pay interest rates higher than those of general-obligation bonds. The separation of the revenue bond obligation from a municipality's other bond obligations allows the municipality to circumvent legislated debt limits.

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In business, revenue or revenues is income that a company receives from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. Some companies also receive revenue from interest, dividends or royalties paid to them by other companies. Revenue may refer to business income in general, or it may refer to the amount, in a monetary unit, received during a period of time, as in "Last year, Company X had revenue of $32 million."

In many countries, including the UK, revenue is referred to as turnover.

Profits or net income generally imply total revenue minus total expenses in a given period. In accounting and financial analysis, revenue is often referred to as the "top line" due to its position on the income statement at the very top. This is to be contrasted with the "bottom line" which denotes net income.

Investments such as stock shares in companies. For government, revenue includes gross proceeds from income taxes on companies and individuals, excise duties, customs duties, other taxes, sales of goods and services, dividends and interest.

In general usage, revenue is income received by an organization in the form of cash or cash equivalents. Sales revenue or revenues is income received from selling goods or services over a period of time. Tax revenue is income that a government receives from taxpayers.

In more formal usage, revenue is a calculation or estimation of periodic income based on a particular standard accounting practice or the rules established by a government or government agency. Two common accounting methods, cash basis accounting and accrual basis accounting, do not use the same process for measuring revenue. Corporations that offer shares for sale to the public are usually required by law to report revenue based on generally accepted accounting principles or International Financial Reporting Standards.

In a double-entry bookkeeping system, revenue accounts are general ledger accounts that are summarized periodically under the heading Revenue or Revenues on an income statement. Revenue account names describe the type of revenue, such as "Repair service revenue", "Rent revenue earned" or "Sales".

Business revenue

Business revenue is income from activities that are ordinary for a particular corporation, company, partnership, or sole-proprietorship. For some businesses, such as manufacturing and/or grocery, most revenue is from the sale of goods. Service businesses such as law firms and barber shops receive most of their revenue from rendering services. Lending businesses such as car rentals and banks receive most of their revenue from fees and interest generated by lending assets to other organizations or individuals.

Revenues from a business's primary activities are reported as Sales, Sales revenue or Net sales. This excludes product returns and discounts for early payment of invoices. Most businesses also have revenue that is incidental to the business's primary activities, such as interest earned on deposits in a demand account. This is included in revenue but not included in Net Sales. Sales revenue does not include sales tax collected by the business.

Other Revenue (a.k.a. Non-Operating Revenue) is revenue from peripheral (non-core) operations. For example, a company that manufactures and sells automobiles would record the revenue from the sale of an automobile as “’regular’” revenue. If that same company also rented a portion of one of its buildings, it would record that revenue as “other revenue” and disclose it separately on its income statement to show that it is from something other than its core operations.

A public company reports its total annual revenues based on its fiscal year. Public companies also report quarterly revenues.

Internally, companies break revenue down by operating segment, geographic region, and product line.

Financial analysis

Revenue is a crucial part of financial analysis. A company’s performance is measured to the extent to which its asset inflows (revenues) compare with its asset outflows (expenses). Net Income is the result of this equation, but revenue typically enjoys equal attention during a standard earnings call. If a company displays solid “top-line growth,” analysts could view the period’s performance as positive even if earnings growth, or “bottom-line growth” is stagnant. Conversely, high income growth would be tainted if a company failed to produce significant revenue growth. Consistent revenue growth, as well as income growth, is considered essential for a company's publicly traded stock to be attractive to investors

Revenue is used as an indication of earnings quality. There are several financial ratios attached to it, the most important being gross margin and profit margin. Also, companies use revenue to determine bad debt expense using the income statement method.

Price / Sales is sometimes used as a substitute for a Price to earnings ratio when earnings are negative and the P/E is meaningless. Though a company may have negative earnings, it almost always has positive revenue.

Gross Margin is a calculation of revenue less Cost of Goods Sold, and is used to determine how well sales cover direct variable costs relating to the production of goods.

Net Income / Sales, or Profit margin, is calculated by investors to determine how efficiently a company turns revenues into profits.

Government revenue

Government revenue includes all amounts of money received from sources outside the government entity. Large governments usually have an agency or department responsible for collecting government revenue from companies and individuals

See also

Government revenue may also include Reserve Bank currency which is printed.This is recorded as an advance to the retail bank together with a corresponding currency in circulation expense entry.The income derives from the Offical Cash rate payable by the retail banks for instruments such as 90 day bills.There is a question as to whether using generic business based accounting standards can give a fair and accurate picture of government accounts in that with a monetary policy statement to the reserve bank directing a positive inflation rate the expense provision for the return of currency to the reserve bank is largely symbolic in that to totally cancel the currency in circulation provision all currency would have to be returned to the reserve bank and cancelled.

Notes and references