Answer:
What is net income?
Net income is the total amount of money your business earned in a period of time, minus all of its business expenses, taxes, and interest. It measures your company’s profitability. You can learn more in our guide on net income meaning. For now, we’ll get right into how to calculate net income using the net income formula.
Net income formula
Net income is your company’s total profits after deducting all business expenses. Some people refer to net income as net earnings, net profit, or simply your “bottom line” (nicknamed from its location at the bottom of the income statement). It’s the amount of money you have left to pay shareholders, invest in new projects or equipment, pay off debts, or save for future use.
The formula for calculating net income is:
Revenue – Cost of Goods Sold – Expenses = Net Income
The first part of the formula, revenue minus cost of goods sold, is also the formula for gross income. (Check out our simple guide for how to calculate cost of goods sold).
So put another way, the net income formula is:
Gross Income – Expenses = Net Income
Or, if you really want to simplify things, you can express the net income formula as:
Total Revenues – Total Expenses = Net Income
Net income can be positive or negative. When your company has more revenues than expenses, you have a positive net income. If your total expenses are more than your revenues, you have a negative net income, also known as a net loss.
Using the formula above, you can find your company’s net income for any given period: annual, quarterly, or monthly—whichever timeframe works for your business.