an “income statement,” like Coca-Cola’s above, is an official report public companies have to put out every quarter to let investors know how well the company did – a.k.a. how much money was brought in and how much is left?

📖 top line:

• literally the top line! (“Net Operating Revenues: $10,491” in the image above)

• to really simplify, for Coca-Cola, if it were to have only one product that it sells, the top line could be something like:

  • (number of bottles sold) × (price of a bottle)

📖 bottom line:

• you get it. the very last line! – whatever’s left of the top line

• when $10.4M of revenue was brought into the company by selling soda bottles, before Coca-Cola takes that money and decides to buy new buildings or issue dividends to shareholders, the company needs to first subtract all the costs that it took to sell that many bottles

  • these can be very different for every business

  • for Coca-Cola here, costs can include things like sweeteners, glass bottles, people's salaries, gasoline fees

  • again, simplifying a lot a lot here

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