Jeremy D. answered • 05/03/19
2 Masters degrees, Professor and Tutor in Math, Test Prep, Accounting
The income statement is one of the 3 major financial statements. It is designed to show the economic performance of an enterprise or business during a particular period of time, usually 1 year.
The income statement can be formatted in a few different ways, but will always have all revenue, sales, and gains during the period and will then subtract all the expenses and losses during that period.
If the result is a positive number then we call it Net Income (often called Profit). If the result is a negative number we call it Net Loss. This figure usually shows up at the bottom of the statement on or near the bottom line which is why many people use the term "bottom line" to refer to profit.
