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Income statement

Revenue

Top-line sales. Money received from customers for goods or services sold.

Revenue, sometimes called sales, is all the money a company brings in from customers before any costs come out. It is the first line of the income statement, and everything below it is subtraction.

When judging revenue growth, ask two things: is it steady across good and bad years, and did it come from selling more rather than from buying other companies or one-off contracts that will not repeat? Steady, self-made growth is the strong kind.

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