Understanding Gross profit and Net profit is important for a sales leader in order to arrive at the right sales projection which ultimately forms the part of financial statements of the business. In this post, we wish to demystify the terms Gross profit and Net profit with simple explanations and examples. By the way, we have also written a similar post on Topline and Bottom-line. If you are yet to read that article, then do check it out.

Now, coming back to our original topic,

1. Gross Profit:
Gross profit refers to the profit generated after deducting the cost of goods sold from the revenue from sales.

Gross Profit = Revenue from Sales - Cost of Goods sold

Example:

Suppose your business generated a revenue of $10000 during a month, and the actual cost of the goods sold is $4000. In this case,

Gross profit = $10000 - $4000

Gross profit = $6000




2. Net Profit
Net profit refers to the final profit after deducting the operating expenses, interest expenses and taxes from the Gross Profit generated earlier.

Net Profit = Gross Profit - (Operating expenses + Interest expenses + Taxes, etc.)

Here the operating expenses can be payments made towards staff salary, rents paid towards office/building/factory/machinery, depreciation, etc.

Example:

Suppose the Gross profit generated in your business is $6000 and the staff salary paid for the month was $2000, Interest expenses were $500, expense due to depreciation was $200 and taxes paid were $300. In this case,

Net Profit = $6000 - ($2000+ $500 + $200 + $300)

Net Profit = $6000 - $3000

Net Profit = $3000

I hope this article helped you understand the differences between Gross Profit and Net profit. Let us know your thoughts…