What Is a Multi-Step Income Statement?

These statements don’t have a high level of detail and are useful when making an assessment that depends on profits or net income. The major sections of a multi-step income statement are the revenue, cost of goods https://www.digitalconnectmag.com/a-deep-dive-into-law-firm-bookkeeping/ sold, gross profit, operating expenses, operating income, and net income. To prepare a multi-step income statement, you must first calculate the gross profit by subtracting the cost of goods sold from the revenue.

• It is a more sophisticated version of the single-step income statement that calculates a company’s net income using numerous equations.
• This is a guide on how to leverage your income statement and gauge the success of your company.
• Some of these expenses may be written off on a tax return if they meet Internal Revenue Service (IRS) guidelines.
• The inclusion of tax expense and interest expense give the statement its multi-step nature.
• An insurance payout paid to the company’s account as settlement proceeds for damage or loss of a company’s asset can also be considered non-operating income.
• An example of a non-operating expense is a lawsuit claim paid by the company.

For a company manufacturing a product, or for a wholesaler, distributor, or retailer involved in the business of selling that product, the revenue from primary activities refers to revenue achieved from the sale of the product. Similarly, for a company (or its franchisees) in the business of offering services, revenue from primary activities refers to the revenue or fees earned in exchange for offering those services. A single-step income statement offers a simple accounting method for the financial activity of a business, making it easy to prepare and understand.

What is a Multi-Step Income Statement?

Gross profit is used by creditors to show the company’s ability to meet arising debt obligations and to pay back outstanding credit. The top portion of the multi-step income statement is someone’s overall operational operations. To begin, add the operating revenues and the sales proceeds from selling the goods or services.

• The multi-step income statement is preferred because it provides more granular financial data.
• A single-step income statement offers a simple accounting method for the financial activity of a business, making it easy to prepare and understand.
• This metric is important for business owners that need more detailed information on both business profitability and financial performance.
• Complicating procedures with just a few revenue streams isn’t conducive in accounting.

An example of a non-operating expense is a lawsuit claim paid by the company. The sum of non-operating incomes and expenses is called a ‘non-operating item’. The selling expenses are the costs that a company incurs for selling its product or services to the customer. These include freight charges, sales personnel salaries, marketing expenses, etc. that are directly attributable to the sale.

Step 5. Calculate gross profit/gross margin

If your business is looking to apply for a loan or attract new investment, a multi-step income statement is the best option as it provides investors and creditors with greater financial detail about your business. A third type of income statement is called a “comprehensive income statement” reports on certain gains and losses that are not included in the business’s net income. There are several ways a business can format their income statements, one of which is a multi-step income statement.

• A single-step income statement uses only one computation to arrive at net income.
• Now, if I subtract my total operating expenses from my total operating revenue to arrive at my total operating income.
• This section not only helps measure the profitability of the core business activities, it also helps measure the health of the business.
• It may have lost money on operations, but it was able to turn a profit thanks to a large insurance payment.
• A multi-step income statement is ideal for large, complex businesses that use a long list of incomes and expenses.
• Nonoperating revenues and expenses appear at the bottom of the income statement because they are less significant in assessing the profitability of the business.

This is particularly important because it gives investors, creditors, and management the ability to analyze the financial statement sales and purchasing efficiency. The non-operating and other section lists all business revenues and expenses that don’t relate to the business’ principle activities. For example, law firm bookkeeping our retailer isn’t in the business of receiving insurance proceeds. If a tree hit the building and the insurance company paid out a small settlement, the income would not be reported with total sales. It would be reported in the non-operating and other section because it doesn’t have anything to do with sales.