To run a business, it’s crucial to know how much money you are really making and how much you are spending on other expenses. The two most important numericals to help with that are: gross profit and net profit.
Gross profit : It can be described as the difference between the total revenue and cost of goods sold (COGS). Revenue is the aggregate of money earned by a firm within a specific financial period.
Net profit : It means the total of how much you actually get to keep after spending on all your bills, salaries, rent, and taxes. This is the final profit of the company.
Understanding the difference between gross and net profit is important for assessing financial health of a company and particularly for businesses who manage global payments and cross-border operations.
For the companies dealing with international payments, platforms like TransFi offer streamlined cross-border transactions and reduce costs which can really affect your bottom line. Net profit comes from gross profit after deducting all expenses. A high gross profit with low net profit may signal high costs or poor expense management. Both are key to assessing profitability and guiding business strategy.
Gross Profit Definition & Formula
For any business, it is very important to understand the concept of gross profit clearly to optimize business strategy and assess profitability.
What is gross profit?
Gross profit = Revenue – Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)
Let's assume:
You sell a product for $100 and it costs $60 to make including materials, manufacturing, packaging etc.
Your gross profit is: Revenue – Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)
: $100 - $60 = $40
This number tells you the total of how much you’ve made from selling the product, prior to paying for other things like ads, rent, software, and shipping.
This will help you to know if the pricing of the product makes sense or not and shows if the production costs are too high. This is especially used for international businesses, where costs change due to shipping fees or supply rates of other countries.
With TransFi, businesses can save on supplier payments, reducing international transaction fees, which keeps the COGS lower by improving gross profit margins.
Net Profit Meaning & Formula
Net profit is a very important metric for business accounting as it determines the overall success of a business.
What is Net Profit?
Net profit comes from gross profit after deducting all expenses.
Net profit formula:
Net profit = Gross Profit – Operating Expenses – Taxes – Interest
This is also called the net income or the bottom line because it is the final number that comes at the bottom of your profit report. It includes everything you have to pay like - rent, staff salaries, marketing costs, loan interest, international transactions fees, taxes etc.
Lets say:
If your gross profit is $40 and your other costs are $30 then,
Net profit: Gross profit - Other expenses
: $40 – $30 = $10
The total amount of money your business actually earns is the net profit. It's the key for decision making about growth, investments, and savings. For businesses involved in cross-border trades of goods or services, platforms like TransFi can help them save costs on transaction fees & forex markup, increasing the overall net profit.
Key Differences: Gross Profit vs Net Profit
Particulars
Gross profit
Net profit
Definition
It is derived after subtracting manufacturing expenses from total revenue
It is the available profit after all expenses,taxes and interest.
Function
Helps to ascertain rough profits.
Helps in ascertaining actual earnings.
Components
Overhead/ Manufacturing Costs
Operating expenses,Taxes,Interest
Focus
Productions and sales efficiency
Overall profitability after expenses
Why Gross and Net Profit Matter for Business
Gross and net profit help in making smarter financial decisions starting from product pricing to expansion planning.
For businesses operating globally, profits are mostly impacted by foreign exchange, slow settlement of payments, high bank or SWIFT fees. This is where TransFi comes in. It helps in enabling fast, secure, and low-cost international payments and also reduces overheads from cross-border payments which improves your net profit. It provides a multi-currency wallet so that you can manage revenues from different countries at any time without constant currency conversion losses.
Business Profit Types
Most businesses track three main profit types, each shows a different level of profitability, that range from basic product profit (gross) to full business health (net) :
- Gross profit
- Operating profit
- Net profit
By understanding all profit types it will help in making smarter pricing, spending, and investment decisions. Platforms like TransFi are very profitable for global businesses as they help increase these profits by reducing cross-border costs significantly.
Profit and Loss Statement Terms
A profit and loss (P&L) statement summarizes costs, revenues, and expenses over time. The revenue is the total income from the sales and the operating expenses mainly consists of salaries, rent, marketing, etc.
Understanding Gross Profit vs Net Profit in Small Businesses
Everyone starts small at the initial place, every business idea is a seedling. Small businesses, mainly those starting to sell internationally, must focus on both metrics closely.
Track gross profit to see how much you are making from every sale and use net profit to figure out the total you can pay yourself, reinvest, or save.
If you are selling your products internationally, using the platforms that charge very high fees or have bad currency exchange rates, can lead to your net profit going down fast.
Platforms like TransFi help small businesses save on international payments, so you can keep more of what you earn. With TransFi Payouts, you can transfer money in real time to suppliers in different countries at minimum costs and have better currency management for accepting international customer payments with TransFi’s multi-currency wallet .
Conclusion
If you are a freelancer working with international clients, or a fast-growing e-commerce brand, TransFi Wallet helps you protect and grow your net profit. Knowing the difference between gross profit and net profit isn’t just accounting jargon, it is the difference between thinking you are making money and actually keeping it. Both the metrics are very essential for making smart, data driven business decisions. Net profit reveals your true earnings after all the purchases and it is important for the long term financial health. For the businesses operating across borders, profit margins can be affected by a lot of factors like currency exchange rates, transfer delays, and payment fees. TransFi helps you to reduce these cross-border payment costs and manage multi-currency income. Whether you are a startup or scaling globally, using platforms like TransFi ensures you keep more of what you earn.
FAQs
- How is gross profit vs net profit explained for small business?
The gross profit shows the total of how much is earned from sales after subtracting production costs and net profit shows what's left after all the expenses, including rent, marketing, taxes, and fees. Small businesses usually use gross profit to check if their product pricing is profitable and they rely on net profit to see if the entire business is sustainable financially.
- How to calculate gross profit?
Gross Profit = Revenue – Cost of Goods Sold (COGS)
COGS consists of direct costs like raw materials, packaging, and labor and it help assess product profitability and pricing effectiveness.
- What are profit and loss statement terms?
- Revenue(Sales)
- Cost of goods sold(COGS)
- Gross Profit
- Operating expenses
- EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization)
- Net Profit (Net Income)
- Depreciation & Amortization
- How to calculate net profit?
We need to start with total revenue, deduct COGS and then deduct net operating expenses (like depreciation, interest, taxes). After all deductions, the resultant value is net profit indicating the actual earnings retained by the business
- What’s better: Gross Profit or Net Profit?
It depends on the type of business and also the users of the same. Net profit is important for overall success of the business whereas gross profit is essential for controlling production and pricing strategy.
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