UNIT 5

UNIT 5

1. Costs

   • Fixed Costs
     • Fixed costs do not vary with the number of goods or services a company produces over the short term. For example, suppose a company leases a machine for production for two years. The company has to pay $2,000 per month to cover the cost of the lease, no matter how many products that machine is used to make. The lease payment is considered a fixed cost as it remains unchanged.
   • Variable Costs
     • Variable costs fluctuate as the level of production output changes, contrary to a fixed cost. This type of cost varies depending on the number of products a company produces. A variable cost increases as the production volume increases, and it falls as the production volume decreases. For example, a toy manufacturer must package its toys before shipping products out to stores. This is considered a type of variable cost because, as the manufacturer produces more toys, its packaging costs increase, however, if the toy manufacturer's production level is decreasing, the variable cost associated with the packaging decreases.
   • Operating Costs
     • Operating costs are expenses associated with day-to-day business activities but are not traced back to one product. Operating costs can be variable or fixed. Examples of operating costs, which are more commonly called operating expenses, include rent and utilities for a manufacturing plant. Operating costs are day-to-day expenses, but are classified separately from indirect costs – i.e., costs tied to actual production. Investors can calculate a company's operating expense ratio, which shows how efficient a company is in using its costs to generate sales.
   • Opportunity Costs
     • Opportunity cost is the benefits of an alternative given up when one decision is made over another. This cost is, therefore, most relevant for two mutually exclusive events. In investing, it's the difference in return between a chosen investment and one that is passed up. For companies, opportunity costs do not show up in the financial statements but are useful in planning by management. For example, a company decides to buy a new piece of manufacturing equipment rather than lease it. The opportunity cost would be the difference between the cost of the cash outlay for the equipment and the improved productivity vs. how much money could have been saved in interest expense had the money been used to pay down debt.
   • What is cost?
     • A cost is an expenditure required to produce or sell a product or get an asset ready for normal use. In other words, it’s the amount paid to manufacture a product, purchase inventory, sell merchandise, or get equipment ready to use in a business process.

2. Revenue

   • What is revenue
     • Revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods or services related to the company's primary operations. Revenue, also known as gross sales, is often referred to as the "top line" because it sits at the top of the income statement. Income, or net income, is a company's total earnings or profit.
   • How to calculate it
     • To calculate the revenue we have to multiply the number of units sold x average price.

3. Profit and Loss

   • Profit
     • What is profit?
       • Profit describes the financial benefit realized when revenue generated from a business activity exceeds the expenses, costs, and taxes involved in sustaining the activity in question. Any profits earned funnel back to business owners, who choose to either pocket the cash or reinvest it back into the business. Profit is calculated as total revenue less total expenses.
     • Difference between both
       • Profit is when you make money and loss is when you lose money
   • Loss
     • What is loss?
       • Economic loss is a term used to describe circumstances when an individual or an organization loses money. The term covers financial loss that is usually visible in a balance sheet or other financial statements. While economic loss includes instances of loss in income suffered by a person or a business, it excludes any cases in which that loss of income is due to physical, personal injury. Economic loss may be caused by a natural disaster, such as a hurricane, or by the negligence of another party.

4. Profitability

   • What is it?
     • Profitability is closely related to profit – but with one key difference. While profit is an absolute amount, profitability is a relative one. It is the metric used to determine the scope of a company's profit in relation to the size of the business. Profitability is a measurement of efficiency – and ultimately its success or failure. A further definition of profitability is a business's ability to produce a return on an investment based on its resources in comparison with an alternative investment. Although a company can realize a profit, this does not necessarily mean that the company is profitable. To calculate the profitability you have to take profit and divide it by the total cost, then, the result you have to transform into a porcentage