# Top line

The revenue line at the top of an [income statement](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/income-statement), before any costs.

It is the number a seller leads with and the one a buyer prices last. Revenue says how much money moves through the business and nothing about how much stays, so two shops with the same top line can be worth three times different amounts. Read it for direction and for concentration, then go straight to the earnings line. The gap between the two is the whole question, and a seller who talks only about revenue growth is usually steering the conversation away from margin.

In numbers: A route business turning over $2,400,000 with $310,000 of [SDE](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/sde) runs a 13% margin; the same $310,000 earned on $900,000 of revenue is 34%, and the two do not trade alike.

Source: https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/top-line
Not dated: A definition is editorial: what a term means, why it matters, and an example. None of it reads a source that can go stale, so there is no date to take and a stamped one would be the build time wearing a costume.

Site index for machines: https://searchspheresource.com/llms.txt