revenue
What the company earned from its own sales in a period, recognized when it delivers what was paid for. For a marketplace acting as an agent this is its commission, not the whole amount the customer paid.
Revenue is what a company earned from its own sales in a period. Two words do the work. Earned: revenue counts when the company delivers what was paid for (a lesson taught, a month of a subscription provided), not when the money arrives. Own: when a company only arranges a sale on someone else's behalf, its revenue is the fee it keeps, not the whole payment.
That is why the bank balance and the revenue line rarely match. A family that prepays a package in March brings cash in March and revenue only as the lessons happen. A corporate client invoiced after its lessons brings revenue first and cash two months later. On a marketplace most of what customers pay belongs to the providers, so revenue is the platform's commission plus whatever it sells as its own service.
Revenue is the top line of the P&L, and every margin is a share of it. Change what goes into it and every ratio below changes too. Before comparing growth or margins across periods, product lines or companies, check what the top line contains.
Example
Klasna's revenue for September 2026, in UAH:
Families paid 4,284,750 for the 1:1 lessons delivered that month, more than twice the whole revenue line, but tutors keep most of it. The Club works the other way: it took 448,200 in September, yet only 210,600 became September revenue, because annual plans are spread over twelve months.
Common mistakes
- Counting cash received as revenue. A record month of prepayments is a record for the bank, not for the P&L.
- Counting the providers' share. On a marketplace that acts as an agent, revenue is the commission, not GMV.
- Comparing growth across a changed mix or take rate. Revenue can grow far slower than volume when the platform's share shrinks.
- Planning on one-off lines. Revenue from unused prepayments or a single large deal may not repeat; show it separately.
Learn it in the course
- Take rate: what a marketplace really earns · Take rate and GMV vs revenue: why the money families pay is not all Klasna's revenue, and when a company reports the full price instead.
- How to read a P&L, top to bottom · How to read a profit and loss statement: revenue, cost of revenue, gross profit, operating expenses, EBITDA and operating profit, and what the P&L doesn't tell you.
- Deferred revenue: when prepaid lessons are earned · A deferred revenue example: prepaid money is a liability until the lesson happens, then recognition as lessons are delivered or a subscription runs, and what to do with lessons nobody takes.
- Case: a board report for a new board member · A board report on the quarter: rebuild Klasna's autumn P&L from raw lines, separate what will repeat from what won't, and back the memo with numbers.
- Profit is not cash: net income vs cash flow · Net income vs cash flow, month by month: how accruals, prepayments, invoices and equipment make the P&L and the bank disagree, and how to get from one to the other.