Bottom line refers to a company’s net income — the “bottom” number on a company’s income statements. Therefore, bottom line is a company’s income after all expenses, charges, costs, and are subtracted from its revenues. A company’s bottom line is the same as its net earnings or net profits.
Top line refers to a company’s gross revenues or sales.
The terms bottom-line growth and top-line growth refer to the growth of the company as measured by the respective numbers. Both these numbers are helpful in understanding the financial strength of the company. They are not exchangeable.
Bottom line trends measure how efficient the company is with expenditures, operating costs and controlling these costs. Top line trends measure how efficient the company is at selling its products and services. Top line trends do not measure operating efficiencies.