Gross and net revenue look similar at a glance but answer fundamentally different questions. Knowing which one to look at when stops a lot of "wait, which number is the real one?" confusion.
01 Gross revenue
Gross is the till total — everything customers paid, VAT included, before any subtraction. It's the headline number that feels like "how busy were we today". It's also the number your revenue cap is measured against.
Gross is the right number for: pace comparisons (vs last week, last month), customer-count signal, plan-cap tracking. It's the wrong number for: judging profitability, comparing your shop's margins against others, doing tax math.
02 Net revenue
Net is what's left after VAT goes to the government and card fees go to your acquirer. It's closer to "money actually deposited into your bank". The formula:
Net revenue = Gross revenue − Tax − Transaction fees
03 Which to look at when
- Use gross when comparing yourself to other shops, tracking customer-count signal, watching against the plan cap.
- Use net when reasoning about money you actually have, computing your margin percentage honestly, talking to your accountant.
- Use EBIT when answering "did this day / week / month pay?". That's the real verdict.
04 Common confusions
Two specific traps:
- Tax displays. When you see "Tax: €168" on the P&L, that's your VAT-due-to-government for the period. It's already subtracted from gross to get to net — don't subtract it again somewhere else.
- Fee variance. Net revenue varies with cash/card mix even at constant gross. A €1.000 day that's 100% card has lower net than a €1.000 day that's 50/50 cash/card, because cash carries no fee.
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