What is Turnover in Business: Meaning, Calculation, & Financial Significance
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What is Turnover?

Business turnover refers to the amount of sales or revenue any organisation earns. It determines how easily transforming goods or services into cash flows is. For this reason, understanding turnover is important in checking the company's financial health and growth prospects.

In addition, it also plays a vital role in the credit lending process. To apply for a Kotak Mahindra Bank Business Loan, you will need to understand the meaning of turnover and know how to calculate a company's turnover.

What is Turnover Meaning in Business ?

Understanding business turnover is crucial, especially for evaluating a company's health and performance. The meaning of Turnover in business refers to the total sales of a company generated from goods or services in a particular duration. With this turnover ratio, it is easier to know about the financial performance and growth factors of a company. Conditions like market demand, pricing strategies, and sales volume influence the market conditions in a high range. By close monitoring of turnover, it becomes easier for businesses to understand their growth potential and function accordingly. Essentially, turnover acts as the major financial point of a company, reflecting its growth and competitive capacity in the market. Regular analysis of turnover allows businesses to have a detailed analysis, and moderation in working operations to improve and grow toward success.

What is the Importance of Turnover?

Turnover can be a powerful measure of a firm’s financial standing. Every business must understand that it is not merely a number. Let’s explore the Importance of Turnover.

  • Sales Performance: With a High turnover, you can indicate the sales performance of the company, as they can sell their assets and turn them into revenue fast.
  • Operational Efficiency: With this, the company’s management of assets and receivables are reflected to ensure smooth operation.
  • Cash Flow Management: Make sure the company has a steady cash flow, which will help it to grow effectively and develop its business.
  • Financial Health: With this, you can access the company’s financial stability and growth in operation health.
  • Strategic Adjustments: This allows you to identify the areas of improvement and shows you the scope of strategies to improve the work and quality.
  • Investor Confidence: With this, the investor’s insight and potential for growth are reflected, showing the stability of the company for investment.
  • Profitability Enhancement: Aids in optimising operations to boost profitability and competitiveness.
  • Long-term Sustainability: Supports long-term growth and sustainability with efficient and effective business operations.

Assessing a Company's Financial Health:

Turnover is important in the evaluation of the financial health of the company. It gives an overview of how profitable a business is. A healthy turnover implies high sales volumes at a constant rate. This means that the firm sells its products and services profitably.

Relevance for Investors, Creditors, and Business Owners

Turnover provides insights into future profits that investors utilise in their calculations. It serves as an evaluation tool for creditors on the ability of a business to repay. It also helps business owners make investment decisions and optimise their operations to prepare for future growth. However, a company’s turnover is not merely a financial indicator but a guide that takes stakeholders in the right direction regarding their business decisions.

How to calculate the turnover of a company

A detailed understanding of your company’s turnover and management for revenue is important. Let’s explore steps to calculate the company turnover:

  • Gather Financial Data: Gather detailed financial documents, including the company’s annual revenue records.
  • Choose a Time Frame: Select a specific time frame to calculate your company turnover. This could be monthly, quarterly, or annually.
  • Calculate Turnover: Add the total revenue generated within the chosen time frame to get the turnover.
  • Interpret the Result: The turnover represents the total amount your organisation earns within the specified period. This value reflects your company’s financial performance and operational scale.

Common Types of Turnovers

1. Accounts Receivable Turnover:

Turnover of accounts receivable reveals the efficiency with which the company handles unpaid invoices given by customers. The accounts receivable turnover ratio is determined by net credit sales divided by the accounts receivable average. A high rate of turnover means timely payments collected by a company.

2. Inventory Turnover:

The inventory turnover measures how well a firm administers its inventory. The cost of goods sold is divided by the average balance in inventory and expressed in days. The high inventory turnover indicates they can sell their products before the holding cost becomes significant.

3. Portfolio Turnover:

However, when it comes to investment, portfolio turnover becomes applicable, especially on the issue of mutual funds. It measures how frequently the securities held in a particular portfolio change ownership. Higher portfolio turnover implies more trades, which may increase investment costs and taxes.

4. Working Capital Turnover:

Working Capital turnover shows how well a firm utilises its Working Capital to get sales. This is determined by dividing net sales by the average Working Capital. Working Capital turnover indicates that there is maximum efficiency in putting money to use for income generation.Such types of turnover give insight into different sectors of financial affairs in any given organisation so that business people and investors can form opinions for decision-making and strategy enhancement.

Differences Between Turnover and Revenue

Business Turnover is sometimes mistakenly confused with revenue. The latter is equivalent to sales of goods and services within an interval. It is a major financial measure that assesses how well a firm converts its offerings into revenue. If you compare revenue vs. turnover, revenue is usually gross income, but turnover could be net sales minus deductions.

Let's do a further comparison of revenue vs. turnover for a better understanding: 

  Revenue Turnover

Financial Reporting

Revenue refers to the overall income an organisation generates by selling goods and rendering services. The first line of an income statement is net sales, which are revenues received in a business before any reductions.

Financial reporting may include a more elaborate discussion on turnover. Such figures could also be beyond sales and may include returns or allowances. Turnover could also represent a superior expression of earnings generated through the fundamental business activities executed by the entity itself

Planning Future Business Activities

Revenue is usually an extensive measure that a company’s financial well-being can be judged by when considering further business operations that a company might engage in. This, in turn, assists firms in determining targets, evaluating sales patterns, and decision-making.

Turnover provides an understanding of the efficacy of sales operations. It could serve as an essential indicator in improving revenue collections in the company and measuring return on investment (ROI).
Reporting to Shareholders

Mostly, shareholders concentrate on revenue since it shows the capacity of a firm. Investors usually view high revenue as a good indicator.

Shareholders might be sensitised to this factor, but they do not always appear as the main focus in these reports. This is more of an internal measure to gauge operational effectiveness.

What’s the Difference Between Turnover and Profit?

Turnover and profit are both essential financial metrics. They represent distinct aspects of a company's financial performance:

Turnover Profit

Turnover is the total amount of money a business generates from its operations.

Profit, on the other hand, is what remains after deducting all expenses from the total revenue.

It reflects the company's ability to sell its products or services and generate income.

It reflects the actual financial gain or loss made by the company.

Turnover usually appears at the top of the income statement.

Profit is a bottom-line figure that appears at the end of the income statement.

It doesn't account for all expenses and costs incurred in running the business.

Profit can be categorised into different types, such as gross profit, operating profit, and net profit, each considering various expense categories.

Apply for a Business Loan with Kotak Mahindra Bank and enjoy the benefits of a Business Loan with quick approval and hassle-free processing. Our flexible repayment options allow you to choose tenures based on your convenience. Apply for a Business Loan today.

Also Read: How To Choose The Best Current Account for Your Business?

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Frequently Asked Questions About Turnover

Is turnover the same as revenue?

Revenue is usually considered gross income; turnover could be net sales minus deductions.

Why are sales called turnover?

Sales are called turnover because they signify the process of products or services "turning over" or being sold, resulting in revenue for a company.

What is a good turnover rate?

A good turnover rate varies by industry and business type, but a higher turnover rate generally indicates efficient use of assets and resources.

What is annual turnover?

Annual turnover refers to the company's total revenue over a fiscal year. In this, all details, like sales and income generated from core business activities within that 12-month period, are given based on the company’s capacity, showing its potential.

How to calculate the turnover rate?

To calculate the financial turnover rate, add up the total revenue generated by a company over a specific time frame, such as a fiscal year. The total includes the company's income without deducting any expenses.

What is the turnover of a company?

Answering what is turnover of a company or turnover in business, so basically, the turnover of a company is the total revenue that emerged from its business activities over a specified period. This is the amount earned before deducting expenses and shows the financial capacity of a company.

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Disclaimer: This Article is for information purposes only. The views expressed in this Article do not necessarily constitute the views of Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. (“Bank”) or its employees. The Bank makes no warranty of any kind with respect to the completeness or accuracy of the material and articles contained in this Article. The information contained in this Article is sourced from empaneled external experts for the benefit of the customers and it does not constitute legal advice from the Bank. The Bank, its directors, employees and the contributors shall not be responsible or liable for any damage or loss resulting from or arising due to reliance on or use of any information contained herein. Tax laws are subject to amendment from time to time. The above information is for general understanding and reference. This is not legal advice or tax advice, and users are advised to consult their tax advisors before making any decision or taking any action.