Finance & Corporate Jargon · Vice President level

"Bottom line"

"Bottom line" means either a company's net profit figure or, more loosely, the single most important point of an argument or situation.

Say this instead: profit

How "Bottom line" shows up at work

In finance it is a precise term: revenue minus every cost and expense. Everywhere else it is a rhetorical move that signals the speaker is done with context and wants you to hear only the conclusion. Both uses show up in the same meeting.

Buzzword

The bottom line is we cannot hit this deadline without two more engineers.

Plain English

The point is we cannot hit this deadline without two more engineers.

Corporate Rank: Vice President · Category: Finance & Corporate Jargon

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