bottom line

A reference to the literal bottom line of an income statement or other accounting record.

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bottom line (countable and uncountable, plural bottom lines)

1. (accounting) The final balance; the amount of money or profit left after everything has been tallied.
2. (idiomatic, uncountable) The summary or result; the most important information

   The bottom line is that there simply are not enough hours in the day to finish all there is to do.

   Synonyms: upshot, net-net

When somebody talks about increasing the bottom line, it means doing things to either increase the revenue or decrease expenses so the net income increases.

• bottom liner