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. (countable, uncountable, business) The final balance; the amount of money or profit left after everything has been tallied.
   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:bottom line.
2. (idiomatic) The summary or result; the most important information.

   Synonyms: upshot, net-net

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

   • 1980, Teena Marie (lyrics and music), “I Need Your Lovin’”, in Irons in the Fire:

     I need your lovin' and that's the bottom line / I need your lovin' or just a little time

   • 1988, Richard Nixon, “The Superpowers”, in 1999: Victory Without War‎, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 38:

     When Gorbachev totals up the balance sheet of Soviet strengths and weaknesses, the bottom line is not encouraging. Moscow has put itself into a unique historical position: It does not have a single ally among the major powers of the world.

   • 2019 September 10, Phil McNulty, “'England horribly fallible in defence' against Kosovo in Euro 2020 qualifying”, in BBC Sport‎:

     The bottom line is this - England have little or no chance of beating quality international sides if they defend as shoddily and carelessly as this, if they give possession away as cheaply as this and are as easy to get at as Kosovo made it look.

   • 2023 July 26, Stefanie Foster, “Rebuild trust or it's game over”, in RAIL, number 988, page 3:

     But the bottom line is that passengers want to see staff at a station and be able to find them easily.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:bottom line.
3. A minimum acceptable result from a negotiation.

   My bottom line for this job is $125,000; any less and I'll walk away.

   Synonyms: BATNA, reservation price

• bottom liner