What should I do if I have a unique revenue model when completing the self assessment?

Modified on Mon, 4 May at 3:25 PM

For companies with unique revenue models to calculate their revenue for B Corp certification, there may be specific guidance here that is relevant to your company. This revenue informs a company’s track as well as certification fees.

Revenue Last Year Guidance

Generally, the company should provide their “gross revenue” figure and a copy of their income statement.
If “gross revenue” is not commonly used in their industry, the company can calculate their revenue as “net sales,” i.e. “gross sales / fees less returns and discounts.” See below guidance for net sales calculation by industry.
Companies can report their revenue and income on either an accrual basis or cash basis, so long as the method used is in-line with historical financial statements.
As a general principle, companies should include all positive, regularly recurring revenue / other income line items.

Industry	Technical Term	Revenue Calculation Guidance to company
Retail	Net Sales	Gross sales* less returns and discounts
Services (e.g. Marketing / Consulting)	Net Fees	Gross fees less discounts
Low-margin services (e.g. Construction)	Net Fees	Gross fees less discounts **
Other (companies w/ pass-through revenue***)	Net Sales / Net Fees	Gross sales/fees less discounts (do not net out pass-through costs i.e. charge the larger number).****
Banking / Investment Funds	See next column	Gross Interest Income + Fees + Realized Net Investment Gains / Losses + Other Income Rationale: - B Lab Global views interest expense comparable to Cost of Goods sold for a manufacturer, and therefore we want to make sure that this group of companies aren’t able to net out COGS from their revenue figure in order to maintain parity with other B Corps - After completing an analysis of multiple bank Gross Margins using gross Gross Interest + Other Income as the revenue, the banks continued to be well above the average B Corp Gross Margins
Insurance Companies	See next column	Premiums + Investment Income + Other Income

* In some international English-speaking markets, Gross Sales is referred to as “Turnover”. In Spanish, Gross Sales translates to “Ventas Brutas” and in Portuguese it is “Vendas Brutas”.

*** Pass-through revenue examples include donation revenues which are then sent directly to a foundation, travel booking companies with flight-cost pass-through expenses, marketing companies with ad buys, and gift card companies with pass-through revenues directly to stores.