Planning and the Bottom Line

Planning And The Bottom LineMost of what you accomplish in business is the result of sales, either you have a tangible or an intangible product, something people can physically use, or something that people can functionally make use of ( as in information ). Sales is the progress for profit that you must make in order for your business to be seen as successful. You measure your own success this way, and personally, if you are, for example, a runner, you measure success in time or winning places in a race, if you are a weightlifter, by the amounts you lift, muscle growth, or again, places that you win in competition. The idea is that winning and sales, profit and growth aren't new or sensational at all, so when we begin to discuss the bottom line, you would expect the conversation to go a certain way, but I guarantee you, this writing will shock you in the direction that it goes, and you will find new concepts and ideas from this experience.

The bottom line is an accounting term for the end of a balance sheet, there were single lines with trial balances above the double lined final entries, called the bottom line. Because accountants were used to seeing the same figures on a constant basis, the same percentages, the same results, they became used to seeing, the bottom line. When spreadsheet programs on computers became popular this was just increased as now accountants were asked to keep a running set figures on a more frequent basis, with more reports due, they became frazzled and eventually would just as for, you guessed it, "the bottom line."

So in planning is the bottom line really useful? There are two schools of thought on that, the first is, no, because planning isn't looking at a mythical bottom line, it's looking at the more distant but achievable result. The second school of thought is that the bottom line is useful in planning as a projected figure that can be actualized.