We all know the standard expression ‘revenues increased by x%’, ‘growth in revenues was x%’, ‘revenues improved by x%’. Some accountants branch out with banal alternatives such as ‘revenues went up by x%’ or ‘revenues rose by x%’. When there is not much to say sometimes flat is used. Not flat as in a UK apartment, but flat as in the pancake: ‘revenues were flat’. Here though, this flat often hides declining revenues. Others add adjectives: ‘revenues increased significantly’ or ‘sales declined slightly’ to keep readers from falling asleep. But these are not enough. Accountants are bored with these expressions and some start moving towards the poetic and take risks into the adventurous to replace them.
In my reading of annual reports over the years, I have found some surprising alternatives. I will not name the companies, because there are so many in so many different reports so it would be tedious to reference them all, but many of these have been taken from the beer and beverage industries.
A few adventurous accountants slip in words with imagery borrowed from strength and expansion. ‘‘Revenues in Europe were offset by a strong USA’ or ‘revenues weakened in the second quarter’. Similarly revenues expand or contract or they ‘enhanced profitability’. Some, looking for excuses, use adversely impacted: ‘high inflation adversely impacted revenues’. In one instance, I noticed ‘amplified’ instead of adversely impacted.
I found accountants in two companies in the UK choose weather: ‘bad weather adversely affected revenues.’ I wasn’t sure whether this was literal or poetic! But some do try to be poetic: ‘revenues were impacted by strong headwinds from inflation, supply chain disruptions…’ and as many other things the accountants could think of. Sometimes they imagine they are in a boat and have to navigate these same headwinds. Other times the headwinds are publicised: ‘despite the well publicised headwinds, revenues increased …’ there are often many types too: macro headwinds, logistics headwinds, cost headwinds. US companies do not generally adopt this poetic approach.
Risky accountants use bolster: ‘investments bolstered revenues’. One company used multiple imagery: enhance, expand, strengthen, bolster and the unusual ‘ramp up’ in the same annual report. They ‘ramped up investments to bolster sales’, or perhaps they bolstered investments to ramp up sales.
But instead of ramping up, some accountants use the simpler stepping up. Most of the time, they ‘step up investments’, instead of simply increasing them. But my favourite has to be ‘uplift’. The expression that ‘the company has decided not to uplift book value’ (increase book value) is not poetic, but silly. The opposite of uplift has to be ‘downdrop’ but I have never found one. Instead to reverse uplift, accountants use unwind, for instance: ‘the fair value uplift is expected to unwind’. I never found the opposite of unwind either, ‘the fair value uplift is expected to wind up’ does not exist. Yet!
Here is an example to show you how it works.
The boring accountant might write:
Income increased by 26.1% to £13 million compared with last year. Excluding exceptional items, income was £2,800 million, or 28.3%, higher than prior year driven by volume growth, increased transactional fees, higher trading income and favourable yield curve movements. Other Income of 2.85% was 55 basis points higher than the previous year.
Total operating expenses were £71 million lower than last year. Other operating expenses, for the group, were £201 million, or 2.9%, lower, in line with our cost reduction target of around 3%. The decrease in the year principally reflects property exits, continued focus on customer journeys and strategic efficiency initiatives.
Whereas, the modern dynamic accountant would transform the statement above into this:
Income strengthened by 26.1% to £13 million compared with last year. Excluding exceptional items, income was £2,800 million, or 28.3%, higher than prior year bolstered by volume growth, uplifted transactional fees, stepped up trading income and ramped up yield curve movements. Other Income of 2.85% expanded by 55 basis points compared to the previous year. Total operating expenses unwound by £71 million compared to last year. Other operating expenses, for the group, were £201 million, or 2.9%, weaker, in line with our cost reduction target of around a flat 3%. The step down in the year principally reflects property ramp downs, continued focus on customer journeys and strategic efficiency initiatives despite the headwinds.