[portent]

> Revenue is absolute. Money either came in or it didn't.

Sadly nothing is that absolute. Plenty of revenue scandals out there.

A typical example of this: a large supermarket hasn't made enough money for the year, and asks its suppliers to book future sales that (very likely) will come next year as real sales now. The suppliers do this, and actually pay up, because they want to stay on good terms with the big supermarket. So the supermarket has the "absolute revenue" now, but has a hidden liability behind it.

It's not theoretical:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37536538

"Auditors found that the inflated profit figure was the result of Tesco booking payments from suppliers before the company had been due the money."

[tarr11]

How do supermarkets get payments from suppliers?

I thought they got paid by customers and they paid suppliers.

[Scoundreller]

Shelf space, warehouse space, priority placements. The modern supermarket is like Amazon: anyone can get space, if they pay the price and hit sales numbers.