[tqi]

"Revenue: sales recorded."

Small clarification, this is sales recognized. For example, if your customer signs a 2 year service agreement at the start of a quarter, the revenue reported that quarter should be 1/8th of the total contract amount (assuming you are recognizing revenue at a flat rate).

[jacques_chester]

Thankyou, this is an important correction. I expect a number of Google's contracts will be structured this way.

For those following along, spending some time with an introductory financial accounting book or textbook is a very useful way to understand a lot of business behaviour. I took a 101-level accounting course during my computer science degree and it has proved to be a very useful thing to have learned about.