How to Calculate Comprehensive Income

As the name suggests, comprehensive income is all income for a company. It is a complete statement of the business's increase in wealth over the accounting period.

Unlike net income, which is a measure of a company’s profit in a given period, comprehensive income is a measure of the change in a company’s assets. Net income only accounts for earned income and expenses. The comprehensive income accounting statement provides the most balanced and realistic picture of a company’s financial health because it includes financial information not included in the net income statement.

Unrealized income such as a gain from a holding of an asset or foreign currency gains are not included on a net income statement, but their inclusion in the comprehensive income statement provides a more comprehensive financial picture.

Comprehensive income does not include changes in equity caused by the actions of the owner of the business, such as dividends and the sale or purchase of shares of the company’s stock. Since it does include all other changes in equity over a period, it consists of all revenues and gains, expenses and losses from all revenue streams.

Comprehensive income can be calculated to cover any length of time such as a month, quarter or year. Company shareholders often receive a net income statement in addition to a comprehensive income accounting statement. Since this statement includes all measures of income, most companies provide this complete measure of income when they are disclosing financial statements.

Operating expenses are the costs incurred in performing normal business functions. Typical operating expenses include:

• salaries
  
• commissions
  
• rent
  
• utilities
  
• advertising
  
• bank fees
  
• maintenance
  
• supplies

When companies are preparing their financial statements, they can present comprehensive income statements in one of two ways. A single statement can include both net and comprehensive income. Or, they can present the information in two separate statements with net income in one and comprehensive income in the other.