the.com/bottom line
The one number everyone skips to, and the only one anyone remembers.
means The final, most important result or fact — the net outcome after everything else has been weighed and accounted for.
from Straight out of accounting ledgers, where net profit or loss was traditionally entered as the final figure on the last line of a financial statement — literally the line at the bottom of the page. By the mid-20th century, Americans had lifted it out of bookkeeping entirely, using it to mean the essential point or ultimate truth of any matter, money or not.
- origin
- From ledgers, where net profit sat literally at the bottom
- psychology
- People forget arguments but remember conclusions
- misuse
- Often said right before someone ignores it anyway
- irony
- Usually the last line, rarely the shortest one