What this calculator does
In everyday business usage, especially in the UK and Australia, "annual turnover" simply means total revenue or sales for the year. It has nothing to do with staff leaving or with the accounting turnover ratios that measure how efficiently a business uses its assets: it is just how much money came in from sales.
That confusion is worth clearing up directly. This calculator answers the plain revenue question: add up (or annualise) your period sales figures to get a yearly total. If you are instead asking how fast inventory or receivables turn over relative to sales, that is a different, ratio-based metric covered by an asset turnover calculator, not this one.
The formula
Enter the revenue for one typical reporting period, either a month or a quarter, and how many of those periods you have actual figures for. If you have a full year of figures, the annualised and actual totals match. If you only have a partial year, the calculator also projects a full-year figure by multiplying the per-period revenue by the number of periods in a year.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Annual turnover | Total revenue or sales for the year, in the everyday business sense of the word. |
| Reporting period | The interval, monthly or quarterly, that your revenue figures are grouped into. |
| Annualised figure | A full-year estimate produced by projecting a partial-year average forward across the remaining periods. |
The inputs explained
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Reporting period covered | Whether your revenue figures are grouped by month or by quarter. |
| Revenue for one period (average, if it varies) ($) | The revenue for one period. If it varies, use the average across the periods you have. |
| Number of periods you have actual figures for | How many of those periods (out of 12 months or 4 quarters) you actually have figures for. |
When to use it
A new business partway through its first year
With only a few months of trading, annualising the average monthly revenue gives a rough estimate of what the full first year might look like, useful for a business plan or a loan application.
Reporting turnover for tax or registration thresholds
Many turnover-based thresholds, such as VAT or GST registration, are based on total annual revenue, not a ratio. Summing actual monthly or quarterly figures gives the number those thresholds are checked against.
Distinguishing turnover from a turnover ratio
If a lender or supplier asks for "annual turnover", they almost always mean total revenue, not an inventory or receivables turnover ratio. Confusing the two can produce a wildly wrong figure, since a turnover ratio is typically a small number like 6 or 8, not a dollar amount.
Worked examples
Every figure in the tables below is produced by this page’s own calculator at build time, so the numbers and the tool always agree. Select any row to load that scenario.
How annualised turnover scales with monthly revenue
A full year of monthly figures at a range of average monthly revenue levels.
| Average monthly revenue | Annualised turnover | Actual revenue for periods entered |
|---|---|---|
| $10,000 | $120,000.00 | $120,000.00 |
| $25,000 | $300,000.00 | $300,000.00 |
| $42,000 | $504,000.00 | $504,000.00 |
| $60,000 | $720,000.00 | $720,000.00 |
| $100,000 | $1,200,000.00 | $1,200,000.00 |
| $150,000 | $1,800,000.00 | $1,800,000.00 |
Questions
Is annual turnover the same as profit?
No. Turnover is total revenue before any costs are deducted. Profit is what remains after expenses, wages, tax and everything else are subtracted from that revenue, and is always a smaller figure (or a loss).
Is this the same as the turnover ratios used in financial analysis?
No. Asset, inventory and receivables turnover ratios measure how efficiently a business uses its assets to generate sales, and are expressed as a multiple, not a dollar figure. This calculator produces the plain revenue meaning of turnover instead.
What if my monthly revenue varies a lot?
Use the average across the months you have data for. For a more precise total, especially with seasonal swings, it is more accurate to add up the actual figures for each period yourself rather than relying on an average projected forward.
Does turnover include tax collected on sales, such as VAT or GST?
Usually not: turnover figures are normally reported net of sales tax collected on behalf of the tax authority. Check which convention your figures already use before entering them.
For the efficiency-ratio meaning of turnover, covering inventory and receivables, see the asset turnover ratios calculator. For staff turnover specifically, see the employee turnover rate calculator.