where 
gross profit revenue cost of goods sold cogs operating profit is also referred to colloquially as earnings before interest and tax ebit however ebit can include non operating revenue which is not included in operating profit if a company doesn t have non operating revenue ebit and operating profit will be the same figure understanding operating profitoperating profit serves as a highly accurate indicator of a business s health because it removes all extraneous factors from the calculation all expenses that are necessary to keep the business running are included which is why operating profit takes into account asset related depreciation and amortization accounting tools that result from a firm s operations companies can choose to present their operating profit figures in place of their net profit figures as the net profit of a company contains the effects of taxes and interest payments if a company has a particularly high debt load the operating profit may present the company s financial situation more positively than the net profit reflects while positive operating profit may express the overall health of a business it does not guarantee future profitability case in point a company with a high debt load may show a positive operating profit while simultaneously experiencing net losses in addition large but extraneous costs are not represented which may also show a company with a negative net profit having a positive operating profit special considerationsrevenue created through the sale of assets is not included in the operating profit figure except for any items created for the explicit purpose of being sold as part of the core business in addition interest earned from cash such as checking or money market accounts is not included while the removal of production costs from overall operating revenue along with any costs associated with depreciation and amortization is permitted when determining the operating profit the calculation does not account for any liabilities that must be met this is the case even if those obligations are directly tied to the company s ability to maintain normal business operations operating income does not include investment income generated through a partial stake in another company even if the investment income is tied directly to the core business operations of the second company the sale of assets such as real estate and production equipment is also not included as these sales are not a part of the core operations of the business operating profit vs other profit measuresoperating profit is one metric that is used to determine a company s profitability from its core operations other metrics may seem the same but shouldn t be confused we ve highlighted some of the most common ones below 