EBT Calculator – Earnings Before Tax

How to use this EBT calculator

What this calculator does

This calculator estimates earnings before tax, commonly called EBT or pre-tax income, from six income-statement amounts. It first computes Gross profit as Revenue minus Cost of goods sold (COGS), then adds SG&A and Depreciation and amortization (D&A) to obtain Operating expense. Finally it subtracts Operating expense and Interest expense from Gross profit and adds Other income. The result, Earnings before tax (EBT), is the profit or loss before income-tax expense. It is an accounting bridge, not a valuation, tax-return, cash-flow, or investment recommendation. For context on where these lines sit in financial reporting, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission explains how an income statement presents revenue, costs, expenses, and earnings.

When to use it

• Reconcile a simple income statement from sales through pre-tax profit.
• Compare how operating costs, depreciation, financing costs, or non-operating income change EBT before considering tax rates.
• Check a forecast or management case by replacing the demonstration values with one consistent reporting period.
• Export a compact workbook for review, documentation, or a larger financial model.

How to calculate

1. The calculator opens with a complete demonstration: Revenue of $1,000,000.00, COGS of $300,000.00, SG&A of $150,000.00, D&A of $150,000.00, Interest expense of $200,000.00, and Other income of $100,000.00. The example XLSX is available immediately.
2. Replace each amount with values from the same accounting period. You may type plain dollars such as 150000, grouped dollars such as 150,000, or a dollar sign with up to two decimals. Scientific notation and ambiguous decimal-comma forms are rejected.
3. Read the live Earnings before tax (EBT), Gross profit, and Operating expense results, then review the EBT bridge to see each line item's signed effect.
4. Select Download Excel to create a fresh workbook from the current validated values. Select Reset to clear the demonstration and all calculated content. After Reset, Excel export is disabled until all six required inputs are valid again.

Input guide

Revenue is a required non-negative U.S. dollar amount representing total sales or operating revenue for the period; $1,000,000.00 is the demonstration value. Increasing Revenue raises Gross profit and EBT dollar-for-dollar if all other inputs stay fixed. Do not enter net income or cash receipts here. Cost of goods sold (COGS) is a required non-negative dollar amount for direct costs associated with that revenue; the example is $300,000.00. Higher COGS lowers Gross profit and EBT. Keep the accounting period and classification consistent with Revenue.

SG&A is required and non-negative; it represents selling, general, and administrative expense and is $150,000.00 in the example. Higher SG&A increases Operating expense and lowers EBT. Depreciation and amortization (D&A) is also required and non-negative; the example is $150,000.00. It is included as an expense in this model, so increasing it reduces EBT. Avoid mixing a cash capital expenditure with the period's depreciation or amortization expense.

Interest expense is a required non-negative dollar amount for financing cost recognized in the period; the demonstration uses $200,000.00. Higher Interest expense reduces EBT without changing Gross profit or Operating expense. Other income is required and may be positive or negative; the demonstration uses $100,000.00. A positive amount raises EBT, while a negative amount represents a net other expense and lowers EBT. Do not use a negative sign on the other expense fields merely to indicate that they are subtracted – the calculator already applies their subtraction.

Output guide

Gross profit is Revenue minus COGS, displayed in U.S. dollars. A higher figure means more revenue remains after direct cost, but it does not yet include SG&A, D&A, interest, or other income. Operating expense is the exact identity SG&A plus D&A. Earnings before tax (EBT) is the primary result in dollars. Positive EBT means the modeled period is profitable before income tax; zero means the listed revenue and other income exactly offset the listed costs and expenses; negative EBT is a pre-tax loss. These are arithmetic results from the entered amounts, not forecasts unless the inputs themselves are forecast assumptions.

The EBT bridge table has three columns. Line item names each input or the final EBT result. Amount repeats the canonical dollar value for that line. EBT effect shows the signed contribution used in the final formula: Revenue and positive Other income add to EBT, while COGS, SG&A, D&A, and Interest expense subtract from it. The last row is the reconciled EBT total.

Worked example

Using the first-open values, Gross profit is $1,000,000.00 – $300,000.00 = $700,000.00. Operating expense is $150,000.00 + $150,000.00 = $300,000.00. EBT is then $700,000.00 – $300,000.00 – $200,000.00 + $100,000.00 = $300,000.00. Those three values match the live cards, the bridge, and the startup workbook checkpoints.

Learn more

When checking a real company, use the complete filing and its notes rather than a single subtotal. Investor.gov's guide to reading a 10-K or 10-Q explains where audited or reviewed financial statements and related notes appear. For comparative analysis, CFA Institute's overview of financial analysis techniques and profitability margins provides broader context for interpreting profit measures across periods and companies.