Lesson 2 · 50 minutes · Grades 9–12

Revenue, profit and cash are not the same thing

Revenue, profit and cash is a free 50-minute high school lesson on why a company's profit and its cash can differ. Students compare Netflix in FY2021 and FY2025 with Chipotle in FY2025, using numbers from each company's Form 10-K.

By Hardik Bhandare · Checked against filings: Nov 7, 2026. Editorial policy. Corrections

For learning only. Cityfort is not a registered investment adviser or broker-dealer and does not recommend buying or selling any security. Prices shown are dated and may be out of date.

Grade: High school, grades 9–12
Time: 50 minutes (splits into two 25-minute blocks)
Formats: Web page, student page, teacher guide (PDF), worksheet with exit ticket (PDF), answer key (PDF), slides (PowerPoint)
Companies: Netflix, Chipotle
Data: Data from Netflix's FY2025 Form 10-K, filed Jan 23, 2026; Netflix's FY2021 Form 10-K, filed Jan 27, 2022; and Chipotle's FY2025 Form 10-K, filed Feb 4, 2026. Checked Nov 7, 2026.
Edition: 2026–27 first edition, v1.0
License: Free under CC BY-NC 4.0. No student logins.

It includes slides, a worksheet with an exit ticket, an answer key and a teacher guide, and students never log in.

Netflix pays for many shows before they stream, then records their cost over several years. A restaurant company pays to build a restaurant once, then records that cost a little each year.

What's included?

Teacher guide (PDF)PDF · 162 KB
Student worksheet (PDF)PDF · 97 KB
Answer key (PDF)PDF · 101 KB
Slides (PowerPoint)PPTX · 59 KB

Student page (no login, no answers): cityfort.co/teachers/how-companies-make-money/revenue-profit-and-cash/student

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https://cityfort.co/teachers/how-companies-make-money/revenue-profit-and-cash

What will students learn?

Students can distinguish revenue, net income (profit) and cash from operations. They can explain one reason profit and cash differ, using a real company's 10-K figures.

Students learn to tell apart three numbers every company reports: revenue, net income (profit) and cash from operations.
By the end, they can explain one reason profit and cash differ: timing.

How long does this lesson take?

50 minutes (splits into two 25-minute blocks)

Minutes	Step	What happens
0–8	Warm-up	Warm-up with a made-up sneaker reseller: when did they "make money"?
8–20	Three boxes	Three boxes: revenue, profit, cash. Where each one sits in a 10-K.
20–35	Three real cases	Pairs fill a table for three real cases: Netflix FY2021, Netflix FY2025, Chipotle FY2025.
35–45	Discussion	Class discussion: why the gaps exist and why they change. No "good" or "bad" verdicts.
45–50	Exit ticket	Exit ticket (3 questions).

What do students need?

The slides (projected) or the printed worksheet.
One worksheet per student. It prints in black and white on two pages.
A calculator for the optional "how big is the gap?" questions.
No accounts, no logins and no internet access are required. The student page is optional.

Discussion questions

Can a company show a profit and still collect little cash from its business? How?
Why might a streaming company's cash spending on shows differ from the cost it records each year?
How can a restaurant company bring in more cash than its profit?
What did each company do with its cash, as stated in its 10-K? (Describe it. Do not judge it.)

How do I adapt it for ELL and IEP students?

English language learners: ELL: a diagram-first worksheet (three boxes with icons), a word bank and sentence frames.
IEP and 504 plans: IEP: a fill-in-the-blank table with half the cells already filled, a worked example for Case A and a calculator.
Advanced students: Advanced: students work out capital spending as a share of cash from operations, using a given formula.
Extension: Read Cityfort's Learn entry What is free cash flow?. Free cash flow is not a GAAP number. Cityfort calculates it as cash from operations minus capital spending. Look up net income and cash from operations on Costco's or Apple's Cityfort page. Which is bigger, and what does the 10-K say about why? Compare without ranking.

Which standards does it support?

We say a lesson supports a standard, never that it covers it fully.

Investing 12-2a (Jump$tart / CEE National Standards), partly: Describe the different types of annual cash flows that can be received by investors.
Investing 12-5a (Jump$tart / CEE National Standards), partly: Describe factors that influence the prices of financial assets.

The full standards table

Teacher background in 2 minutes

Revenue

Revenue is money earned from customers in the period.

Net income (profit)

Net income: (profit) is what is left after all costs, interest and taxes recorded for the period. It sits on the income statement.

Cash from operations

Cash from operations is the cash that came in from running the business, minus the cash that went out. It sits on the cash flow statement.

Why they differ

Why they differ: a cost is recorded when it is used up, not when it is paid. That is a timing difference.

Netflix

Netflix: it spreads the cost of each title over up to ten years. Its 10-K counts cash paid for content inside cash from operations.

Chipotle

Chipotle: it pays to build each restaurant up front, on average about $1.5 million per new restaurant in 2025. It then records depreciation each year. Its 10-K lists that build spending ($666.3 million in FY2025, "Purchases of leasehold improvements, property and equipment") under investing activities, outside cash from operations.

Stock-based compensation

Stock-based compensation is pay given as shares instead of cash. It lowers profit but uses no cash.

Netflix's payment terms

Netflix's FY2021 10-K describes its general payment terms: payment terms for certain content licenses and productions "require more upfront cash payments relative to the amortization expense." For FY2021 itself, the 10-K says pandemic delays in 2020 pushed some production payments into 2021.

If your class runs a stock-market simulation, these lessons can come before it: they explain what a company does and how it reports results. They do not suggest which companies to choose, and Cityfort does not run, rank or judge simulation picks.

What are the three cases?

All figures are in US dollars, for each company's fiscal year (both years end Dec 31).

Cityfort calculations from the figures above: Netflix's FY2021 net income was about 13 times its cash from operations. In FY2025, its net income was $831.9 million, or about 8%, above cash from operations. Chipotle's FY2025 cash from operations was $578.1 million, or about 38%, above its net income.

Netflix, FY2021: Revenue: $29,697.8 million; Net income (profit): $5,116.2 million; Cash from operations: $392.6 million; What students notice: Profit far above cash
Netflix, FY2025: Revenue: $45,183.0 million; Net income (profit): $10,981.2 million; Cash from operations: $10,149.3 million; What students notice: Profit and cash close
Chipotle, FY2025: Revenue: $11,925.6 million; Net income (profit): $1,535.8 million; Cash from operations: $2,113.9 million; What students notice: Cash above profit

Splitting into two 25-minute blocks

To split into two 25-minute blocks, teach minutes 0–20 plus Case A in the first block. Teach Cases B and C, the discussion and the exit ticket in the second.

How does the lesson support each standard?

Standards text: National Standards for Personal Financial Education, Copyright © 2021, Council for Economic Education and Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy. All rights reserved. Reproduced for noncommercial educational purposes.

National Standards for Personal Financial Education, Investing 12-2a: Partial. Students see that a company's cash can go to dividends, and that neither company paid one in these years.
Investing 12-5a: Partial. Students learn how "company performance" is measured: revenue, net income and cash from operations. The lesson does not discuss or predict prices.

5-minute prep

Print: the worksheet (one per student). Print the answer key for yourself.
Project: the slides. Slide 7 starts the real cases.
Read: the "Teacher background in 2 minutes" box above and the discussion questions in the teacher guide.

How were the figures worked out?

Every company number comes from Cityfort's published pages for Netflix and Chipotle. Each page traces its figures to the company's Form 10-K on the SEC's EDGAR site. The answer key lists the statement, line and page for every figure.

Where do the numbers come from?

Data from Netflix's FY2025 Form 10-K, filed Jan 23, 2026; Netflix's FY2021 Form 10-K, filed Jan 27, 2022; and Chipotle's FY2025 Form 10-K, filed Feb 4, 2026. Checked Nov 7, 2026. The lesson keeps these dated numbers until the next edition.

S1 Netflix: Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 (year ended Dec 31, 2025) · Netflix, Inc. (SEC EDGAR) · Jan 23, 2026
S2 Netflix: Form 10-K for fiscal year 2021 (year ended Dec 31, 2021) · Netflix, Inc. (SEC EDGAR) · Jan 27, 2022
S3 Netflix: Form 10-K for fiscal year 2022 (comparative FY2021 figures) · Netflix, Inc. (SEC EDGAR) · Jan 26, 2023
S4 Chipotle: Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025 (year ended Dec 31, 2025) · Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (SEC EDGAR) · Feb 4, 2026

Questions teachers ask

What's the difference between revenue, profit and cash flow? Is there a worksheet?: Revenue is what a company earns from customers, and profit is what remains after all recorded costs. Cash flow is the cash that actually moved. This lesson's worksheet has students compare all three for Netflix and Chipotle.
Is there a lesson on profit vs cash flow that uses real companies?: Cityfort's Lesson 2 uses the companies' own 10-K figures: Netflix's FY2021 and FY2025 and Chipotle's FY2025. Every company number names its 10-K and the date it was checked.
Does this lesson ask students to pick a stock?: This lesson never asks students to choose a stock or judge one. It explains how two companies report what they earned and the cash they collected.
How old are the numbers?: The numbers come from Netflix's FY2021 and FY2025 and Chipotle's FY2025 Form 10-Ks, checked Nov 7, 2026.
Can I use it in Google Classroom, and do students need accounts?: Every file works in Google Classroom as a plain link, PDF or PowerPoint file, and students never create accounts.
Is it free to copy and adapt?: Cityfort's lessons are licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0. You may copy and adapt them for non-commercial use if you credit Cityfort, link to the license and note any changes.

Optional further reading

These pages are on the main Cityfort site, which has its own ads and sign-up options. No lesson step needs them.

How do I credit and share it?

Credit line to copy: "How real companies make money: Lesson 2 – Revenue, profit and cash" by Cityfort (cityfort.co/teachers/how-companies-make-money/revenue-profit-and-cash), CC BY-NC 4.0. Data from Netflix's FY2025 Form 10-K, filed Jan 23, 2026; Netflix's FY2021 Form 10-K, filed Jan 27, 2022; and Chipotle's FY2025 Form 10-K, filed Feb 4, 2026.

License: CC BY-NC 4.0. If you change this material, please remove the Cityfort name or mark it as modified; changed versions are not reviewed by Cityfort.

Company names are trademarks of their owners; Cityfort is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.

Questions or corrections: contact us.

What changed (1)

v1.0, Nov 7, 2026: First edition.

Last updated Nov 7, 2026.

Disclaimer

For learning only. Cityfort is not a registered investment adviser or broker-dealer and does not recommend buying or selling any security. Prices shown are dated and may be out of date.

Investing in securities involves risk, including loss of capital. Before making any investment decision, do your own research and consider consulting a registered investment adviser or other qualified professional.

Cityfort, its owners and contributors may or may not hold securities of companies covered. Cityfort is not paid by any company it covers. Content is not an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any security, including in any initial public offering.

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