The headline is chosen. The notes are mandatory. The press release leads with the most flattering number on the page. The five lines sit in the filing the company also had to publish. Read the filing, not the quote.

A line that cannot repeat is not growth. A land sale, a tax write-back, a stretched depreciation schedule. None of them will be there next year. Strip them before you compare two years of profit.

Receivable days crack before earnings do. Sales booked faster than cash arrives shows up on the balance sheet first, the cash flow statement second, the income statement last. Days first, conversion second, headline last.