Is turnover just for businesses

Solution 1:

The term "turnover" in the United States is primarily a business term, and is always related to a period of time, e.g., the number of times inventory "turns over" in a year, or the length of time it takes for inventory to sell (and be replaced by new inventory). I gather from comments moved to "chat" that in Britain and Asia the time period is typically a year.

I agree with the @esurfsnake that governments would use the term receipts or revenue. Receipts in the United States is broader than revenue; revenue relates to tax receipts, but governments (federal, state, or local) also get other kinds of receipts--import duties, fines, fees for services, and so forth.

If you have a store with goods that cost $50,000 that you expect to sell for $75,000, the question is this: how often does that happen in a year?

The term also applies to employee turnover (on average, how long do new hires stay on the job?). And it applies to how often a restaurant seats a new set of customers. My favorite restaurant has a turnover time of about two hours, so in a typical evening they get two seatings, at about 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Here's investopedia on turnover: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/turnover.asp

Solution 2:

This is distinctly British English.

In the U.S., 'revenue' is the money received by a company, non-profit, or government.

In the UK, 'turnover' is revenue received by a company. Governments usually call it 'receipts'.

In the UK, revenue, or sales, are often called “turnover”. According to the Companies Act, turnover is:

“The amount derived from the provisions of goods or services within the company’s ordinary activities after deduction of trade discounts, VAT and other relevant taxes”

- What is turnover (by Georgi Rollings, Starfish Accounting)