True, but you're assuming they were even remotely systematic about their book keeping. Depending on how much their income did fluctuate and how irregular their

True, but you're assuming they were even remotely systematic about their book keeping. Depending on how much their income did fluctuate and how irregular their expenses might have been (especially if you consider "one time" expenses like hardware with an indeterminate life expectancy) and if you then consider that they likely had their hand in the cookie jar while also throwing "their own" money back in when they needed to, it can be a huge ball of mud. You could determine the total loss/gain by adding up the business-related expenses and income, but that assumes they were interested in doing so. I'm sure they had at least a general idea of how well they were doing "right now" (i.e. assuming no catastrophic hardware failures or drastic changes in revenue, etc), but unless they were certain they weren't making much money (or even operating at a loss), they had no incentive to put their exact net profit/loss into clear terms. Considering how easy it is to burn large sums of money without really being aware of where it all went, I'd give them the benefit of the doubt that they actually didn't know if they made a ton of money. But I'm fairly certain they knew the general direction they had been heading well enough not to be honest about the specifics.