When a business is in the red, it means that it is losing money. The phrase isn’t only for businesses, though. It could also describe an individual that is spending more money than they earn. Red ink is generally not used anymore, but the phrase in the red is still used in common conversation. A minus sign or a set of parentheses denotes a negative number in most software today. Some finance software sticks to the old ways and still uses the color red to mark debts.