The long and short of it

People use this expression to summarize, to give the conclusion to a story, situation, or dilemma. Usually a person will be telling a story or presenting a situation, and when the conclusion is near, he or she will say, "so the long and short of it is..."

Here are a few examples:

You: "How are the wedding plans going?"

Your colleague: "Not very well, actually."

You: "Really? What's happening?"

Your colleague: "Well, we made all the reservations almost a year ago, and paid deposits, and then yesterday we got a call from the hotel saying that they're in the middle of renovations, and the project isn't going as quickly as they expected, so the long and short of it is that they're offering us a part of the building but not the part we wanted and paid for."

You: "Oh no!"

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In a business presentation: "As you can see from last quarter's results, we're losing market share to our two biggest competitors. The long and short of it is that they're outspending us in marketing in all media."