Profit & Loss

What this does

Reports → Profit & Loss answers "did the shop make money this period." It lists every revenue and expense account that had activity between the two dates, totals each side, and shows Net Income as the difference.

Before you start

reports.view. Decide the basis: Accrual for management (what you earned and incurred), Cash for the tax return if that's how you file.

Steps

Set Start Date and End Date (a month, a quarter, a year), pick Accrual or Cash on the control bar, Run Report. Rows are grouped Revenue first, then Expenses, each with account code and name; Total Revenue, Total Expenses, and Net Income at the bottom. Export CSV includes the basis in its header so a saved file says which view it was.

To see what's behind a line, run the General Ledger report for that account and period.

How it's built

Accrual: the change in each revenue and expense account's balance between the two dates, from posted journal entries only. Revenue lands when an invoice is issued; expenses land when a bill is approved, a check is written, a card charge is entered, or an inbox item is approved. Accounts with no activity in the period aren't listed.

Cash: revenue becomes money actually received in the period (payments against invoices, plus receipts that couldn't be attributed to an invoice, shown separately), and expenses are what was paid. The cash view is available only when every invoice in the period has posted; otherwise the report stays on accrual and says why.

Common problems

Revenue is lower than sales. Invoices that were voided, invoices billed as No Charge or Internal (which post nothing by design), or invoices that failed to post. Compare with Sales Detail for the same period.

An expense is in the wrong account. Find the transaction from the General Ledger report and edit its category from the register; the P&L updates immediately.

Net income doesn't match the Balance Sheet's Net Income line. The Balance Sheet's figure is year to date as of its date; run the P&L from January 1 to the same date and they match.

Owner draws show as expenses. They were categorized to an expense account instead of an equity account. Recategorize from the register.