What this screen is for
A profit and loss account covers a period rather than a moment: it sets the revenue earned against the expenses incurred between two dates and arrives at the profit or loss for that span. You choose the period with the date picker or one of the quick filters. Where your company has tracking categories set up, you can also narrow the report to one location or tracking option.
When to use it
Use it to judge trading performance — a month, a quarter, a financial year — and to compare one period with another. It reports on what has been posted; it does not change the books. Print it, preview it, download it as a PDF or take it as a CSV for a spreadsheet.
What you see on this screen
Three cards, each with the percentage change against the previous period of the same length:
- Sales — revenue for the period; this is sales alone and deliberately excludes closing stock
- Operating Expenses — overheads only, with direct costs shown separately under Cost of Sales so no purchase is counted twice
- Net Profit or Net Loss — the result for the period
The statement can be read three ways. T-Format is the default: a Trading Account with Particulars and Amount on each side — opening stock and direct costs against sales and closing stock, balanced by the gross profit or loss — over a Profit & Loss Account that carries that figure forward against the indirect expenses to give the net result. Grouped is an expandable account tree, and Detailed a flat ledger list; both show Account, Current Period, Previous Period and Change %.
The detailed statement runs REVENUE to Total Sales, then COST OF SALES including Opening Stock and Less: Closing Stock, giving GROSS PROFIT; then OPERATING EXPENSES with a subtotal per group and Total Operating Expenses, closing on NET PROFIT or NET LOSS. Clicking any figure opens the entries behind it, with Date, Entry, Bill / Ref, Party, Particulars, Debit, Credit and Balance, searchable and paged.
Filters and actions
Period takes a date range and reloads on change; quick filters give This Month, Last Month, This Quarter, Last Quarter, This Year and Last Year. Location / Tracking appears only where tracking categories exist, and with it an Apply Filter button. Note that a location view excludes opening and closing stock, because stock is not tracked per location; the screen says so when that applies. Print, Preview, PDF and Excel sit in the header, and Expand all / Collapse all on the grouped view.
Related
- Balance Sheet — the position at a point in time rather than over a period
- Daily Profit — the same comparison broken down day by day
- Trial Balance — a check that the underlying entries agree