Financial statements

Read the income statement (profit and loss)

See revenue, cost of sales, expenses, financing costs and income tax for a period, down to gross profit and net profit, with an optional prior-period comparison.

Where to find itReports & AnalyticsAccounting ReportsProfit and Loss

2 min readLast updated

The income statement answers one question: did the branch make a profit in the period, and where did the money go? It reads the revenue and expense groups of your chart of accounts and works down from revenue to net profit.

Steps

  1. Open Reports & Analytics › Accounting Reports › Profit and Loss. The page title is Income Statement.

  2. Set the period in From and To.

  3. Optional: choose a branch in Branch ID. Empty means your current branch.

  4. Optional: in Compare, choose Prior period or Prior year.

  5. Select Apply.

The income statement with its profit tiles and the income, cost of sales and expenses sections

How the statement is built

The statement has five sections, each with its own total:

Section

What it contains

Income

Revenue accounts. A contra account such as sales returns reduces it and shows as a negative line.

Cost of Sales

The cost of the goods and services you sold.

Expenses

Operating expenses, excluding financing costs and income tax.

Financing Expenses

Interest and other financing costs.

Income Tax

The income tax accounts.

Each section lists its account groups with their codes, so you can see which group drives the total. The figures above the sections give the results:

  • Gross Profit = Income − Cost of Sales.

  • Net Profit Before Tax = Gross Profit − Expenses.

  • Net Profit After Financing = Net Profit Before Tax − Financing Expenses.

  • Net Profit = Net Profit After Financing − Income Tax.

Income, costs and expenses are all shown as positive amounts in the normal case. A profit is positive; a loss is negative and appears in red.

Compare with an earlier period

With Compare set, each line shows a Prior column next to its amount. Use Prior year to compare the same months last year, which removes seasonal effects; use Prior period to compare with the period just before.

Export

Export Excel and Export PDF produce the statement with its sections, lines and result figures, in your interface language.

Common questions

An expense account is missing from the statement. The statement reads the standard revenue, cost and expense groups of the chart of accounts. An account created outside those groups is not included. Check where the account sits in the chart of accounts.

Why does my net profit differ from the balance sheet? Make sure both use the same branch and that the balance sheet date is the last day of your period.

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