Skip to content

Profit & Loss

See how your business is performing, with income and expenses laid out from the top line down to net profit.

What the report shows

The Profit & Loss (P&L) report is built in five parts, read from top to bottom:

  1. Revenue: the income you have earned.
  2. Cost of Sales: the direct costs of delivering that income.
  3. Gross Profit: Revenue minus Cost of Sales.
  4. Operating Expenses: your running costs.
  5. Net Profit: Gross Profit minus Operating Expenses.

Like the BAS, the P&L is worked out on a cash basis, so it counts money once it has actually come in or gone out.

Generating a report

  1. Go to Reports then Profit & Loss.
  2. Choose a Start date and an End date. The report opens on the current financial year (1 July to 30 June), and you can change either date.
  3. Select Calculate to see your figures.

How the parts are worked out

Revenue brings together your paid invoices and any other income you have recorded, such as money-in matched during bank reconciliation.

Cost of Sales lists every expense on an account whose type is Cost of Sales. These are the direct costs of the work you sell, for example materials or subcontractors. Your Gross Profit is what is left after these come out:

Gross Profit = Revenue minus Cost of Sales

Operating Expenses covers everything else: all other expense accounts, plus anything you have not yet given an account. Your Net Profit is what remains once these come out too:

Net Profit = Gross Profit minus Operating Expenses

If your costs are larger than your income, the same figures are shown as a gross loss or net loss.

All figures are ex-GST

Every amount on the P&L excludes GST. GST is reported separately on your BAS report.

How the P&L differs from the BAS

The P&L and the BAS both count money on a cash basis, but they treat one thing differently.

The P&L does not leave out accounts marked BAS Excluded. An account such as Depreciation is a real cost to your business, so it appears on your Profit & Loss, even though it is left out of your BAS.

Because of this, it is normal for the two reports to show different totals. The BAS is about GST; the P&L is about profit.

Exporting

Select Export CSV to download the full report, with each section and total, as a spreadsheet for your accountant or records.

What's next?