Profit & Loss report

The Profit and Loss Statement (P&L) summarizes how a business performed over a period — total income, total expenses grouped by IRS Schedule C category, and the net profit or loss at the bottom. It’s the single most important report for tax filing.

When to run it

• At tax time — the totals on this report flow straight onto Schedule C.
• Quarterly — to estimate self-employment tax payments.
• Anytime you want a “how is the business doing?” snapshot — month-to-date, quarter-to-date, or year-to-date.

Opening the report

1. Open Reports from the sidebar.
2. Find Profit and Loss Statement under Financial Statements.
3. Click the card to open the report.

Setting the period and scope

At the top of the report you’ll see the filters. You must pick a single bank account or consolidate all accounts before the report will generate — leaving both empty returns a blank page.

• Business — which business to report on.
• Bank — limit the report to one bank account. Disabled when you consolidate.
• Year — the tax year.
• Consolidate all accounts — a checkbox under the bank selector. Check it to combine every bank account for the business into one report instead of seeing them separately.
• Filter by range — a checkbox under the year selector. Check it to reveal two date fields and run the report for a custom range (a single month, a quarter, or any slice) instead of the full year.

Tip: leave Filter by range unchecked to get the full year for the year you selected.

What the report shows

A standard P&L laid out top to bottom. These are the exact rows you’ll see on screen and in the PDF:

Income section

Row	What it is
INCOME FROM ACCOUNT	Bank-deposited income for the period.
Income Cash	Cash income entered for the period.
Adjustment	Manual income adjustments (shown as a reduction).
Interest Earned	Interest credited to the account (shown as a reduction).
TOTAL INCOME	INCOME FROM ACCOUNT + Income Cash − Adjustment − Interest Earned.

Cost of Goods Sold

Row	What it is
COST OF GOODS SOLD	COGS for the period, when applicable for the business.
NET INCOME	TOTAL INCOME − COST OF GOODS SOLD. This is income after COGS but before operating expenses.

Expenses section

• Every IRS Schedule C expense category with a total for the period, listed by category code and name.
• TOTAL EXPENSES — sum of all category subtotals.

Bottom line

• NET PROFIT (or NET LOSS if the number is negative) — NET INCOME − TOTAL EXPENSES. This is the figure that lines up with Schedule C, line 31.

Looking for charts and trend lines? Those live in the Expenses Analyzer, not the P&L. The P&L is intentionally text and tables so the format matches what the IRS expects.

Depreciation note

If the business owns assets that may generate depreciation deductions in future years, a short note appears at the bottom of the report: it lists how many assets are involved and the years they’ll affect, with a link to the Depreciation Report for the details. This is just a heads-up — the depreciation itself is reported separately.

Exporting and quick links

Above the report you’ll find action buttons:

• Download — generates a PDF that mirrors the on-screen layout (income rows, category breakdown, COGS, and net profit/loss), plus the depreciation note and a signature line. Useful for sharing with your accountant or filing with your tax records.
• Export to Excel — downloads an .xlsx version of the same data.
• Expenses, Summary, Reports — shortcuts that jump to the manual expenses entry, the Entry Workflow summary, and the Reports catalog for the same business, bank, and year.

A few tips for accurate P&L numbers

• Run Uncategorized Expenses first. Anything still uncategorized won’t appear in the P&L’s category breakdown — and the totals will be off until you fix it.
• Reconcile your bank account first. If you haven’t reconciled the period (Step 4 of the Entry Workflow), the P&L may be missing transactions or showing duplicates.
• Decide Consolidate all accounts before exporting. Switching it after the fact changes the totals; pick one approach and stick with it for a given filing year.
• Record cash income first. Cash income should be entered in the Cash Income step before generating the report — otherwise the Income Cash row will be missing it.
• Pick the right period. If you only need one quarter, use Filter by range and enter the quarter’s start and end dates instead of exporting the full year.