Run a Profit & Loss report

The report opens for the year to date. It lists income, then cost of goods sold and gross profit, then expenses, other income and expense, and finally net income.

Click Explain for a few sentences on net income, the margin, the largest expense and what customers and vendors owe. It is worked out from your own figures on this computer. Click × to close it.

On cash basis, unpaid invoices and unpaid bills drop out. A partly paid invoice counts in proportion to what has been paid, on the payment date. Here net income falls because some of the year's invoices are still unpaid.

Reports → P&L — Comparative puts this period next to the same period last year, with the change. In a company's first year the prior-year column is zero.

Reports → P&L by Month/Quarter spreads the period across columns, one per month or quarter, with a total. It shows seasonality and the month a cost started.

Click Quarterly for four columns and a total, useful for estimated tax payments and quarterly reviews.

If you tag transactions with classes (for example a location or a department), Reports → P&L by Class shows income, expense and net income for each class, with anything untagged under Unclassified.