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Using the Profit and Loss Report

This screen is displayed by tapping Profit and Loss in the EasyBooks menu. The screen runs a profit and loss statement (also called an income statement) for your currently open financial period. From this screen, you can

  • Change the start and end dates of the report.
  • Add another financial period to the report as a comparison.
  • Consolidate the period.
  • Undo a previous consolidation.
  • Send the report by email, print it or open it in another app.
What does the report show?

The purpose of the report is to show the total revenue, total expenses (outgoings) and how much profit the business made over a period of time. All income and expense accounts are used to produce the report. The resulting profit figure is normally used as a basis for calculating any corporation tax due.

Each financial period in your business should be consolidated once you have entered all the transactions. This transfers the overall profit figure into your "Profit and loss" account and resets all your income and expense accounts to zero at the start of the new financial period.

If you see the line Opening Balances in your report, this indicates an error in your opening balances. Read on to find out more.

What does the line "Opening Balance" indicate?

It is possible to make errors in the initial setup of opening balances such that your accounts are not in balance. If this is the case, EasyBooks will show a line labelled Opening Balances at the end of the report together with the amount needed to bring the accounts back into balance. You should review your opening balances if this line appears.

Every transaction moves money from one account to another without loss. For example, if you pay dividends, you will normally pay these as a transaction between your Bank account and one of your Capital / Net Worth accounts, such as your Retained profit account. The balance of both accounts is affected by the same amount because the double-entry system is managed by EasyBooks. This is not the case for your Opening Balances. If you are setting opening balances, be careful to use the correct figures for all accounts so the accounts are still in balance. Use the Trial Balance report to check. If the Opening Balances line appears, your accounts are not balanced.

How does EasyBooks pick the initial date range?

The Next P&L Consolidation date from your Business Settings is used as the end date of the report. If this date has not yet passed, the report uses current date instead. If you've consolidated your profit and loss, the day after your last consolidation is used as the start date. Otherwise the date of the earliest transaction is used.

How do I view a previous year's report?

Use the back and forward buttons to change the report date quickly to the previous or next financial period. The report will run for the whole of the financial period selected.


For details of how to carry out tasks in the Profit and Loss screen, please refer to:

Options in the settings Menu:
  • Change Start Date - You can set the start date to any date prior to the currently selected end date.
  • Change End Date - You can set the end date to any date after to the currently selected start date.
  • Add Comparison - Add a comparison report using this option. This is typically used to compare accounts from one financial year with another.
  • Comparison Start Date - You can set the start date to any date prior to the currently selected comparison end date.
  • Comparison End Date - You can set the end date to any date after to the currently selected comparison start date.
  • Show Contained - If you have any accounts under a container account, only the total for the container is presented in the report. Use this option to show all the individual accounts. For information about container accounts, see Account Settings.

Options in the organise Menu:

Consolidate

This option is available if the Next P&L Consolidation date set in Business Settings has passed.

Consolidating posts adjustment lines to all your income and expense accounts. This sets the balances to zero for the start of the next financial period. The overall profit (or loss) is moved into your "Profit and loss" account.

After consolidating your profit and loss, the adjustment lines are visible in the accounts. These lines can be viewed, but cannot be changed. The consolidation puts a lock on all the transactions dated before the end of the period. These cannot be edited, and no new transactions can be added before this date.

Undo Last Consolidate

Consolidating a financial period locks transactions up to that date so they cannot be changed accidentally. Use the Undo Last Consolidate option if you need to make a change to a previously consolidated period.

Options in the action Menu:

This button is used to send or print the report. It uses the standard Apple sharing panel and allows you to send the report by email or AirDrop, print it to an Airprint-compatible printer or send it to another app such as Dropbox. Three file formats of the report are available.

  • As shown (HTML) - The HTML format will open in a web browser.
  • Comma separated (CSV) - The CSV format contains the same information and is more suited to importing into a spreadsheet.
  • Both (ZIP) - The ZIP format contains both the HTML and CSV files compressed into a single zip file.