Profit and loss

The Profit & Loss report shows what you earned and what you spent over a period, and the profit that leaves. Go to Reports and choose Profit & Loss.

Choose a view

The report has four tabs:

• Monthly and Quarterly - one column per month or quarter, plus a Total column.
• Yearly - the full single-column report, including estimated Corporation Tax, Dividends Paid, and your retained profit brought and carried forward.
• Comparative - two periods side by side with a Difference and Percentage change column. Pick a Comparison type of Previous period, Previous accounting year, or Custom.

Use the Date range dropdown to pick Current year to date, a recent window such as Last 3 months, one of your accounting periods, or a Custom date range. The periods on offer come from your accounting dates - see Accounting dates and settings.

Read the report

Income sections come first: Turnover, less Cost of Sales, add Other Income, giving Gross Profit. Then come Administration Expenses and Staff Costs, giving Operating Profit. Click any account line to see the transactions behind it in Account transactions.

On the Yearly tab, the Corporation Tax line is an estimate based on the Corporation Tax rate (%) in your company details.

Export and accuracy

Export Report downloads the open tab as a CSV file.

If you have unexplained bank transactions, an amber banner warns that the figures are incomplete until you explain them - see Why my figures look different.