A profit and loss statement aggregates the revenues, expenses, and profits or losses of a business. This report portrays the financial results of a business for a specific period of time, such as for a month, quarter, or year. If it is being reported by a publicly held company, the P&L also includes both basic and diluted earnings per share information. The profit and loss statement is considered by many to be the most crucial of the financial statements, for it reveals the ability of the reporting business to generate a profit. As such, it is used to plan for the revenue enhancements and cost reductions needed to improve profitability. The statement is particularly useful when viewed on a trend line, to see how an organization is faring over time.

• Typically, profit-and-loss statements are completed monthly, quarterly or annually, though you can choose a frequency that best suits the needs of your business.
• An alternative to the single-step method, the multi-step profit and loss statement separates the operating revenue and operating expenses from other revenue and expenses.
• Because P&L statements are so important, even the most basic accounting software programs generate them for you at the click of a button.
• Use it, along with one of our free small business budget templates, to simplify and strengthen your small business financial planning.
• Offering online access as well as a mobile app for both iOS and Android devices, Freshbooks lets you collaborate with your employees, contractors, and accountants.
• Supplement these documents with invoices, receipts, and other transactions not listed on your credit card or bank statements.

Investors can also use the P&L to assess certain aspects of company performance and compare it to other companies in the same industry. Common size profit and loss statements include an extra column of data summarizing each line item as a percentage of your total revenue. The single-step format is good at giving you a snapshot of your company’s profitability, and not much else.

Steps to Creating a Profit and Loss Statement

The goal of a P&L report is to measure a company’s profits by subtracting expenses from income and provide an overview of the financial health of the business. It is essential to conduct a comparative analysis of P&L statements as it helps a business to identify changes in meaningful numbers. These include revenues, operating costs, spending, and earnings over a period. A company can compare their own statements from different periods or statements from different companies.

A few other main OPEX categories include payroll expenses, marketing costs, and sales costs. Once again, we recommend asking an accountant for personalized recommendations about how to break down your operating expenses on an income statement. Depending on your business and type of income statement, overhead costs can also encompass all indirect labor and production costs. This contrasts with operating costs, which can mean the costs of actually running a business.

Whether You’re Managing Costs Efficiently

P&L statements are made available to the public for a variety of reasons. For one, public companies in the U.S. are required to file their financial statements with the SEC. The inner financial workings of a company are of great interest to numerous people, including accountants, economists, and investors. The trial balance provides financial information at the account level, such a profit and loss report does not include what? as general ledger accounts, and is therefore more granular. Eventually, the information in the trial balance is used to prepare the financial statements for the period. Shareholder equity is equal to a firm’s total assets minus its total liabilities and is one of the most common financial metrics employed by analysts to determine the financial health of a company.

We always recommend meeting with an accountant or other financial advisor at least once when you first start creating financial documents for your business. Accounting software, including free accounting software, can draw up income statements for you with little effort on your part. An income (or P&L) statement shows readers the revenue and total expenses for a certain period of time. The cash flow statement details a company’s cash inflows and cash outflows during that period. The cash flow statement starts with the figure for net profit, which it gets from the P&L. The difference, known as the bottom line, is net income, also referred to as profit or earnings.

Get the Most Out of Your Profit and Loss Statements with Smartsheet

The profit and loss statement does not include selling or administrative expenses. If you have a service-based business, the P&L account should not include any account of the cost of goods sold. The profit and loss report is a summary of the business’s income, less its day-to-day running costs, over a given period of time. Your net profit is the bottom line and a true indicator of your company’s profitability.