How to Read the Profit & Loss Statement?
Want a single screen that answers “did we make money this month?” The Profit & Loss Statement pulls together every revenue stream and every cost your business recorded, subtracts one from the other, and shows you the bottom line — plus how it compares to the previous period. No spreadsheets, no manual tallying.
The P&L Statement is the first page of the Financials suite. Open it from the left navigation, then look under Overview → P&L Statement (it is also the page that loads when you first enter Financials).
Access requirements. The Financials area is part of the Accounting & Financials subscription add-on, so it only appears for orgs subscribed to it. Viewing any report — including the P&L — also requires the reports.read permission. If you don’t see the Financials navigation item, check your subscription and your role with an administrator.
Choose Your Period
At the top right of the statement, use the period dropdown to set the date range. Everything on the page — the KPI cards, the table, and the comparison column — recalculates instantly.
| Option | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Today | The current day so far |
| Yesterday | The full previous day |
| This Week | The current calendar week |
| This Month | The current calendar month |
| Last Month | The full previous month |
| This Quarter | The current calendar quarter |
| This Year | The current calendar year |
| Last Year | The full previous calendar year |
The statement always compares your chosen period against the immediately preceding one of the same length — This Month vs. last month, This Quarter vs. the quarter before, and so on. That comparison drives the Change column and the ”% vs last period” figures.
Read the Summary Cards
Four cards at the top give you the headline numbers at a glance:
- Total Revenue — everything you earned in the period. A percentage under this card shows the change versus the previous period.
- Total Expenses — everything you spent in the period.
- Net Profit — Total Revenue minus Total Expenses. It shows in green when positive and red when negative.
- Profit Margin — Net Profit as a percentage of Total Revenue, so you can compare profitability across periods of different sizes.
Read the Full Statement
Below the cards, the detailed table breaks every number down. When comparison data exists, you’ll see four columns:
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Description | The revenue or expense line |
| This Period | The amount for your selected period |
| Last Period | The same line for the preceding period |
| Change | The percentage difference between the two |
The table is grouped into two sections that build up to your bottom line.
Revenue
The Revenue section adds up every way money came in:
- Rental Income — earnings from rental and lease orders.
- Sale Income — earnings from sale orders. This line only appears when there is sale income to report.
- Standalone Invoices — earnings from invoices raised directly, outside of an order.
- Security Deposit Forfeited — deposit amounts kept rather than refunded (for example, to cover damage). Appears only when there is a forfeited amount in the period.
- (-) Credit Notes — amounts credited back to customers. This is a reduction, so it shows in red and in parentheses, and it lowers your Total Revenue. Appears only when credit notes exist for the period.
The section ends with a Total Revenue row.
Expenses
The Expenses section adds up every cost:
- Maintenance & Repairs — the cost of maintenance work logged against your assets.
- Parts & Consumables — parts and consumable costs. Appears only when there is a parts cost in the period.
- Operational Expenses — the day-to-day expenses you record in the Expenses module.
Under Operational Expenses, the statement also lists a breakdown by expense category — one indented sub-row per category — so you can see where your operational spend actually went.
The section ends with a Total Expenses row.
Net Profit / (Loss)
The final highlighted row, Net Profit / (Loss), is your bottom line: Total Revenue minus Total Expenses. When it’s a loss, it shows in red. The Change column tells you whether your profit improved or slipped versus the previous period.
Tax is shown separately. If you collected tax in the period, a Tax Collected figure appears just below the statement. Tax collected on behalf of the government is not your revenue, so it is kept out of the profit calculation and shown only for reference.
Export to Excel
Need the numbers in a spreadsheet for your accountant or your own analysis? Click Export next to the period dropdown to download the current statement — for the period you’ve selected — as an Excel file.
Good to Know
- Lines appear only when there’s something to show. Sale Income, Security Deposit Forfeited, Credit Notes, Parts & Consumables, and the Tax Collected note are all conditional — an empty period will show a shorter statement, which is normal.
- The comparison needs a prior period. If there is no data for the preceding period, the Last Period and Change columns (and the “vs last period” percentages) are simply omitted.
- Figures follow your org’s currency. All amounts display in your organization’s configured currency and formatting.