The Profit and Loss Statement (P&L) is the report that summarizes how a business actually performed for a period — total income, total expenses by IRS Schedule C category, and the net profit or loss at the bottom. It’s the single most important report for tax filing.

When to run it

  • At tax time — the totals on this report flow straight onto Schedule C
  • Quarterly — to estimate self-employment tax payments
  • Whenever you want a “how is the business doing?” snapshot — month-to-date, quarter-to-date, or year-to-date

Opening the report

  1. Open Reports from the sidebar
  2. Find Profit and Loss Statement under Financial Statements
  3. Click the card to open the report

Setting the period and scope

At the top of the report you’ll see filters for:

  • Business — which business to report on
  • Bank — limit the report to a single bank account, or include all of them
  • Year — the tax year
  • From / To — a custom date range within the year. Use this when you want a single month, a quarter, or any other slice instead of the full year.
  • Merge accounts — when you have multiple bank accounts, check this to combine them into one report instead of seeing each separately

Tip: leave From / To empty to get the full year for the year you’ve selected.

What the report shows

A standard P&L laid out top to bottom:

Income

  • Income — bank-deposited income for the period
  • Interest — interest credited to the account
  • Adjustments — manual income adjustments
  • Cash income — cash income entered for the period

Expenses

  • Expenses by IRS Schedule C category — every category with its total for the period
  • Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) — when applicable for the business

Bottom line

  • Net profit or loss — total income minus total expenses; the number that goes on Schedule C, line 31

Exporting

Use the Print / PDF option to download a printable PDF — useful for sharing with your accountant or filing with your tax records. The PDF mirrors the on-screen layout (income totals, category breakdown, and net profit) so the version you save matches what you reviewed.

Looking for charts and trend lines? Those live in the Expenses Analyzer report, not the P&L. The P&L is intentionally text and tables so the format lines up with what the IRS expects.

A few tips for accurate P&L numbers

  • Run Uncategorized Expenses first. Anything still uncategorized won’t appear in the P&L’s category breakdown — and the totals will be off until you fix it.
  • Reconcile your bank account first. If you haven’t reconciled the period (Step 4 of the Entry Workflow), the P&L may be missing transactions or showing duplicates.
  • Decide Merge accounts before exporting. Switching it after the fact changes the totals; pick one approach and stick with it for a given filing year.
  • Check Cash Income separately. Cash income should be recorded in the Cash Income step before generating the report — otherwise it won’t show up.