Read your Profit and Loss

Your Profit and Loss is the first thing under Reports:

1. Go to Ledger › Reports: the page opens on the P&L tab (titled Profit & Loss).
2. Set the date range with the period picker at the top.
3. Switch between Accrual and Cash with the toggle beside it: accrual counts income and expenses when invoiced or billed, cash counts them when money actually moves.

The report is built straight from your general ledger, so it always ties to the Balance Sheet's net income. Use CSV or PDF to download it, or Year-End Pack to jump to the accountant handover.

Columns: trend, comparison, and % of income

The Columns selector beside the period picker changes the shape of the report without changing any figure:

• By month or By quarter breaks the period into columns, one per month or quarter, with a Total column at the end. This is the trend view: read across a row to see where a cost started climbing. A column that covers only part of its month is marked with an asterisk so a short first month never reads as a slow one. Very long ranges can't be shown by month (about a year is the most that fits); pick a shorter range or use quarters.
• vs Prior period and vs Prior year add a comparison column with a $ Change and % Change. A whole month compares to the previous month, a quarter to the previous quarter, and a custom range to the same number of days immediately before it. "Prior year" is the same window one year earlier, and it respects your fiscal year: a fiscal-year period compares to the previous fiscal year. When the prior figure is zero, the % change shows "—" because there is nothing to divide by.
• % of income shows each line as a share of that column's total revenue, the way an accountant reads a common-size statement. A column with no revenue shows "—" rather than a made-up percentage.

Every column is computed on the same Accrual / Cash basis as the rest of the report, and the CSV download carries exactly the columns on screen.

Because it reads the posted ledger, the P&L includes everything the books hold: ecommerce payouts, payroll, labour, FX gain or loss, and any manual or year-end adjustments, and non-recoverable tax (PST, duty, freight) lands in the expense figure. It's a simplified income statement for your own use; your accountant still prepares the statements you file.

If the report shows cost of goods, the header also states when you last counted stock. Record that date in Ledger › Setup: cost of goods is only as good as the last count, and the line tells whoever reads the report how recent it is.