Profit and Loss Report

Profit and loss report

The Profit and Loss (P&L) report — also known as an income statement — is one of the most important financial reports for your business. It shows your income, expenses, and resulting profit or loss over a given period.

What the P&L shows

Your P&L report in Accounted is structured as follows:

Income

• Trading income (sales, fees, commissions)
• Other business income (interest, grants, ad hoc income)
• Total income

Cost of Sales (if applicable)

• Stock and materials purchased for resale
• Direct costs of delivering your services
• Gross profit (Total income minus Cost of Sales)

Operating Expenses

• Office, property and equipment costs
• Car, van and travel expenses
• Staff costs (if applicable)
• Legal, financial and professional fees
• Marketing and advertising
• Insurance
• Telephone, broadband and IT costs
• Other allowable expenses
• Total expenses

Net Profit (or Loss)

• Gross profit minus total operating expenses

How to access your P&L

1. Go to Reports > Profit and Loss from your dashboard.
2. Select the period you want to view — you can choose from preset options (current quarter, current tax year, previous tax year) or set custom dates.
3. The report generates instantly based on your categorised transactions.

Reading your P&L

The P&L tells you two critical things:

• Are you making money? If your net profit is positive, your business is earning more than it's spending. If it's negative, you're running at a loss.
• Where is your money going? The expense breakdown shows which categories account for the largest portion of your costs.

Look for trends rather than fixating on any single figure. Is your income growing month on month? Are certain expense categories increasing faster than revenue?

Period comparison

One of the most useful features is period comparison. You can view two periods side by side — for example, this quarter versus last quarter, or this tax year versus last year.

The comparison view shows:

• Absolute figures for each period
• The change in pounds
• The percentage change

This makes it easy to spot trends, seasonal patterns, or unexpected changes in your finances.

Exporting your P&L

You can export your P&L report in several formats:

• PDF — A clean, formatted document suitable for sharing with your accountant or bank.
• CSV — Raw data you can open in a spreadsheet for further analysis.
• Share with accountant — If your accountant is connected to Accounted, they can access your reports directly from their portal.

How the P&L relates to your tax

Your P&L feeds directly into your tax position. The net profit figure is the starting point for calculating your Income Tax and National Insurance. Penny uses the same categorised transaction data for both your P&L and your quarterly MTD submissions, so everything stays consistent.

FRS 102 Section 1A compliance

Accounted's P&L report follows FRS 102 Section 1A formatting, which is the financial reporting standard applicable to small entities in the UK. This means your reports are in a format that accountants and HMRC recognise and expect, with no reformatting needed.