The Profit & Loss (also called an income statement) shows what the business earned and what it spent over a period, and the difference: net profit or net loss. SeroBooks gives you two ways to read it:
- The Profit & Loss Accounting screen: a working view you can keep open, with the period's figures grouped and subtotalled, a comparison column beside them, and every account one double-click from its ledger.
- The Profit & Loss reports in the Report Centre: the QuickBooks-style reports (Standard, Detail, YTD and previous-year comparisons, by month, job, class and location, and as a percentage of income), with a cash or accrual basis switch where the report supports it.
Both read the same ledger, so for the same dates and basis they agree.
Opening it
- Reports ▸ Company & Financial ▸ Profit & Loss, under the grey Accounting screens heading, opens the Accounting screen.
- Ctrl+Shift+E from anywhere opens the same screen in a window, or search "profit" or "p&l" in Go To / Look Up (Ctrl+K).
- Reports ▸ Company & Financial ▸ Profit & Loss Standard (and the other Profit & Loss entries above the grey line) open the reports. They are also in the Report Centre under Company & Financial.
The Profit & Loss screen
Read a period
- Open the screen. It shows the calendar year so far: 1 January to today.
- Click Period, choose a preset or months, or Exact dates…, and click Apply.
- Read the three tiles, then the table. Fold what you do not need with Collapse all.
- Click Compare to put last period or last year beside it.
- Double-click any account for the lines behind its figure.
The header and buttons
The title is followed by the dates, for example 2026-01-01 → 2026-09-25 · this year. The words after the dot appear only when the range is exactly this month, last month, this year (1 January to today) or last year.
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Period | Opens the Reporting period picker. Presets: This month, Last month, This quarter, Last quarter, Year to date and Last year; a year stepper and twelve month cards (click one month, or two for a range); Exact dates… for any two days. When your fiscal year does not start in January, the quarter and year presets follow your fiscal year and the picker says which month it starts in. |
| Compare | Opens Compare with: No comparison, Previous period or Same period last year. Once chosen, the button shows the column's name (Prior period or Last year). |
| Collapse all / Expand all | Folds the statement down to its two section headings, Income and Expense, with their totals, or opens everything again. |
| Refresh | Reads the books again. |
Under the buttons a line reminds you that the figures are read straight from the ledger and nothing on the screen changes them. If a refresh fails while earlier figures are on screen, an amber note says The refresh failed — these figures are from an earlier read. A banner at the very top appears when some documents have not reached the ledger; see Trial Balance for what it means.
The tiles
| Tile | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Income | Total of every income account for the period. |
| Expenses | Total of every expense account, including cost of goods sold. |
| Net profit / Net loss | Income less expenses, green for a profit and red for a loss. |
The table
The table has two sections, Income and Expense. Inside each, accounts are grouped by their sub-type (for example income, other_income, cost_of_sale, expenses, other_expense), each group with its own subtotal. A sub-type with only one account shows that account directly under the section, without a group heading.
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Account | The section, the sub-type group or the account. |
| This period | The account's income or expense for the period. |
| Prior period or Last year | Only with a comparison: the same figure for the comparison period. |
| Change | This period less the comparison period. Left blank when there is no change. |
| % | The change as a percentage of the comparison figure. A dash means the account had nothing in the comparison period, so there is nothing to take a percentage of. Very large changes read >+999% or <-999%. |
Click a section or group heading to fold it; click again to open it. A folded group still counts in every total. The Change column is not coloured: more income is good news and more expense is not, so the sign is left for you to read.
The footer reads Profit for the period or Loss for the period with the net figure, and with a comparison, against $X and the percentage change. When nothing was posted to income or expense in the period, the table says No income or expense entries in this period.
The comparison periods
| Choice | Column covers |
|---|---|
| Previous period | The same number of days, ending the day before your period starts. For 1–30 September, that is the 30 days before 1 September. |
| Same period last year | Your dates one year earlier. A period ending on the last day of a month compares with the last day of that month a year earlier, so February works in leap years. |
If the comparison cannot be loaded, the statement still shows without it.
Drilling down
Double-click an account (or select it and press Enter) to open its ledger for the period on screen: Opening, Movements and Closing at the top, then each line with Date, Document, Details, Debit, Credit and a running Balance. Lines from invoices and credit memos open the document. See Drilling down from a report.
Exporting
Use the table's email and export buttons. The export is titled Profit and Loss with the dates, and against the comparison period when one is shown. See Print, export and email a report.
The Profit & Loss reports
These open in the report viewer, with From and To dates. See Running a report for dates, filters, memorizing and printing.
Cash or accrual
Profit & Loss Standard, Detail, YTD Comparison, Prev Year Comparison, by Month and % of Income have an Accrual / Cash switch above the report:
- Accrual counts a sale when it is invoiced and a bill when it is entered.
- Cash counts each document on the day its money arrived or left, and only for the part that was paid.
The report opens on the basis set in Edit ▸ Preferences… ▸ Reports & Graphs ▸ Summary reports open on (see Preferences), and the report states Accrual basis or Cash basis under its title. On a cash basis the Detail report lists one line per document rather than per posting, so its lines add up to the summary figure. Both columns of a comparison report use the same basis.
Location
The same reports (except by Location, by Class, by Job and Unclassified) follow the location chosen in the location picker at the top of the window when your company has more than one, and show it as a chip above the report.
The reports
| Report | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Profit & Loss Standard | Income, Cost of Goods Sold, Gross Profit, Expenses, Other Income, Other Expense and NET INCOME, each section with its total. Sub-accounts sit indented under their parent. Gross Profit appears only when a Cost of Goods Sold section exists; Net Ordinary Income appears only when there is other income or other expense. When income was posted but no cost of goods sold, a note says gross profit equals income and suggests checking the posting map. |
| Profit & Loss Detail | Every posting behind each income and expense account: Date, Type, Num, Name, Memo, Amount, with a total per account and per section, and NET INCOME. |
| Profit & Loss YTD Comparison | This period beside Year to date, where the year starts at the start of your fiscal year. |
| Profit & Loss Prev Year Comparison | This period beside the same dates a year earlier, with $ Change and % Change. The columns are headed by the two years. % Change is blank when last year's figure was zero. |
| Profit & Loss by Month | One column per month and a Total. Up to 24 months; a longer range stops at 24 and says Capped at 24 months. Narrow the range to see the rest. |
| Profit & Loss by Job | One column per job, a column for entries with no job (Unassigned), and TOTAL. A note explains the Unassigned column when it appears. See Jobs. |
| Profit & Loss by Class | One column per class, Unassigned for entries with no class, and TOTAL. See Classes. |
| Profit & Loss Unclassified | Income and expense posted with no class, and Net Income (unclassified): the lines a class-tracking business still has to code. If classes are not set up, it says Classes are not set up for this company. |
| Profit & Loss by Location | One column per location, an Unallocated column for postings with no document behind them (manual journals and opening balances), and Total. Always accrual. |
| Profit & Loss — % of Income | The Standard report with a % of income column: every line as a share of total income. |
Drilling down in the reports
Each account line opens Transaction Detail by Account for that account and period. On by Month, clicking a month's figure opens that account for that month only; the Total opens the whole period. On by Location, a location's figure opens the account at that location; the Unallocated figure has no location to filter by, so click the row to open the whole account. See Drilling down from a report.
How the figures are worked out
- Income accounts count credits as income and debits (refunds, credit memos) against it. Expense accounts count debits as expense.
- Only entries dated inside the period count. Earlier years stay out; they are part of retained earnings on the Balance Sheet.
- Each account is rounded to the cent before the totals are added, so the rows always add up to the totals printed beneath them.
- Where an account falls on the statement is decided by its type and sub-type in the Chart of Accounts. An expense account with an unrecognised sub-type falls under Expenses, an income account under Income.
Permissions
The Profit & Loss reads the books and changes nothing. Anyone whose role can view accounting reports can open it. See Roles and permissions explained.
Tips
- Put running costs under the expenses sub-type and direct costs under cost_of_sale; the Standard report shows Gross Profit only when cost of sales is posted. See Add, edit, merge or make an account inactive.
- Use Profit & Loss by Month to spot the month that looks wrong, then click that month's figure.
- For a year you have closed, run the Profit & Loss for exactly that fiscal year before handing the books to your accountant. See Set Closing Date and Year-End.
Common problems
Gross profit equals income. No cost of goods sold was posted in the period. Check that your items have a cost and that the cost of goods sold account is set in Accounting Setup.
An expense appears under Cost of Goods Sold. The account's sub-type is cost_of_sale. Edit the account and change its sub-type to expenses.
The Accounting screen and a Report Centre report disagree. Check that the dates match, that the report is on Accrual, and that the location picker is set to all locations. The Accounting screen always shows the whole company on an accrual basis.
Changing the dates on the Balance Sheet changed nothing, but the Profit & Loss changed. That is expected: the Profit & Loss covers a range, the Balance Sheet is as at one day.
A report says it is incomplete. Detail reports stop at 5,000 lines and say so in a note. Narrow the date range.