Accounting Profit and Loss

Calculating an accounting profit or loss has to be done by all businesses of any size, from the small solopreneur blogger to the large enterprises and corporations. Why?

It shows if the business is making money or losing money..

..this is kind of important!

A profit and loss report is also known as an income statement - they mean the same thing and show the same information but the wording is different depending where in the world you are.

The profit and loss report | income statement is the most important and basic of reports that any business should produce, and is not very difficult to do.

How to Calculate Account Profit

A business cannot show a profit at the same time as a loss.

It can only be one or the other.

To calculate the accounting profit or loss you will simply:-

add up all your income for the month
add up all your expenses for the month
calculate the difference by subtracting total expenses away from total income
and the result is your profit or loss

See these examples:

See how the loss is shown with a negative sign. Another method is showing the numbers in red -$25, or in brackets like this ($25).

What kinds of accounting profit are there?

There are two kinds of accounting profit. These are :-

Gross Proft
Net Profit

Gross is the result of deducting the cost of goods sold from the income.

Net is the total after deducting expenses from the gross profit.

Here is a quick example that includes cost of goods sold:-

Income and expenses

Having a loss to avoid paying taxes might sound appealing but at the same time it's not so good for the financial well being of the business.

Income

The income on the profit and loss report includes money derived from:-

the sale of services,
the sale of products,
or funds from other income such as interest earned on savings at the bank.

Expenses

The profit and loss statement shows only deductible expenses.

Deductible expenses (overheads) are those expenses that your tax department has approved of and they can be used to reduce the net profit.

The amount of tax your business pays is calculated on the net profit.

The higher the profit, the higher the tax.

Non deductible expenses are not included in your profit and loss.

They are shown on the balance sheet and include things like:-

loan repayments
inventory
tax
owner's drawings
investments

Here's an example report showing the Gross and Net losses:-

If the report shows a gross loss as in the example above this means there is not enough money to cover the overheads of the business and that the following could have occurred:-

The mark up on the sales price is too low
There are too many discounts being given to customers
Not all direct costs have been on-charged to the customer as they should have been

A review of the systems in place will be necessary to correct these problems and save the business from financial ruin.

How often to calculate the accounting profit

A profit and loss report | income statement should be prepared regularly during the financial year for the business owner to analyze.

A minimum of once a month is recommended.

If you struggle with this, then outsource your reporting to a bookkeeping expert who can prepare the report and also give you an explanation of what is happening with your business financials.

Note also, these monthly reports won't show expenses such as depreciation of fixed assets (unless you use accounting software such as Xero that allows you to process the deduction every month) but it can be left to be calculated by an accountant at the end of a financial year.

Depreciation is inserted underneath the Net Profit and deducted to show the Taxable Profit.

Terminology

Here are some alternatives to the various terms used:-

Term

Profit and Loss Report

Income

Cost of Goods Sold (Cost of Sales)

Loss

Expenses

Profit

Alternative

Income Statement

Revenue

Direct Costs

Deficit

Overheads

Surplus

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