Analyse your income and expenses

The Profit & Loss (P&L) statement is a standard financial report that tracks income and expenses, not cash in and out. Income is what you earn over the period, which isn't necessarily what you've been paid for. The same applies to expenses. You might have incurred the expenses, but not necessarily paid for them yet.

You'll find the Profit & Loss reports in the Accounts section of the Index to Reports.

Profit and Loss Example: Profit and Loss [Multi-Period] Example:

Budget analysis

If you've set up a budget in AccountRight, you'll want to review how you've performed against it. AccountRight includes several budgeting reports. Reports labelled [Multi Period Budget] allow you to review months side by side. You'll find the budgeting reports in the Accounts section of the Index to Reports.

Finding a transaction using reports

There are several reports available to help you find a transaction. For example, if you know the account associated with the transaction you are looking for, you can use the Account Transactions report. If you know the customer or supplier name, use the Card Transactions report. To view details about a report item, click the item in the report.

The following transaction reports are available:

• Account Transactions [Accrual] report
• Job Transactions [Accrual] report
• Invoice Transactions [Accrual] report
• Bill Transactions [Accrual] report (Not Basics)
• Card Transactions [Accrual] report
• Payroll Category Transactions report (Plus and Premier, Australia only)

See also Finding a transaction.

Data backup reports

Transaction detail reports show transactions entered for specified periods. You can use these reports as hard copy backups of your company file. These reports can be very large, so you may just want to print them at specific intervals, such as the the end of a month, quarter, or year.

The following detail reports are available:

• Accounts List [Detail] report
• Activities List report (Plus, Premier)
• Activity Slip Detail report (Plus, Premier)
• Card List [Detail] report
• Items List Summary report
• Payroll Activity [Detail] report (Plus and Premier, Australia only)
• Aged Receivables [Detail] report
• Aged Payables [Detail] report (Not Basics)

Converting data to a spreadsheet

You can convert most reports to a spreadsheet by saving them as tab-delimited or comma separated text files. However, there are a few reports that have been specifically designed for exporting to a spreadsheet.

The following reports are designed to be viewed as spreadsheets:

• Balance Sheet [Multi-Period] report
• Balance Sheet [Multi-Period Budget] report
• Profit & Loss Statement [Multi-Period] report
• Profit & Loss [Multi-Period Budget] report
• Analyse Sales [Activity Spreadsheet] report (Plus, Premier)
• Analyse Sales [Customer Multi-Period] report

Collecting money: who, how much, and how long

• To find out who owes you money (and for how long) you can print the Aged Receivables [Summary] report.
• If you need to prepare a contact list to call late payers, print the Aged Receivables [Detail] report.
• To review how long it takes your customer to pay you, print the Customer Payments [Closed Invoices] report.
• For the payment history of a single invoice, print the Invoice Transactions report.

Customer sales: who, what, and how much

• If you want to see sales by customer, print the Sales [Customer Summary] report.
• If you want to track what items (from your Items List) you sold to a customer, print the Sales [Customer Detail] report.
• To look for customer sales trends over a period of time, you can use the Analyse Sales [Customer - FY Comparison] and Analyse Sales [Customer Multi-Period] reports.

Job reports and job profit

• To see all transactions assigned to a job, print the Job Transactions report.
• To analyse the profitability of a job, print the Job Profit & Loss Statement report.
• (Not Basics) To compare how much the job is costing against the job budget, print the Jobs [Budget Analysis] report. 
• (Not Basics) To find out if you have any outstanding unreimbursed expenses for the job, print the Customer Reimbursable Expenses report.

Analysing sales

• (Not Basics) To analyse item sales, print the Analyse Sales [Item] or Analyse Sales [Item - FY Comparison] report
• (Plus, Premier) To analyse time billing activity sales, print the Analyse Sales [Activity] or Analyse Sales [Activity - FY Comparison] report
• To analyse customer sales, print the Analyse Sales [Customer] or Analyse Sales [Customer - FY Comparison] report
• (Not Basics) To analyse salesperson sales, print the Analyse Sales [Salesperson] or Analyse Sales [Salesperson - FY Comparison] report

Calculating commissions

Not available in AccountRight Basics

If you use complex commission plans for your salespeople, you may want to export your commission reports to a tab-delimited or comma-separated and view them in a spreadsheet.

• If you calculate commissions based on when the sale was made, print the Sales [Salesperson Summary] report
• If you need to break down the items sold by the salesperson during the reporting period, print the Sales [Salesperson Detail] report
• If you pay commissions on a cash-received basis, print the Customer Payments [Salesperson] report.

Owing money: who, how much and how long

Not available in AccountRight Basics

To find out how much:

• you owe a supplier, print the Aged Payables [Summary] report
• you bought from a supplier, print the Purchases [Supplier Summary] report
• you paid to a supplier, print the Supplier Payments report.

To review the payment history of a purchase, print the Bill Transactions report.

Item sales: what is selling and who is buying

To find out:

• how many of a particular item you sold, print the Sales [Item Summary] report or the Sales [Item Detail] report
• which items you sold to a particular customer, print the Sales [Customer Detail] report
• which customers bought a particular item, print the Sales [Item Detail] report.

Items: What you have, what is promised, what is on order

Not available in AccountRight Basics

• To see what’s on hand, what’s on order from suppliers, and what’s been promised to customers, print the Analyse Inventory Summary report.
• To view orders and invoices for a single item, print the Analyse Inventory Detail report.

Counting, valuing, and analysing your inventory

Not available in AccountRight Basics

Relevant inventory reports include:

• Inventory Count Sheet
• Inventory Value Reconciliation report
• Items Register Detail report
• Price Analysis report

Daily reports

Not available in AccountRight Basics

Here are some reports you might want to review at the end of each day:

• To Do List - Expiring Discounts report (Purchases)
• To Do List - Orders To Be Shipped/Received (Sales)
• To Do List - Stock Alert (Inventory)

Weekly reports

To review your week's activity, use these reports at the end of each week:

• Cash Disbursements Journal report
• Cash Receipts Journal report
• Sales & Receivables Journal report
• Purchases & Payables Journal report (Not Basics)
• Aged Receivables [Detail] report
• Aged Payables [Detail] report (Not Basics)
• Bank Register report
• Analyse Inventory Summary report (Not Basics)

Monthly reports

You can use these reports each month to see how you went, and what's coming up:

• To Do List - Recurring Transactions report
• Profit & Loss Statement
• Balance Sheet report
• Receivables Reconciliation [Detail] report
• Payables Reconciliation [Detail] report (Not Basics)
• Bank Register report

To help you analyse the performance of your business, you can print:

• Profit & Loss Statement
• Profit & Loss [Last Year Analysis] report

If you use the inventory module (Not Basics), you can also print:

• To Do List - Orders to be Delivered & Received report
• Analyse Inventory Summary report

Quarterly reports

If you prepare summary reports quarterly instead of monthly, the following reports will help provide an overview of your business’ financial health for the quarter. To help ensure the reports are accurate, enter all relevant financial transactions first, such as depreciation, interest earned, etc.

• Profit & Loss Statement
• Balance Sheet report
• Receivables Reconciliation [Summary] report
• Payables Reconciliation [Summary] report (Not Basics)
• Trial Balance report

Annual reports

At the end of a financial year, your accountant will need, at minimum, a Trial Balance [Summary] report, a year-end Balance Sheet report, and a year-end Profit & Loss Statement report. You should check with your accountant before you prepare these reports, as you may need to enter some adjustment transactions.

The following reports can be prepared annually or as required:

• Profit & Loss Statement report
• Profit & Loss [With Last Year] report
• Balance Sheet report
• Balance Sheet [Last Year Analysis] report
• Receivables Reconciliation [Summary] report
• Payables Reconciliation [Summary] report (Not Basics)
• Trial Balance report

See also: Month-end procedures and End of period procedures.

Overview reports for your bank

If you need to provide your bank with financial information about your business, you can print the following reports:

• Profit & Loss Statement report
• Profit & Loss [With Year to Date] report
• Profit & Loss [Budget Analysis] report
• Balance Sheet report
• Receivables Reconciliation [Summary] report
• Payables Reconciliation [Summary] report (Not Basics)

Overview reports for your accountant

If you need to provide your accountant with financial information about your business, you can use the following reports.

• Trial Balance report
• Profit & Loss [With Year to Date] report
• Balance Sheet report
• Receivables Reconciliation [Summary] report
• Payables Reconciliation [Summary] report (Not Basics)

GST reporting and deposits

Use the following reports to prepare BAS (Australia) or GST (New Zealand) returns.

For a summary overview of GST collected and paid use:

• GST [Summary - Accrual] report (Australia)
• GST [Summary - Invoice] report (New Zealand)

For a detailed view use:

• GST [Detail - Accrual] report (Australia)
• GST [Detail - Invoice] report (New Zealand)

Payroll tax reporting and deposits (Plus and Premier, Australia only)

For payroll tax reporting and deposits, you can use the following reports:

• Payroll Summary report (Payroll Categories)
• Amount by Category (Payroll Tax) report
• Payroll Tax report