Financial Reports

Two Optional Extras Beyond the Standard Setup

Automatic Fiscal Year Creation

If you use explicit Fiscal Year records (rather than just the simple month/day setting covered earlier in this course) — for example to model a genuinely irregular fiscal calendar — a scheduled action can automatically create each new fiscal year's record ahead of time based on your existing pattern, so nobody has to remember to set one up manually before the current one ends.

The Formal Closing Wizard

As explained earlier in this course, the Balance Sheet's Retained Earnings/Net Income split is computed live, with no closing journal entry required — this is the standard, recommended approach and needs nothing further from you.

A separate, optional Fiscal Year Closing wizard also exists (Accounting > Actions > Fiscal Year Closing) for businesses whose jurisdiction or auditor specifically requires formal, posted closing and opening journal entries at year-end, rather than relying on a dynamically-computed report. It generates configurable closing entries per a template, moves through Draft → Processed → Posted, and tags the resulting entries with a Closing Type for identification.

Important: Don't Use Both Approaches Carelessly

If you post formal closing entries with this wizard, their counterpart must go to the same "Undistributed Profits/Losses" equity account that the dynamic Balance Sheet calculation already excludes from its own prior-year rollup — otherwise the same year's earnings can get counted twice (once by the live calculation, once by the posted closing entry), throwing the Balance Sheet out of balance. Unless your accountant or jurisdiction specifically requires formal closing entries, the simplest and safest approach — used throughout this course — is to rely on the live calculation alone and skip this wizard entirely.

Revenue, Costs, and Net Profit Over a Period

Go to Accounting > Reporting > Profit and Loss. Unlike the Balance Sheet, this report always covers a date range (default: this fiscal year to date).

The Waterfall

1. Revenue – all income accounts.
2. Less Cost of Revenue – direct costs of what you sold.
3. = Gross Profit
4. Less Operating Expenses – overhead, salaries, rent, etc.
5. = Operating Income (or Loss)
6. Plus Other Income / Less Other Expenses – non-operating items (interest, one-off gains/losses).
7. = Net Profit

This Net Profit figure — scoped to the current fiscal year — is exactly what the Balance Sheet's "Net Income (Current Year)" line pulls in live.

Comparing Periods

Use the comparison filter to add columns for prior months/quarters/years side by side — the fastest way to spot a cost that's crept up or a revenue line that's slipping, rather than staring at one period in isolation.

Budgets on the P&L

If budgets are configured (see the Budgets course), enable "Show Budgets" to add a Budget column and variance alongside Actuals directly on this report.

Where the Cash Actually Went

Profit and cash are not the same thing — a business can be profitable on paper while running out of cash (e.g. if customers are slow to pay). The Cash Flow Statement (Accounting > Reporting > Cash Flow) explains the difference.

The Three Activity Groups

• Operating Activities – cash from normal business operations, starting from Net Profit and adjusting for non-cash items and changes in receivables/payables/inventory.
• Investing Activities – cash spent on or received from fixed assets and investments.
• Financing Activities – cash from loans, owner contributions, or distributions.

Opening Cash + Net Cash from all three groups = Closing Cash, which should tie exactly to your actual bank balances at the report date.

Executive Summary

Go to Accounting > Reporting > Executive Summary for a single condensed page aimed at non-accountants: revenue, profitability, cash, and a handful of key ratios, each with a period-over-period comparison — the report to hand an owner or board member who doesn't need (or want) the full Balance Sheet/P&L detail.