# Why is my profit and loss report not showing what I expect?

KB263

### Overview

There may be many reasons why you are not getting the data you require on your Profit and Loss. Some of the reasons could be hidden data, wrong financial year, wrong date range and wrong allocation. If the profit amount is incorrect, it could be the wrong allocation of ITDA (Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) accounts. There may also be amounts hiding on the balance sheet. Below are some checks and questions you can follow to find the reasons.

### Process

#### Before you start

- Ensure that you know what the correct values should be and that you can justify those values with another report
- Make sure you are in the right database and the right financial year
- Make sure the data is not changing as you run the reports
  - If you are in the live system, it is recommended that you lock off your periods for reporting so the figures cannot change
- Make sure the period you are looking at is not prior to your “go live” date
  - Any data prior to your go live date is likely to be inaccurate

##### Simple process checks

1. Are you running the correct report?
   - SA4083 is the go-to report for Profit and Loss unless you have a specific customised report
2. Are you in the correct database?
   - Look at the top of report to check you are in the correct database
3. Check that you have the correct reporting period
   - Make sure you are in the correct financial year and that you are looking at the correct period
4. Check that your system is balanced
   - Use report SA2427 – General Ledger Balancing Summary to check that your system balances
5. Check your report filters
   - Make sure you are not excluding any accounts or data

You should only be looking at the profit and loss for the months within the financial year of the database in which you are reporting. The exception to this is a database that has not yet been rolled over but is within the 3 additional months of the end of financial year.

##### Data allocation checks

1. Check that amounts aren’t “hiding” on your balance sheet
   - Values can’t just hide so if they are not on the profit and loss as you expected, look at your balance sheet. Common accounts to check on the balance sheet would be:
     - Work in progress (WIP)
     - Stock accounts
     - Trade creditors
     - Trade debtors
     - Recovery accounts
   - If the balance sheet is correct and report SA2427 balances, then the profit and loss figure will be correct
2. Check sales figures and reconcile against other reports
   - Are the amounts that have been invoiced too low?
   - Have invoices been posted to non-income or non-profit and loss accounts?
   - Have invoices not been generated for dispatches?
     - Check report SA3903
   - Have invoices been incorrectly dated so they are appearing in the wrong period?
3. Check that Expenses vs Cost of goods are correct
   - Are there expenses entered with the wrong value?
   - Do you have outstanding supplier invoices that haven’t been entered yet?
     - Check report SA2432
   - Are your expenses still sitting in stock (received the stock items and not consumed them yet)?
   - Do you have expenses that are not posted profit and loss accounts (Income, COGS and Expenses)? E.g. unfinished jobs in your WIP account
     - Check report SA3487
   - Have expenses been incorrectly dated so they are appearing in the wrong period?
4. Check that wage figures are correct
   - Does your payroll balance with profit and loss?
     - Use report SA1414
   - Are your provisions for annual leave and long service leave accruing to an expense account instead of a liability account?
     - Check your departments are set up correctly – Payroll > Setup > Departments > Leave provision accounts

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Last edit: 20/01/21