Books provides four reports: Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, General Ledger and Trial Balance. All of them are built from the journal entries in your general ledger, so the numbers stay consistent across reports.
To view them, click "Books" in the left navigation bar, then click "Financial reports". All amounts are shown in your accounting base currency.
Which report answers which question:
Profit & Loss: how much did we earn and spend during this period? Uses a date range.
Balance Sheet: what do we own and owe right now? A snapshot at a point in time.
Trial Balance: do my total debits equal my total credits? A diagnostic check at a point in time.
General Ledger: what are the individual transactions behind these numbers? Per account, for a date range.
Profit & Loss
The Profit & Loss (also called an Income Statement) shows your revenue, costs and expenses over a selected period. It starts from your Operating Revenue, subtracts your Cost of Sales to give Gross Profit, then subtracts your operating costs to give Operating Profit, and ends at your Profit for the Year.
Balance Sheet
The Balance Sheet shows your financial position at a specific date: what you own (assets), what you owe (liabilities) and the residual interest (equity). It always balances: total assets equal total liabilities plus total equity. If they don't, there is an error in the underlying journal entries; chat with us and we'll help you look into it.
General Ledger
The General Ledger is the most detailed report. It lists every journal entry posted to every account, with the date, journal identifier, description, debit and credit. Use it to audit a number: if something on your Profit & Loss or Balance Sheet looks wrong, drill into the General Ledger to see exactly which entries make up that balance.
Trial Balance
The Trial Balance lists the balance of every account as at a single date, which defaults to today. It includes all transactions up to 23:59:59 on that date, in your business's books timezone. Only accounts with a non-zero balance are shown, and the Totals row shows total debits and total credits, which will always be equal.
A Comparison column shows each balance as at the same date one year earlier. Run it before you close your books for a period: it confirms your debits and credits are equal and helps you spot data entry errors or mis postings.
Tax summary
AR ageing
AR ageing shows which customers owe you money, how much, and how overdue each invoice is. Use it to decide who to follow up with first. It has one row per customer, with unpaid invoices split by how many days past their due date they are: Current, 1-30, 31-60, 61-90 and 90+ days.
What’s included: issued invoices (Due or Overdue) that aren’t fully paid. Drafts and cancelled invoices are left out. Partially paid invoices show only the amount still owed.
As-at date: the report shows balances as at today. Pick an earlier date to see what was owed on that date, for example at month end.
Summary: total outstanding, total overdue, and total overdue by more than 90 days.
Drill down: expand a customer to see each invoice, then click an invoice to open it.
Foreign currency invoices are shown in your base currency at the exchange rate on the as-at date, with the original amount alongside.
AP ageing
AP ageing shows which suppliers you owe money to, how much, and how overdue each bill is. Use it to plan which bills to pay first. It has one row per vendor, with unpaid bills split by how many days past their due date they are: Current, 1-30, 31-60, 61-90 and 90+ days.
What’s included: approved bills that aren’t fully paid, including bills whose payment failed, since no money moved. Drafts, bills pending review and cancelled bills are left out. Partially paid bills show only the amount still owed.
As-at date: the report shows balances as at today. Pick an earlier date to see what you owed on that date, for example at month end.
Summary: total outstanding, total overdue, and total overdue by more than 90 days.
Drill down: expand a vendor to see each bill, then click a bill to open it. Bills without a vendor are grouped under “No vendor”.
Foreign currency bills are shown in your base currency at the exchange rate on the as-at date, with the original amount alongside.
FAQ
Q: Can I export my reports?
Yes. Click "Export" on the Financial reports page to export a report in either pdf or csv format.
Questions? Chat with us by clicking on the messenger icon at the bottom right of the screen once you are logged in.