Building a profit and loss statement

The simple balance sheet we created has a line for net profit and loss, so now we need a statement that breaks out how this number was determined. As we build a simple profit and loss statement, we'll build on what you've learned building the balance sheet. We'll take a different approach to selecting accounts and period ranges:

Tip

Do not make yourself crazy, like I did when I was building these reports the first time. When comparing my balance sheet to my profit and loss statement, I was off. After a while, I noticed there was a Profit and Loss account that had a Balance Sheet category. As my balance sheet was based on categories, and my profit and loss statement was built on accounts, the account was on both reports. Learn from my frustration.

Let's begin building a statement that should look like the above screenshot when we are finished:

1. Open the Excel report we used for the balance sheet, which is FinancialStatements.xlsx.

2. Create a new tab and rename...