My revenue isn't showing in profit and loss

Hi Jon Hunt,

You've come to the right place to get help with your report.

This could be caused a damaged data components that are responsible reflecting data in all sections in QuickBooks. We can run the verify and rebuild tools to check the integrity of your company file and to fix those components. Please refer to this article: Resolve Data Damage on Your Company File.

Please let us know if you need anything else.

I did the rebuild and verify and no problems were found, but it did not resolve the problem.

It maybe that the date of the payment is 2019 and it is a cash basis report

No, both the invoice and payment are dated 2018...Not sure how to see if it is a cash basis report. I only use QB once a year to record all transactions...there aren't many...and I've never had a problem with the P&L.

Is the P&L report set to the correct date range? Are you pulling 2019 transactions instead of 2018?

No. The date range is correct. All 2018 expenses are showing, but revenue is not.

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@Jon Hunt wrote:

No. The date range is correct. All 2018 expenses are showing, but revenue is not.

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It maybe that the linked income account for the Item that you used in the invoice, is not really an income account

Now you are really above my pay grade. All I did was create an invoice to the firm that provided the income and the received the income and applied it to that invoice. If there is a better or simpler way I am happy to try to delete the invoice and payment and start over. Thanks.

Thanks for posting back, Jon Hunt.

You can check the journal of your invoice to see where the money goes. To do this, open the invoice, click the Reports (not the Reports menu) tab above it, and choose Transaction Journal. It should have at least one Profit-and-Loss income account. If it doesn't have one, it's the reason why you can't see it on that report. When this happens, edit your item and recreate the invoice.

Please let us know what you'll find out.

Let's start over: "All I did was create an invoice to the firm that provided the income and the received the income and applied it to that invoice. If there is a better or simpler way I am happy to try to delete the invoice and payment and start over. "

You use Invoice to show you Anticipated being paid later and need to track that someone owes you. Otherwise, you use Sales Receipt.

On either Sales Transaction, you list a Charge Item. This typically is your Service, such as "Commission" and that item you listed is linked to Income. This is when Income data flow is created = the Listing of the Charge item on the Sales Form.

Since the payment date is the same as the date you made an Invoice, don't bother with Two Steps. Use Sales Receipt.

Otherwise, the invoice is the Unpaid sale as of the date of the Invoice, with the charge(s) listed on it. And the Payment date is later and/or in partial amounts over time = that's why it is provided as two steps.

And your Item, that Charge listing, is what creates Income. The money is Proof that you got paid and is not Income. The income is on the Sales Transaction.

Thanks...that makes perfect sense, but the income still isn't showing up in the P&L. The date is correct and the report for the P&L has the correct date range.

Which Item did you use in the invoice?  Once you know that go to Items list and see what the income account is for that item

Originally I had the item as commission...if that is what you mean. Another user here suggested not using an invoice, but using sales receipt. So I deleted the invoice and put the income in as a sales receipt, but it still failed to show up on the Fiscal Year P&L for last year even though the receipt date was in December.

Bring up the sales receipt (or invoice) transaction and do a transaction detail report on it. That will show you what accounts are being hit by that transaction. Are they actual P&L accounts? Also check the date the transaction is hitting and make sure it is in the period in question.  Finally check the basis of the report: cash basis and accrual have different rules about when things hit.

Thanks...when I bring up the transaction detail report it shows the sales receipt as both a debit and credit on 12/31/2018. How do I know if it is a P&L account and how do I determine if it is cash or accrual

Hey there, Jon Hunt.

If these are income or expense transactions, they will show in the Profit and Loss report.

The difference between cash and accrual accounting lies in the timing when sales or purchases are recorded. The cash method is more of immediate recognition of sales or expenses while the accrual method focuses on anticipated income or expenses.

If you have further questions, you can always leave a comment. We'll answer them as soon as we can. 

The point is the income isn't showing up in the P&L.

I understand the difference between cash and accrual, but I don't know how you see that noted on a transaction.

Here's a screenshot showing the invoice, date, marked as paid, but it doesn't show up as income on the P&L

Good day, Jon Hunt!

Thanks for the screenshot.

Have you checked what type of account is assigned to your commission item? It should be an income account type, if not, it won't show up on your Profit and Loss report. This is because P&L report only shows the amounts accumulated by your Income and Expense accounts.

You can follow Jen_D's steps to check the item. Then, click the down arrow in the Income Account field she highlighted in her screenshot, so you can see its type. It should be Income. If not, scroll up, click Add New to create an income account to assign to your commission item.

Lastly, you can contact our phone agents so they can check your item setup using a screen-sharing tool. Here's how to get their number:

1. Open this link: https://help.quickbooks.intuit.com/en_US/contact.
2. Choose QuickBooks Mac Desktop.
3. Click Search for something else.
4. Type something like Profit and Loss in the search box.
5. Scroll down and click the Get Phone Number button.

Please comment below if you have more questions.

Jen D...thanks...I was able to resolve it using your steps. I really appreciate the help. I did these steps as I always have, but got different results. I'm a small commission based business and I only use QB once a year to prepare for my accountant. It would help if I had to use it more frequently. Thanks so much.

I have the exact same problem as you.  I read every one of your entries and it sounds exactly like what I would say.  This is so frustrating.  I truly want to try and different piece of software because it is so "un-user friendly" for someone like me.    When the responses are "check the reports, not reports tab, the reports button above it", it shows me there is a problem.  

Hey there, @BibMagnets.

Let's check the items on your transactions if they're categorized under the correct income account.

Some items on your transactions may not be categorized under the correct income account which leads to missing transactions on your Profit and Loss report.

Here's how you can check your items: 

1. Click on Lists from the menu bar.
2. Choose Item List.
3. Open each item and check the income account associated with them.

Once done, you can open your Profit and Loss and change the report period to show the correct revenue amounts. Feel free to follow these steps:

1. Click on Reports from the menu bar.
2. Select Company & Financial, and choose Profit and Loss Standard.

If your revenue still doesn't show, you can use the Rebuild and Verify Data utility on your QuickBooks for Mac. Here's how:

1. Rebuild Data
   1. Click on File from the menu bar.
   2. Select Utilities, then click on Rebuild Data.
   3. On the QuickBooks Information window, select OK. 
   4. Follow the prompts to save a backup. Your computer may display QuickBooks is not responding while rebuild data utility is ongoing. But as long as your cursor is moving, rebuild is still ongoing.
   5. Select OK when you see Rebuild has completed.
2. Verify Data
   1. Click on File from the menu bar.
   2. Select Utilities, then click on Verify Data.
   3. If you see QuickBooks detected no problem with your data, select OK. You may continue using your company file. 
   4. If Verify finds an issue with your data, you will be prompted to Rebuild Now or View Errors. 

You may read this article for more information: Resolve Data Damage on Your Company File.

Don't hesitate to leave a comment below if you have other concerns. I'll be here to help you.