Detailed P&L by month

I am using QBO Plus.

Hi ecocpa,

I'm here to share some information about running a Profit and Loss report.

When you pull up the said report, it will break down the transactions by account. Customizing it to show by month is unavailable.

However, I have a workaround that you may want to consider. You can run the Profit and loss report by month and export it to an Excel file. This way, you can have the data broken down per month.

You can transport it by clicking the Export icon.

I've also added this reference for more information about customizing reports: Modify reports in QuickBooks Online.

That should do it, ecocpa. Let me know if you need help in modifying the report or if you have other QuickBooks concerns. I've got your back!

Hi Adrian_A, Thanks but unfortunately that does not download the detail, just the monthly total for each account in the P&L. I was trying to create a P&L Detailed by month.

Hi there, @ecocpa. Allow me to chime in and help you get the report you need.

The Profit and Loss Detail report in QuickBooks Online only displays a detailed insight of all your income and expense transactions for a certain period. I'd suggest exporting a monthly report and combining them in spreadsheets. 

1. Go to the Reports menu.
2. Select the Profit and Loss Detail report under the Business overview section.
3. Modify the reporting period to a specific month.
4. Click Run report.
5. Click the Export icon to export the data to Excel.
6. Repeat steps 3 to 5 for the other periods.

Once done, combine them in one spreadsheet. To learn a bunch of ways to customize your reports in QuickBooks Online, refer to these articles:

• Customize reports
• Memorize reports
• Run reports

Please let me know should you need further assistance with customizing your reports in the way your business needs. I'm always here to assist. Have a wonderful day.

Why is it that quickbooks hasn't developed the option to show the report by month? The workaround does work but seems unnecessary unless Quickbooks is actually unable to make simple improvements in reporting...

I'm consistently surprised by the lack of what seems to be basic functionality... And then even more surprised that it's still relatively one of the better ones in class...

Greetings, @rabuhamdan. 

Welcome to the Community! I appreciate you joining in on this thread about a detailed Profit and Loss by month. 

This isn't the impression we want to leave you with. We can see how beneficial this could be for you and your business. 

I recommend submitting feedback so our Product Developers can consider adding this as an option in the near future. They take the time to review every request and try to add them in the next available update if possible. 

If you have any other concerns about reporting, don't hesitate to come back. We're always here to have your back. Happy Wednesday! 

I don't have the PROFIT AND LOSS DETAIL option in my BUSINESS OVERVIEW. Help?!

Unfortunately I cannot find the Profit and Loss Detail function - help please?!?

Hi there, @shellianne.

Let me share insights about running reports in QuickBooks Online (QBO).

The Profit & Loss by Detail report is available for QBO Essentials, Plus, and Advanced. If you’re using a Simple Start version, then, the report isn’t accessible. This is due to certain reports that are only available for a particular version of the product.

Nonetheless, you’ll want to consider upgrading your subscription to obtain your data in one report. On the other hand, we can customize the other type of P&L or other financial reports available in your subscription to extract details and export this into an Excel file. After that, you can collate this into one.

Here’s how you can customize your report:

1. Go to the Reports menu and locate Profit & Loss report.
2. In the Report window, click the Customize button.
3. Choose from the Filter, and Row/Columns dropdowns to add information you want to be included in the report.
4. You can also filter the date in the Reporting period to pull up data on a specific date.
5. Then, click Run Report.

You can repeat the same steps to the other reports you want to get some data from. Once you have these reports in front, you can click the Export icon on the report page to transport this into your spreadsheet. From there, you can start collating the data you have collected.

Moreover, you can utilize the memorize report feature in QBO to save your previous customization.

Let me know if you have more concerns about running reports. The Community always has your back. Have a good one!

This is because QuickBooks is basically a monopoly. They don't have any incentive to invest in creating features that users really need. As you use QuickBooks, you'll notice more and more basic functionality that is just completely missing. They just keep raising the prices, and forcing everyone onto a subscription model. Their standard response is to ask you to "suggest it to the developers". How many of those "suggested" features are actually developed? How long does it take them? Or is it just a waste of your time?

Given they are the supposed "market leader", I am continually appalled by the lack of basic functionality, especially considering how expensive it is. I spend over $2K a year on QuickBooks and it's just so limited, but there are few other choices out there.

Our team was forced to migrate to QBO from Desktop 2020 as they discontinued support for the 2020 product.

QBO is a terrible piece of SaaS software.  It is so limited compared to Desktop (which was pretty poor to start with).  Aligned to several other of the user comments, it is appalling how the Intuit programmers have a complete disregard for maintaining the features that customers need.  What a scam! 

Pathetic response!  Why did you delete this feature?  Desktop had it!

This is a terrible, amateurish  workaround.  Why doesn't Quickbooks just bring in the functionality we had as desktop users!

Candice, why didn't you take the initiative to submit this user's excellent feedback directly?  Or is that too customer-friendly for Intuit?