P&L That Only Includes Revenue that is Invoiced or "Paid," but not Invoices that have been Written Off

Welcome to the Community space, Desktop2019User.

Let me share some insights about the report.

A bad debt is generally classified as a sales and general administrative expense. Therefore, the amount will show up on the income statement (referred to as a P&L) report. Excluding the amount or making it $0 is currently unavailable. 

You'll want to check with your accountant. They'll be able to give you the best accounting advice for your business.

To learn more about bad debts, different reports, and how you can customize them in QuickBooks, please feel free to read these articles:

• Write off bad debt in QuickBooks Desktop

• Understand reports
• Customize reports in QuickBooks Desktop

If you have any additional questions or need help with other task in your account, please let me know in your reply below. I'll be around to answer them. Have a good day ahead.

Is your company cash or accrual basis? 

If you're accrual, then you should have revenue offset by the bad debt expense because you did, in fact, have revenue once the invoice was issued.  That is offset by the bad debt expense and you have no income.  When you switch between cash and accrual on the P&L report, QB will not differentiate between the two.  So, you can't see $0 revenue on an accrual P&L because, in fact, you had $10K in revenue.  Just offset it by the $10K in bad debt expense and you will show $0 income.   

If you're on cash basis, then you do not record a bad debt expense because you didn't have income when the invoice was issued.  You can change the invoice to $0 and memo the non-payment. 

Sorry, I don't think I clearly expressed my objective. We're a membership-based organization, and my goal is to see the detail of which members have paid their dues each year. When I run a Cash P&L and zoom in to the Membership Dues detail reflecting each customer and the amount paid, the list also includes dues that were not actually paid, but were written off. It seems that invoices that are written off are treated as "paid" in the period that they're written off. So if a customer's $10K invoice from 2020 is written off in 2021, the Membership Dues detail on the 2021 Cash P&L includes that customer's $10K that was written off, along with all the other dues that we actually received. So if possible, I'd like to be able to filter this list so that only customers who have actually paid us money are listed.

Okay, I think I figured it out. I'll create a subitem under the Bad Debt Expense item called Bad Debt Expense - Membership Dues. Then I can run a summary report by customer and filter for multiple items: Membership Dues, and Bad Debt Expense - Membership Dues. Then, the Cash report will zero out any dues that were written off that year. Thanks for the replies!

You’re most welcome, @Desktop2019User. We’re glad that you’ve come up with a resolution. Let me impart some references for you.

The Profit & Loss Detail report in QuickBooks Desktop provides you a complete list of your sales and expense transactions in a specific period. QuickBooks treats your written-off invoices as cleared to ensure your accounts receivable and net income stay up to date.

To get a list of members who've paid their dues each year, you may consider exporting the Profit and Loss Detail report to Excel. Then, remove the transactions that were written off manually. This way, only customers who have actually paid you money are listed. I’m glad to show you the steps:

1. Select the Customize Report button on your Profit & Loss Detail report page.
2. Filter the needed information and make the Paid option under Columns is checked.
3. Press OK after.
4. Select the Excel option at the top.
5. Choose to Create New Worksheet.
6. Click Export.

I’ve attached a reference in case you want to keep the same report settings for future use: Create, access and modify memorized reports. It helps you access the information quickly to save time.

If you have any other questions or concerns besides reports, please don’t hesitate to reach out again. We’ll be here to help. Have a great day and always take care!