Profit and Loss Report to compare non sequential quarters and years?

Good to see your post here, cassidyliz.

While there isn't a way to run a report nonsequential Profit and Loss report, you can run the report yearly then export each of them to Excel. From there you can merge the reports.

Here's how:

1. Go to Reports and choose Company & Financials.
2. Select Profit & Loss Standard.
3. Click the Excel drop-down at the top of the report, then select Create New Worksheet or Update Existing Worksheet.
4. In the Send Report to Excel window, choose what you'd like to do with the report.
5. Select the Advanced button to see other available options for the exported report then select OK. To ensure the exported report will show Header information

   If you are using a newer version of MS Excel and the exported report does not show header information, go to the Printing options section and make sure the On Printed report and screen option is selected.

6. Select the Export button. QuickBooks opens MS Excel. You can edit your data as needed.

More about importing and exporting files in QuickBooks Desktop can be found in this article: Import or export MS Excel files.

In case you encounter issues when exporting the report, you can visit this article for the steps on how to fix it: Fix export to Excel issues in QuickBooks Desktop.

Please leave a comment on this thread if you need anything else. We are always around to help you some more.

Hi, cassidyliz.

Hope you’re doing great. I wanted to see how everything is going about managing the Profit and Loss report. Was it resolved? Do you need any additional help or clarification? If you do, just let me know. I’d be happy to help you at any time.

Looking forward to your reply. Have a pleasant day ahead!

run your income statement for 04/01/19-04/30/19 and then in the compare another period, a custom option appears.  Set any date there.  Then change your income statement dates to 04/01/21-04/30/21 and the custom option for comparison stays.  Change that to 04/01/2019-04/30/2019 and you have what you need.

For some reason if you run it for current month, you don't get the option but this way tricks it to allow it.

I hope that helps!!

Is there not a way to run a custom report to compare more than just the prior year to the current year (or period)?  I also want to ignore 2020 in my P&L comparison - rather than running individual year reports and exporting?  Should be an easy way to compare multiple years in a custom report without so many steps.

I understand that you can save time if you can run the custom report without so many steps, @DAH.

As of the moment, running individual year reports and exporting them to Excel are the best workarounds. This way, you can compare your Profit and Loss data efficiently.

I've also added this article about customizing, memorizing, combining, and setting up report preferences in QuickBooks Desktop: Understand reports. 

Additionally, to learn more about revenues, costs, and expenses visit these articles below for your later reference: 

• Learn about the chart of accounts in QuickBooks
• Help Articles

Let me know if you have any other questions about running different reports. I'm glad to assist you. Keep safe. 

Yes, there is a way - it is a "hack" of sorts.

In the dates, select 2019 as if you want to look at a profit/loss from 2019.  When you do this, it opens up custom date comparison options in the "Compare another period" option below.  Under previous period, check the custom period and enter your 2019 dates that you want to compare to.  Then go back to your original dates and the custom option stays.  You will have to play with it until you get the hang of getting your options to stick but it's a great option to compare against 2019 since 2020 was #%#$^#$%#$

see my hack above.

Select that you want to view your profit/loss for 05012019-05312019.  When you do this, the compare another period now has a custom option.  Select custom and type in the date you really want to compare against (like 05012019-05312019.  Then fix your original dates to the current data you want to see (like 05012021-05312021).  The custom button stays and you can select whatever old period you want.   You may have to play with it to get your custom old date to stay but once you figure it out....easy peasy!

I don’t show any “custom option” only previous period, previous year, and year-to-date

@kimtudor @I don’t show a “custom” option under “compare another period”

Hello, Thebookkeeper. 

I'll give some details about the missing Custom Period option on your report. 

It looks like kimtudor is using QuickBooks Online. If you're using this version, you'll want to edit the Report period dates first or set it to Custom as mentioned by Kim. 

The Custom Period option under the Compare another period drop-down menu will appear. 

However, are you using QuickBooks Desktop? This version doesn't have the Compare another period menu with the Custom Period option like in QuickBooks Online. 

Do you need to pull up a specific date range like what cassidyliz needs? QuickBooks Desktop will always cover all date ranges if you set a custom period. So, we're unable to exclude 2020 if we run the report through 2019-2021. 

Though, you have the option to pull up the 2019 and 2021 data separately. My colleague has provided the steps to help you do it. Click this permalink to go to their solution: Permalink. 

Do you need to add your bank transactions after getting the data you need? Check these articles if you need a guide or two: 

• Categorize and match online bank transactions in QuickBooks Online
• Add and match Bank Feed transactions in QuickBooks Desktop

If you'd like to run other reports or if you need to do a specific process in QuickBooks, please let me know. I'd be glad to lend a helping hand again. 

Did you get it working?  Do you have online version or desktop version?