Customize Profit and Loss to compare two date ranges.

Thank you, but the problem is the weeks are off by one day. Our year last year ran from 12/30/2016 - 01/03/2017 and this year it is 01/04/2017-01/02/2018. Our weeks start on a Wednesday and end on a Tuesday, so every year it is a bit different.

It is not possible to set-up the comparative columns with different custom date ranges within the basic QB program.  There are some 3rd party custom report writers that will allow you to do this or you can set-up templates within excel.

-Dawn

Oh my.  Just saw this post but have seen this done before and have to assume it is a Tax issue as well since I know it is an issue when doing accounting.  Again wish I could attach a pre-written explanation I have here.

First, good for you for understanding concept of accounting periods here, but I would have to suggest a step backwards to re-consider and revise your practices to avoid issues with the IRS but CPA should know.

When you setup your company (LLC, S Corp or whatever) your business entity specifies when your fiscal year ends.  Most commonly that is 12/31 of each year, although some companies use other dates, like Federal Govt fiscal year ends on 09/30 of each year.  I have also seen 1/31, 3/31 and 6/30 at prior jobs.

So your income tax return each year needs to end on the date you chose, the same date every year end. That date cannot change every year and you definitely do not want it to be different than QB accounting.

Sometimes when accounting system "can't" do something, it is because you should not be doing it and that is a big red flag for you to find out why vs. trying to work around it or force it to do something weird.

Yes, many companies have accounting periods, timesheet periods, billing periods or whatever that may

be weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly, etc. and we know the calendar just does not work that way, but there 

is a right way and a wrong way to accomodate these and I can share easy explanation document if you want to email me at [removed].  No strings attached, already written, I will just email a copy.

Patricia - Did you ever get a positive response to your question?  In retail, its important to compare similar time frames like Monday to Sunday so the busy weekends don't get split up.  I could really use the ability to plug in custom dates for both periods in the comparison.

Please let me know if you were ever able to make this work for you without downloading to Excel.  Thanks.  - Carol

Hi, PDXFinns.

I appreciate you turning to the Community for support. I'd like to help point you in the right direction for this custom report.

I think the idea of a comparison Profit and Loss report is a great one. While QuickBooks has many reports available for customization, there isn't an option for P and L comparison. To see this report added, I invite you to leave feedback for the Product Development Team. This is the best way to ensure meaningful products are added in the future. Your ideas and suggestions can be submitted directly through your account by clicking the Help tab in the top navigation bar, then Send Feedback Online.

I wish you and your business continued success. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Morgan - Why do you say that?  I run this report in QBDT, are we just talking QBO here?

Attached explanation re: Accounting periods, as mentioned earlier, just saw this post again.

I work for a restaurant group and I am looking to do the same thing as Patricia39.  This is not for tax purposes but rather internal reporting and performance analysis. I currently use QuickBooks Premier 2018 but am more than willing to upgrade if there is a version that allows for custom time periods. 

Hi kathleen452.

While we're unable to create a comparison with different date ranges, I suggest finding a third-party software that can do this level of customization. You can find one in the QuickBooks Desktop Market Place. 

In the meantime, you can create a report per custom date range and combine them on one Excel sheet to better see the comparison.

I can see how helpful this option to you and to other users in this thread. I'll share this idea with our product development team, and you can also send them a suggestion. Just click on the Help menu and choose Send Feedback Online.

If you need anything else, please let us know.

In QBOnline when I run Profit and Loss Prior Period Comparative reports, they do not always show the correct prior period dates like when comparing May to April. April prior period dates show up as Mar 31-April 30.  They should be Apr 1 - Apr 30.  Same goes for March/Feb. This happens if I compare months with different number of days.  Also it happens regardless if I choose Cash or Accrual basis.  Is there some way around this in order to get the correct time period dates for the comparative reports?   

Hello TRBurns,

Thank you for posting here in the Community. I'd be glad to help provide clarification about the Profit and Loss report in QuickBooks Online.

When you run the Profit and Loss Comparison report and comparing them to the previous period, the basis here are the days from the current month. Since April only consists of 30 days, it backtracks another extra day to match your report from May 2019.

For additional insights into running reports, such as the profit and loss statement, I'm adding the support links I recommend:

• Understand the profit and loss statement.
• Targets vs. Sources overview.

I look forward to serving you to the best of my ability, so please don't hesitate to reach out to me regarding the reports. The Community is always available anytime.

Thank you AlcaeusF for your response. Yes, I completely understand what QBOnline is doing regarding Prior Period Comparison, but that is not what QB Desktop does.  Someone figured it out and made Prior Period reflect the month before, not the days before.  I am not sure who can get meaningful reports out of running a report for the month of March and comparing it to only 26 or so days in February. I need to know how my current month compares to the month before as traditionally a month is an accounting period with month end reports, closing, profit comparison, etc. happening.  Can someone not make the prior period comparison report like the (correct in my opinion) desktop version?  Or at least add a feature where you can input the date range of the report you want to compare. Unless my comparative months are the same number of days, the QBOnline report is really not helpful for a month to month accounting report purpose.

Thanks for the prompt response, @TRBurns.

I hear you and appreciate the feedback regarding the P&L Comparison report in QuickBooks Online. 

The number of days in the custom date range or selected period will then be used to calculate the previous period for comparison, which may not be a full month. Rest assured, I’m passing your idea along here on my end for consideration in the near future.

A suggestion like this is very important for us to know how we can be even better. In the meantime, I recommend visiting our QuickBooks Online Blog to know about the recent news, features, and updates on QBO and what our Product Team is working on. 

That should do it. Please know that I’m always here to help should you need further assistance. Wishing you and your business continued success!

How do I get the prior month I'm comparing to be before the current month I am running the report for?

I can walk you through on how to create a comparative reports, stl06.

There are lot of reports available that you can customize. But we're unable to add a new column for prior dates to all them.

What I can suggest is to create your own custom report if you're using QuickBooks Desktop. From there, we can add a column for previous dates.

Here's how:

1. Go to Reports menu, hover your cursor to Custom Report. Then, select Summary.
2. On the pop-up, select Display. Modify the date range. 
3. From the Add subcolumns for section, select either Previous Year, Previous Date, or  Year-To Date.
4. Go to the Filters tab. Choose or enter additional information that you want to include on the report.
5. Click on OK button.

If you're using QuickBooks Online, there are ready to use comparative reports. Those are Balance Sheet Comparison, Profit and Loss Comparison, and Profit and Loss year-to-date comparison.

1. Go to the Reports tab.
2. Search and select any of those mentioned reports.

If none of these works for you, the best option I can suggest is to export them to an excel file. From there, you can merge the previous data and the new into one. Simply click on the Export button and select Export to Excel.

I've listed an articles below about customizing reports:

• Customize reports in QuickBooks Desktop
• Customize reports in QuickBooks Online

This should help you to achieve your goal for today. I'm always here if you need additional help.

I would like a way to compare P/L statements from this year's quarter to last year's same quarter 

Thank you for joining the thread, @mtrussell.

You can open the Profit & Loss Prev Year Comparison report to get the information you need. 

Here's how:

1. Select Company & Financial from the Reports tab.
2. Click on Profit & Loss Prev Year Comparison.
3. Filter the dates to (01/01/2020 to 12/31/2020).
4. Show the columns by quarter.
5. Hit the Refresh button to refresh the page.

Just in case you need an additional reference about running reports in QuickBooks Desktop, check out this article.

Let me know if you have any other questions. I'm always here to help. Have a good day!

"So your income tax return each year needs to end on the date you chose, the same date every year end. That date cannot change every year..."

That's not true.  The IRS allows certain taxpayers to adopt 52/53-week yearends, and that causes the year to end on the same day each year but not the same date each year.

(a) In general -

(1) Election. An eligible taxpayer may elect to compute its taxable income on the basis of a fiscal year that -

(i) Varies from 52 to 53 weeks;

(ii) Ends always on the same day of the week; and

(iii) Ends always on -

(A) Whatever date this same day of the week last occurs in a calendar month; or

(B) Whatever date this same day of the week falls that is the nearest to the last day of the calendar month.

(2) Effect. In the case of a taxable year described in paragraph (a)(1)(iii)(A) of this section, the year will always end within the month and may end on the last day of the month, or as many as six days before the end of the month. In the case of a taxable year described in paragraph (a)(1)(iii)(B) of this section, the year may end on the last day of the month, or as many as three days before or three days after the last day of the month.

"While QuickBooks has many reports available for customization..."

It's true that there are many reports available for customization, but it's the extremely limited nature of the available customization features that is a huge black eye for Intuit and Quickbooks, IMO.  It is hard to believe that software as widely used as QB is so primitive with regard to report customization options.

"I'll share this idea with our product development team"

It's nearly 3 years later, and the significant report customization deficiencies in QB haven't been fixed yet.

Is there a way to compare YTD 2021 and 2019 (take the COvid year out? or compare all 3 years Year to Date?

Greetings, @toshea1111. 

Thanks for chiming in on this thread. Let's work together and get this handled. 

At this time, there isn't a way to skip a year when running a report for a particular period. However, I suggest running the report with different periods and exporting them to Excel to compare the information as needed. 

Let me know if this works out and does the trick. I want to ensure that you get back to running your business as soon as possible. Take care! 

Thanks for your message, I wouldn't mind all 3 years if that was possible. I have exported all the years to excel but it is a pain as some of the accounts are not in each of the years so the rows do not line up and it is hard to compare.