cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
DuarteD
Level 2

Profit and Loss report doesn't make sense

Hello,

I'm starting to add my invoices, payments and expenses to quickbooks but when I run the Profit and Loss report, it doesn't make any sense... 

If you notice, some of the expenses like (Bank charges, Music Copyrights) don't appear with a negative sign (-). And then it shows Other Expenses that I don't know what they are (those have a negative sign). 

And then the total doesn't make any sense with the numbers showed before.  Am I doing something wrong? Why are my Expenses not showing as negative? If they are expenses they should be negative no? 

 screenquick.jpg

 

 

 

Solved
Best answer November 01, 2018

Best Answers
Rustler
Level 15

Profit and Loss report doesn't make sense

A negative expense is income, in that account, exchange gain or loss, a negative means you made money on the exchange rate.

 

that the final balance is negative, means the same thing, the overall effect of the exchange rate made you money

View solution in original post

7 Comments 7
DuarteD
Level 2

Profit and Loss report doesn't make sense

Well I'm from Portugal, I believe that would be an expensive call. 

MichaelDL
QuickBooks Team

Profit and Loss report doesn't make sense

You've come to the right place, @DuarteD.

 

I have some clarification to provide about the numbers you're seeing in that Profit and Loss report. Due to the nature of double-entry accounting, Expenses are reported as a positive number but the Net Income section of the statement still assumes the Total Income (credit) minus the Total Expenses (debit) will yield total profit.

 

The negative value appearing next to Total Other Expenses means that there are Expense transactions (or perhaps Journal Entries) either crediting an expense account or debiting it for a negative value. Here's how you can verify this:

 

  1. In QuickBooks Online, navigate to the Reports tab. In the Business Overview section, click on the Profit and Loss report.
  2. On the line with the negative or strange value, click the number to open a Transaction Report detailing the items feeding that amount.
  3. From this report, you can open and review any transaction by clicking on it.

I'm including a brief video that helps to display the process:

 

 

This will allow you to drill into any report information you're curious about and see what's feeding the amounts listed there. Please don't hesitate to stay in touch with me here if you have any additional questions or concerns, I want to ensure your success. Thanks for coming to the Community, wishing you a wonderful rest of your day.

DuarteD
Level 2

Profit and Loss report doesn't make sense

Hi MichaelDL,
 
Thanks for your reply!
 
Well I've clicked on those expenses and I get this (sorry I blurred the clients names):
 
 screen2.jpg
 
Now I don't recognise any of the transactions. And when I click for example on the last one in Blue it shows this:
 
screen3.jpg
 
So this invoice doesn't have a anywhere, so why is this showing? 
 
Thanks again for your time Michael!
Rustler
Level 15

Profit and Loss report doesn't make sense

A negative expense is income, in that account, exchange gain or loss, a negative means you made money on the exchange rate.

 

that the final balance is negative, means the same thing, the overall effect of the exchange rate made you money

DuarteD
Level 2

Profit and Loss report doesn't make sense

Ohhhh so that's regarding the Exchange rate! Thanks a lot for the help! Now it starts making sense :)

 

 

sambathouk
Level 1

Profit and Loss report doesn't make sense

 

Dear Teams,

 

I really do not know, why my Pofit & Loss Budget vs.Actual show as negative.

Would you have other ways to solve it.

 

Best regards,

Sambath

 

 

JenoP
Moderator

Profit and Loss report doesn't make sense

Thanks for sharing a picture of your report, Sambath.

 

The amounts in the Profit & Loss Budget vs. Actual report would usually give you negative numbers if the budgets are yet not fully consumed. Please try to open the actual budget to see if they were entered or changed to negative amounts. 

 

In case the budget weren't entered as negative numbers, I would recommend reaching out to our phone support so they can double-check on this. Here's how to get their contact information:

 

  1. Open this link and select QuickBooks Desktop: https://help.quickbooks.intuit.com/en_US/contact.
  2. Select the version that you're using, then click Running Your Business in QuickBooks.
  3. Click Business Insights and Accounting, then click Get Phone Number.

We're just around the corner if you need anything else. 

Need to get in touch?

Contact us