Where are discounts recorded in a P & L ?

I see that you want to locate a total for the amounts of the discounts that have been applied to invoices during last year in your P & L report in QuickBooks Online. I've got guidelines you can follow to achieve this.

QuickBooks automatically creates a Discount given account in your chart of accounts to track the discounts you give. If you haven't already, turn on the discount setting. Here's how:

1. Go to Settings and then Account and Settings.
2. Click Sales.
3. In the Sales form content section, pick Edit.
4. Turn on the Discount setting.
5. Click Save and then Done.

These discounts are typically recorded as a reduction in the revenue account on the Profit and Loss (P&L) statement. To locate the total amount of discounts applied to invoices during the last year, you can follow these steps:

1. Log in to your QuickBooks Online account.
2. Navigate to the Reports tab in the left-hand menu.
3. In the search bar, type Profit and Loss and select the Profit and Loss report from the suggestions.
4. Customize the report by selecting the appropriate date range for the last year.
5. Run the report to view the total amount of discounts applied to invoices during the last year.
   
   

I'm adding these articles you can use in the future:

• Customize reports in QuickBooks Online.
• Common custom reports in QuickBooks Online.

By following these steps, you should be able to locate the total amount of discounts recorded in the Profit and Loss statement for the specified period. If you have more questions about reports in QuickBooks Online, post them here in the forum. I'll be sure to answer them ASAP. Stay safe!

Thanks for help locating the discounts but they only appear for the 4th quarter. What do I need to do to show them for the full year ?  They are labeled Time To Pet Sales and not discounts ????????

I selected Last Year as my time period.

Welcome to the Community, @allstuff.

I appreciate you for following the steps provided by my colleague. Let me provide some information as to why you're only seeing discounts for the 4th quarter last year and why they're labelled Time to Pet Sales.

Before anything else, it would be helpful to know if you were using a non-inventory item to represent the discounts you gave to your customers. If so, it seems like the item was linked with the Time to Pet Sales account instead of the appropriate Discounts given account. Rest assured, I'm here to guide you on how to resolve this.

1. On the left navigation panel, hover on Sales. Then, click on Products & services.
2. Locate your Discount item. Click Edit under the Action column.
3. On the Income account dropdown, choose Discounts given.
4. Tick Also update the account in historical transactions.
5. Click Save and close.

    

Once done, run a Profit and Loss report once again. Then, filter it to show your data from last year. This time, all of your discounts given last year should be reflected in the report.

For more info on changing the income account of your items in QuickBooks, feel free to browse this article: Change the account for a product or service item in QuickBooks Online.

For future use, you might find this article helpful in saving a report's customization settings: Memorize reports in QuickBooks Online.

Feel free to ask any more questions about reports or related concerns by replying to this thread anytime. I'm here and happy to help. Take care.

Hiu -

Well, I followed all the steps to change the Discount  Iitem to link it to the Discount/Refunds sales account and then ran the P & L but nothing changed.   To be clear, the DIscount is appears as an option on the invoice after the subtotal with the choice of a percentage or dollar amount. Please advise at your convenience.

I appreciate your efforts and I completely understand how crucial it is for you to link the Discount item to the Discount/Refund sales account. Your concern is valid, @allstuff and I will do my best to assist you with this task.

When using the discount feature in QBO, the amount will be posted automatically in the Discounts given account and cannot be altered. QuickBooks also creates a dedicated account in your chart of accounts to track the discounts you provide. This streamlined process helps you keep track of your discounts and ensures accurate accounting of your business transactions.

To ensure accurate accounting, it would be best to create a journal entry to move the amounts from the Discount Given item to the appropriate account. This will help maintain clear and organized records for your business.

For your future help, learn how to get the most out of your financial reports: Customize reports in QuickBooks Online.

If you have further questions about discounts and anything (QBO) related, you can comment below, and we'll respond to you as soon as possible.