Be Aware of the Ebbs and Flows of Your Business: Multi-Period Profit and Loss Reporting

Nearly every business has its busy periods and its quiet ones. Crucial to the success of a business is knowing when these busy periods and quiet ones occur, so you can capitalise on them.

For a lot of Australian businesses offering professional services, December through January is usually when business winds down for the year. In the hospitality and accommodation industry, however, it’s typically the busiest time of the year, so planning for increased business is essential.

Muriel, a bookkeeper based in Dee Why, in Sydney’s northern beaches, encourages businesses to run a multi-period profit and loss (P&L) report in their accounting software in order to best determine these trends and to plan for them.

Previously, this function was only available in MYOB and, in a roundabout way, in Xero, but the functionality has just recently been made available in QuickBooks, too.

Key Takeaways from P&L Statements

As the name of the report suggests, a profit and loss statement illustrates whether your business is making a profit or a loss, and for what period losses and profits were recorded. The best part about multi-period P&L statements is that you can run one report for, say, May, June and July off 2016 and, at the same time, run a P&L for the same period, the previous year.

In MYOB and QuickBooks, each month will be shown in columns next to each, so you can easily compare each one, and also look for patterns or trends in your business. It also makes it easy to identify if there were any problems that should be investigated further, because they stick out like a sore thumb. Most of the time, the issues that are turned up are the result of a keying or coding error in your bookkeeping, but occasionally, it could indicate that your business isn’t as healthy as it should be — or, conversely, that it’s outperforming your expectations, in which case, yay!

If Your Business Sells Goods

In addition to running multi-period P&L reports, inventory businesses that sell goods, should get in the habit of running inventory sales and stock-on-hand reports. These reports allow you to see how your business is performing. In particular, you’ll be able to monitor your product lines, to see what’s selling, what’s not selling, what you have too much of, and what you have too little of.

Ask your bookkeeper to run regular P&L statements and, if you’re a business selling goods, inventory sales and stock-on-hand reports, too. They’ll provide you with invaluable insights to help you better understand your business.

Precious Help Finding A Bookkeeper

Like GPs, there’s usually a bookkeeper on every corner, but how do you find someone who’s top of their game, will save you time (and very probably money) and who will be a true asset to your business? Some business owners are unsure where to start when looking for a bookkeeper they can trust and rely on. It’s also extremely concerning how many Australian small businesses suffer — to the point of insolvency — as a result of inadequate cash flow. A large portion of cash flow problems stem from credit and debt management and the systems business’ put in place to do this.

Muriel is a highly experienced, accounting degree qualified bookkeeper, looking to work with businesses located in Sydney’s northern beaches suburbs of Allambie, Balgowlah, Beacon Hill, Collaroy, Dee Why, Frenchs Forest, Manly, Manly Vale, Narrabeen, Narraweena and Warriewood.

Muriel is comfortable using MYOB, Xero and SAASU accounting programs and can provide bookkeeping tasks ranging from invoicing and reconciliations, to accounts receivable, payable, business activity statements, and inventory asset management or high level financial analysis and reporting. Read more about Muriel at her profile page.

Our National Bookkeeping website has recently undergone a significant upgrade so keep a look out for more stories about featured bookkeepers in forthcoming blogs. Join now and we can feature YOU in our articles too.