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Profit and Loss Statement Template

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Last editedNov 20202 min read

The profit and loss statement is one of your company’s most important financial documents, and as such, it’s essential that you know exactly what you’re doing when it’s time to produce it. If you’re not using accounting software, which can automate the production of a profit and loss template, then you may need to create your statement by hand. Fortunately, there are plenty of online profit and loss templates for UK businesses to guide you in the right direction. Find out a little more about producing a profit and loss balance sheet template right here.

What is a profit and loss statement?

A profit and loss statement provides an overview of your business’s revenue and expenses – helping you determine whether you’ve made a profit or a loss. Profit and loss statements (sometimes referred to as a P&L, profit and loss account or income statement) are a critical financial document as they offer a great insight into your financial health over a given period. This means that you can compare your performance across different accounting periods. Furthermore, you’ll need a profit and loss statement to calculate several vital financial metrics, including gross profit margin and net profit margin.

What should you include in your profit and loss template?

Several crucial pieces of accounting data need to be included in your profit and loss statement template, including:

Revenue / sales
Cost of Goods Sold
Gross profit / profit margin
Operating expenses (OPEX)
Depreciation & Amortization
Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT)
Net profit

Typically, profit and loss templates are used for a specific period, i.e., one month, one quarter, one year. So, now that you know what you’ll need to get started with your profit and loss account, here’s our profit and loss template for UK businesses.

How to create a profit and loss statement

Essentially, your profit and loss statement needs to show all your business’s sources of income and expenditure. Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating the profit and loss statement template:

Firstly, choose a time frame. Anything less than a month isn’t likely to provide you with meaningful data.
Next, list your business’s revenue across this period.
Then, calculate your expenses. You should separate your direct costs (i.e., COGS) from your indirect costs (i.e., depreciation).
Now, determine your figure for gross profit by subtracting direct costs from your total revenue.
Finally, you need to subtract your total expenses from your gross profit. This will indicate whether your business is making a profit or a loss.

So, there you have it – completing a profit and loss template should be relatively simple, assuming that you have all of this data at hand.

Example profit and loss template

Want a little more information on how to create a profit and loss balance sheet template? Here’s a straightforward example that you can use as a guide:

[Company Name]

Profit and Loss Statement

Income
Revenue Stream 1	£700,000
Revenue Stream 2	£700,000
Revenue Stream 3	£700,000
Revenue Stream 4	£700,000
Total Net Revenue	£2,000,000

Cost of Goods Sold	£500,000

GROSS PROFIT	£1,500,000

Expenses
Marketing Campaigns	£200,000
Salaries	£500,000
Rent	£20,000
Travel	£25,000
Utilities	£20,000
Client Expenses	£20,000
Depreciation & Amortization	£300,000
Total Expenses	£1,085,000

Earnings Before Interest & Taxes	£415,000
Interest Expense	£25,000
Income Taxes	£20,000

NET PROFIT	£240,000

Using the example above, we can see that this business is making a sizeable profit. Many other profit and loss statement templates are available online if you’d like to do a little more research. For example, Microsoft Office has a range of different templates that you can use for your business.

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