Profit and loss builder
Build a month's profit and loss for a product business, then switch between accrual and cash basis to see why the two tell different stories.
Free, no sign-up. Everything is worked out in your browser — nothing you type is sent anywhere.
How it's worked out
On accrual basis:
net = (sales invoiced − refunds) − cost of goods sold − expenses incurredOn cash basis:
net = (payments received − refunds) − stock paid for − (expenses − unpaid at month end)Margins are each profit as a share of that basis's revenue.
Questions
- What's the difference between accrual and cash basis?
- Accrual counts a sale when you invoice it and a cost when you incur it — stock counts as a cost when it sells, not when you pay for it. Cash counts money when it moves through the bank. Accrual shows whether the business makes money; cash shows whether it has money.
- Why can a profitable month leave me short of cash?
- Buying stock is the usual reason. Stock you pay for this month but sell next month is a cost on a cash basis now and on accrual only later — so a growing product business often shows a profit on accrual and a loss in cash.
- Which basis should I use?
- Your accountant and tax office decide what you report. For running a product business, look at both: accrual for margins, cash for whether you can pay the next purchase order.
A P&L that posts itself
Every receipt, sale, invoice, payment and refund in Manifold becomes a balanced entry in your general ledger as it happens, with cost of goods from the batches the stock really came from — on cash or accrual basis, and into Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks.
More free tools
- Landed cost calculator — Spread freight, duty and fees over a PO by value, units or weight — every line's landed unit cost, to the cent.
- Economic order quantity (EOQ) calculator — The order size where a year's ordering cost meets its holding cost.
- Reorder point and safety stock calculator — When to reorder: lead-time demand plus safety stock for the service level you want, and the cost of running out.
- Inventory turnover and days of inventory calculator — Turns, days of inventory, and the cash a faster turn frees.
- Kit and bundle profit calculator — A bundle's margin against its parts sold separately, and how many kits your stock builds.
- Product pricing and margin calculator — Price to a target margin after fees — retail, wholesale and quantity breaks, with break-even.
- Free shipping threshold and DIM weight calculator — A free-shipping threshold that pays for itself, and what a box costs by dimensional weight.
- Return and refund cost calculator — Both parcels, the fee you don't get back, handling and write-offs: a return's real cost.
- Wholesale vs direct-to-consumer calculator — Wholesale and direct side by side, with each channel's true CAC beside the blended one.
- What Manifold costs — Your month on Manifold's one plan, band by band, at your order volume.