Read and export financial reports

Open a report

1. Open the client and choose Reports.
2. Select the income, expense, profit-and-loss, VAT, or advances report you need.
3. Choose the reporting period and relevant filters.
4. Read the notes under the report to understand which records are included and which are not.

Every financial report is built from the client’s books in Office only: income and expense documents, their posting in the books, and journal entries. No connection to an external service is needed. Reports from a connected service may include different records or stages of work.

Open a document from a report

In the income report, the expense report, and the details of the VAT report, click a row or its document number to open the document:

• An expense opens in the expense screen.
• An income opens in the Incomes list showing only that document, where its actions are. This is not saved as the list’s filters; as soon as you change a filter, the list shows every document that matches it again.

What you can change in the document depends on its posting in the books, exactly as when you open it from the list. Going back in the browser returns to the report, and the details you opened in the VAT report stay open.

Income report

The report lists the income documents dated in the period: tax invoices, invoice-receipts, receipts, and credit notes. Quotes and delivery notes are not income and do not appear; cancelled documents are left out and the report states how many there are.

1. Filter by Document type to show only some kinds.
2. Receipts are not counted as income (the invoice they settle already was), but their amount appears in the receipts summary by payment method.
3. Credit notes reduce the totals with a negative sign.
4. An exempt or zero-rated document is marked in the VAT column and summed separately.

Expense report

The report lists the client’s expense documents. By default a document belongs to the period by the VAT report date set for it on the expenses screen, or by its document date when none is set. Choose By document date to see expenses by the document date itself.

1. Filter by Status in the books; the default shows posted expenses.
2. VAT recognised and Recognised for income tax come from the posting in the books: the input VAT posted to the input-VAT account and the amount posted to expense accounts. A fixed asset is not an expense, so its recognised amount is zero.
3. An expense not yet posted shows the treatment entered at source.
4. In the PDF, expenses are grouped by classification, with unclassified last.

VAT report

The report follows the periodic return: Transactions from the income documents in the period by document date, and Inputs from expenses posted to the books and assigned to the period by report date. Each document’s rate is read from its VAT-to-net ratio, so the 18% and 17% rows fill from the documents themselves. Input VAT on fixed assets appears in the Equipment column.

The reporting period follows the client’s filing frequency (monthly or bimonthly). Expenses assigned to the period that are not posted yet are left out, and the report states how many there are. A negative balance is shown as a Refund. Open Income details and Expense details to see the documents behind the amounts.

When the office has a VAT report for the same dates, The period’s report leads to it, with the stage it is in. That is where it is sent for approval and filed. See Prepare periodic reports.

To compare the return with what was filed and follow differences and saved inputs, see Reconcile VAT returns.

Advances report

The report computes the business turnover for the period (income excluding VAT, without receipts) and multiplies it by the advance rate the client had in that period, so an older period keeps its rate after the rate changes. When the rate changed inside the chosen period, each month is calculated at the rate it had, and the report says so. The reporting period follows the client’s advances filing frequency. For a period longer than one month, a monthly breakdown is also shown.

If no advance rate is on file, the report shows the turnover only and says so. Import the Tax Authority advance-rate file (Import tax advance percentages) to complete it. A client that pays a fixed yearly advance has no rate either: the report shows the turnover and the yearly amount.

Here too, The period’s report leads to the advances report for the same dates, when there is one.

When a file receives a share of a partnership’s turnover, the advance base includes that share, and Where the turnover comes from lists where each amount came from. See Split a partnership’s turnover into the partners’ files.

If the advance for the same period was already filed, Against the filed return compares the turnover in the books with the turnover reported, and shows the advance that should have been paid, the advance paid, and the Difference to pay or Difference in your favor.

Profit and loss report

The profit and loss report sums journal entries posted to revenue and expense accounts, excluding VAT. Draft journal entries are not included, and the report states how many there are.

Expenses approved in SmartBill post on their own and are included. If an expense approved in the period did not post, for example because it has no classification, a notice above the report shows how many there are and their total, with a Handle the expenses link. Learn about expenses from SmartBill.

1. Choose a period: Year to date, Previous year, a quarter, a month, or a custom range.
2. Choose Split by month or Period total, and the detail level By account or Summary.
3. For a comparison column choose Previous year; the comparison always shows period totals.
4. Turn on Show percentages to read every row as a share of total revenue.
5. Drag a section or an account to change the printed order (requires the bookkeeping draft permission; without it the report shows the saved order and no drag handles). You can also move a row from the keyboard: Space on its drag handle, the arrow keys, then Space again. A subtotal is calculated from the sections above it. The order is saved for the client, in every period, and everyone in the office sees it. An income account dragged into an expense section shows as a negative expense, so the profit does not change. Income tax always stays at the end of the report. Layout restores the ordinary order, or places other income below operating profit.

Accounts are grouped into Form 6111 sections. By default Other income is its own section immediately after Revenue, so it is included in gross profit and operating profit. Empty sections are hidden, and result rows appear only where they separate sections. An account without a Form 6111 code is placed by its account type, and the report states how many such accounts there are; to fix this, set the Form 6111 code on the account in the account index. You can also drag that account into another section of the report.

Tax adjustment report

Turn on Show tax adjustment report next to the display options. The profit and loss report keeps showing expenses in full, and a Tax adjustment report for the same client and period appears below it: the accounting profit or loss, a table of Expenses not recognised for income tax by section and sub-item, and a highlighted Taxable profit / loss per the adjustments in this report. The taxable result is the accounting result plus the disallowed amounts; the report does not calculate tax due. The previous-year comparison column is not available in the combined view.

Each row’s percentage comes from the expense card (the income tax recognition percentage set during client setup) or from the imported expense data. By default only rows with a disallowed amount or a missing percentage are listed; tick Also show fully recognised expenses to see every row. A row whose expenses carry different percentages shows Variable, and Details shows the split. A row without a percentage shows Percentage required; while such rows exist the summary is marked Calculation not final and the report cannot be locked.

1. Choose Edit adjustments (requires the bookkeeping draft permission). For each row choose By recognition percentage and edit the percentage, or Manual disallowed amount and enter the amount; the other amounts are calculated. Every change requires a short note.
2. An edited row shows Edited manually; Restore original value undoes the change. Totals update while you edit and say that the changes are not saved yet.
3. Choose Save changes or Cancel. Changes apply to this report only and do not change the card’s percentage. Switching period with unsaved changes offers Save and continue, Leave without saving, or Back to editing.
4. The full expense and the accounting result cannot be edited here; the link icon next to the account name opens the ledger card to correct the original expense.

Lock report (requires the bookkeeping post permission) saves the profit and loss report, the adjustments and the totals as they are and prevents changes. A locked report shows Locked with the lock time and the member who locked it, and can still be viewed and exported; changes to expenses or recognition percentages in the books do not affect it. Unlock returns the report to draft without changing its values. If the books gained new data, Refresh from source appears; it reads the expenses and percentages again and keeps manual adjustments per card. Turning the switch off neither deletes adjustments nor unlocks the report.

Export

Use the PDF or Excel action. The PDF opens the browser’s print dialog: choose Save as PDF. The PDF prints with the report’s saved design, or with the default template when there is none. The filters chosen on screen also apply to the file. On the profit and loss report with the adjustment shown, choose Profit and loss with tax adjustment to get both reports in one file with the report status (draft or locked), or Profit and loss only.

To change how the report looks before printing or saving a PDF (logo, titles, columns, and notes), open Download report and choose Design and edit report. See Design and edit a report for printing.

Check the downloaded report’s client name, period, and totals before sharing it.

Two reports disagree

Compare period, period assignment (report date versus document date), filters, status in the books, and classification coverage. Ask the responsible bookkeeper to review any remaining difference.