{"id":4162,"date":"2018-03-24T16:13:07","date_gmt":"2018-03-24T16:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/glossary\/what-is-profit-and-loss\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T11:37:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T11:37:42","slug":"what-is-profit-and-loss","status":"publish","type":"sage_glossary","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/glossary\/what-is-profit-and-loss\/","title":{"rendered":"What is profit and loss?"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header has-dark-background-color entry-header--has-illustration entry-header--has-illustration--generic\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__row row align-center\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col col-lg-7 col-xlg-6 entry-header__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"component component-single-header\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__misc text--subtitle text--uppercase text--small\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/glossary\/\" class=\"entry-header__link\">Glossary definition<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-title-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"entry-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat is profit and loss?\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"single-post-details container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"reading-time\"> min read<\/span>\n\t\t<button\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\tclass=\"social-share-button button button--icon button--secondary js-social-share-button\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-title=\"What is profit and loss?\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-url=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/glossary\/what-is-profit-and-loss\/\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-text=\"Please read this interesting article\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__share-label\">Share<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-label\" hidden>Copy Link<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\" hidden>Copied<\/span>\n\t\t<\/button>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/profit-and-loss-account\/\">profit and loss<\/a> statement or account \u2013 often called P&amp;L \u2013 is a financial report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It shows the income and expenses for a given period, usually a year or a quarter, with a figure showing whether the business currently has a profit or if it is running at a loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Along with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/glossary\/what-is-a-balance-sheet\/\">balance sheet<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/cash-flow-statement\/\">cash flow statement<\/a>, the P&amp;L is a key measure of company performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Making a profit is key to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/business-growth-challenges\/\">business growth<\/a> and being able to cover overheads and expenses. However, profitable businesses can still struggle if they don\u2019t have sufficient <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/manage-your-cash-flow\/\">cash flow<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A profit and loss statement or account \u2013 often called P&amp;L \u2013 is a financial report. It shows the income and expenses for a given period, usually a year or a quarter, with a figure showing whether the business currently has a profit or if it is running at a loss. Along with the balance [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":274,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[135,24],"class_list":["post-4162","sage_glossary","type-sage_glossary","status-publish","hentry","tag-business-finances","tag-cash-flow"],"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice UK","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/sage_glossary\/4162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/sage_glossary"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/sage_glossary"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/sage_glossary\/4162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}