Google Sheets is one of the best free tools for self-employed people and small business owners to keep track of expenses and profits. It offers an easy way to create a P&L, which includes business gross income, net income, losses, and expenses.
Businesses can be complex to manage without proper tools at your disposal.
If you are just starting, looking for free tools makes sense.
A versatile spreadsheet program like Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel is the first choice for many people who manage expenses and prepare reports to summarize monthly or yearly profits and losses.
In this quick guide, let us look at the top 9 FREE Google Sheets Profit and Loss template. Our exhaustive list includes a range of templates enabling you to report monthly, quarterly, and yearly expenses and profits.
We also discuss the steps to creating a P&L statement in Google Sheets from scratch. So, make sure to read the article till the end.
What is P&L (Profit and Loss Statement)?
A Profit and Loss (P&L) Statement, also known as an income statement, helps you stay on top of your company’s finances.
It is a document that includes company revenue, expenses, profits, and losses over a given period of time. They are primarily prepared every year.
The document is the ultimate tool to know if your company managed its expenses efficiently and generated revenue. It also gives you an idea of losses compared to the previous financial year.
Simply put, it represents your business’s potential to generate sales, manage expenses, and create profits.
Why is a Profit and Loss Template created using Google Sheets a must-try?
Google Sheets is a cloud-based spreadsheet software used by millions of people around the globe.
It is an easy-to-use program for beginners.
Here are a few of the benefits of using the Google Sheets template to manage your company’s profits and losses:
- Accuracy – The program boasts hundreds of statistical and mathematical functions to calculate your revenue, expenses, profits, and losses. It ensures accurate calculations and keeps your data up to date—the formulas update automatically whenever you add rows or columns to the table.
- Budget-friendly – Google Sheets is totally free to use. All you need to do is create a free Google account. Users get access to all of its features and tools without any limitations.
- Ease of Use – The program boasts an easy-to-use and intuitive user interface. As a beginner, you may hardly take a few hours to learn to edit and add information to Google Sheets. The essential tools and functions required to add more features to your P&L statement template are quickly accessible through the main menu.
- Accessibility – Users can access Google Sheets on both desktop and mobile devices. As an online spreadsheet program, it can be accessed as long as there is an active internet connection. You can quickly edit and add the information on the go.
- Team Collaboration – Google Sheets can be shared with unlimited users. You can assign different roles to each user. Users can view, edit, or comment on your document based on their role. To view all the changes the users make, you need to use the built-in tool called “Version history”, which is accessible from the main menu.
Apart from the above, Google Sheets templates can be customized as per your preference. You can add company logos, edit background colors, add images, and more.
If you wish to create a comprehensive P&L monthly statement, then it’s easy as well!
Top 9 FREE Google Sheets Profit and Loss Template of 2024
There are numerous Profit and Loss (P&L) Statement templates available online.
In this section, our team has compiled a list of the best helpful P&L templates to make your life easier.
The list is sorted in random order, so make sure to explore all of them until you find the best fit.
1. Profit and Loss Statement by SoftwareAccoutant
Click Here to Use This Template!
This template comes with an attractive design. It can be printed for offline records.
You need to start by adding your company details like name or logo, address, email, and phone. Then, make sure to select the current financial year and the previous year to compare the sales and cost of expenses.
The template uses formulas to calculate gross and net profit, total revenue, COGS, and expenses. Avoid editing the cells which hold the formulas; otherwise, the template won’t work as expected.
Download the above template for free and customize it as per your preference. You can add more rows to include expenses in the template. And don’t worry! Because all of the formulas are adjusted automatically.
2. Small Business Profit and Loss Statement Template by Smartsheet
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It is another easy-to-use P&L statement template that lets you record profit and loss over a given period.
Note that it doesn’t compare the revenue and cost of expenses with the previous year.
The template is free to download and can be customized by adding your company name. Start by defining the start and end date for your profit and loss statement.
You can include revenue, cost of goods sold, and a range of expenses related to your business.
At the end of the template, you will notice the net income generated by your company. It calculates net income, gross income, and total expenses using built-in functions. You should avoid editing those cells to ensure this template works appropriately.
3. Profit and Loss Statement by Hubspot
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This template by Hubspot is similar to our top pick on this list. The key difference is it lets you include tax deductions and calculates net profits using them.
You can add your company details at the top by including your name, address, and email. Also, make sure to enter the date on which the statement document is prepared.
It includes two main tables summarising your yearly revenue and expenses.
Feel free to add more rows if you wish to add expenses not included by default. There are no formulas in this template. However, you can use the SUM function in Google Sheets to calculate the total revenue, expenses, and net profit.
It is a printable document.
4. Self-employed Profit and Loss Template by Smartsheets
Click Here to Use This Template!
Are you self-employed?
Here’s a profit and loss template summarising your yearly or monthly income and expenses.
The template includes three tables for,
- Recording your clients and the revenue generated from them
- Calculating total expenses
- Including tax deductions to know your exact profit
All you need to do is enter the clients’ names and revenue, expenses, and tax deductions. The template accurately calculates net income at the top.
Note that it uses built-in formulas to perform all the calculations. Ensure you do not edit any cell containing the formula; otherwise, the template won’t work as expected.
5. Profit and Loss Statement by Accidentally Retired
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It is a comprehensive profit and loss statement which lets you report revenue and expenses quarterly.
There are two separate spreadsheets in this template. The first is the P&L statement, and the second is for recording the transactions made during the given period.
Using this template is pretty straightforward. All you need to do is carefully enter all the transactions and their details, such as date, description, and amount. Also, make sure to assign the proper category to each transaction.
The template uses this transaction data and automatically summarizes your revenue and expenses over time in the P&L statement spreadsheet.
Note that you must not edit any cell in the P&L statement spreadsheet as it holds essential formulas.
6. Monthly P&L Template
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If you are looking for a template to prepare a monthly profit and loss statement, this one’s for you.
It is a comprehensive template that comes with a short learning curve. Beginners make sure to dedicate a few hours to learning this template.
Yes, without any doubt, it is worth the effort!
There are three spreadsheets in this template:
- Inputs – In this spreadsheet, you need to enter the details of your revenue streams and overhead expenses and mark whether the VAT is applicable. This serves as the raw data for the remaining two spreadsheets.
- P&L yr 1 – This is the main spreadsheet which represents your profit and loss statement. It is a fully automated spreadsheet with lots of formulas. Most of the data here is fetched from the remaining two spreadsheets.
- Cash flow yr 1 – It calculates the total amount that went in and out during the financial year using the built-in functions.
7. Profit and Loss Statement by TheGooDocs
Click Here to Use This Template!
If the previous two templates didn’t impress you due to their complexity, then go for this one. It comes with an attractive design and a short learning curve.
The template lets you draft a profit and loss statement, including months and quarters over the given year.
It is easy to use and best fit for beginners.
You can track your income and expenses and include tax while calculating monthly, quarterly, and yearly net income.
The template uses formulas throughout the spreadsheet, so be careful while adding the information and avoid editing the cell which holds the formulas.
You can customize this template with your company name and logo. Additionally, sharing it with your colleagues and friends is a breeze.
8. eCommerce Profit and Loss Statement by Flippa
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This template focuses on small business owners who are running an e-commerce store.
It is a pretty straightforward template that is divided into months. You can record e-commerce sales, cost of goods sold, operating expenses, and other overheads such as owner’s salary, office expenses, accounting and legal expenses, insurance charges, etc.
At the end of the P&L statement for each year, you will find a graph that displays the Revenue and Profit trend.
Anyone can use this template, including beginners, but make sure you do not edit the cells that contain the formula.
Also, without proper Google Sheets experience, avoid editing the graph at the end of the table as it is pre-configured considering a set of columns in the template.
9. Profit and Loss Budget Template by Template.net
Click Here to Use This Template!
This is our final pick on this list. It boasts an attractive design with a summary graph for a quick overview of gross profit and net expenses over time.
It can be downloaded for free. You can customize it as per your preference without any limitations.
At the top of the template, you will find a quick summary of gross profit and net expenses in a table and a graph.
The template allows you to record the total sales, returns, discounts, cost of goods sold, net sales, etc., to determine the gross profit.
Finally, it includes a massive table with a range of standard expenses related to small businesses. You can add or remove costs as per your needs.
The formulas in the template are adjusted automatically when you add a new row to the summary, revenue, and expenses table.
How to create Profit and Loss Google Sheets Template
Creating a template to track your revenue and expenses in Google Sheets is pretty straightforward.
Let us learn the steps to create a profit and loss statement similar to the following in Google Sheets.
STEP #1 – Creating Header
A header plays a crucial role. It allows you to add your company details, such as name or logo, address, and contact info.
Here are the steps:
- Open a new Google Sheet by clicking here
- Select the first row
- Increase the height as shown below
- Select all the cells from A1 to C1
- Go to the toolbar section that sits below the main menu
- Click on the Merge Cells icon
- Type “P&L Statement”
- Increase the font size to 20
- Change the font alignment to the middle
- Make the font bold
- Change the cell background to green (Hex Code – #00ac46)
- Change the font color to white
Our header will look like below,
STEP #2 – Adding Current and Prior Year Tables
Our template compares the current year’s profit and loss with the previous year’s stats.
- Select the cell B3
- Type “Current Year”
- Select the cell C3 and type “Prior Year”
- Now, select the cells B4 and C4
- Go to the main menu and click on the “Data” tab
- Choose the “Data validation” from the popup
- A new dialog box will appear on the right side of the screen
- Click on the “Add new” button
- You will see a dropdown below the Criteria option, as shown below
- Click on the dropdown and choose “Is valid date“
- Press the “Done” button in the green
This way, a calendar popup will appear whenever we click on the cell B4 or C4. Refer to the following image.
Note that we need to choose the first date of the current and previous year.
But as you can see in the above image. The dates follow the format mm/dd/yyyy.
To change the above format and ensure only the year is reflected, follow the steps below:
- Select the cells B4 and C4
- Go to the main menu and click on the “Format” tab
- Choose “Number” from the popup
- Now, click on the “Custom date and time“
- A new dialog box will open, as shown below
- Click on the editor box
- Next, you need to click just beside the “Year (1930)“. Refer to the following image
- Press “Backspace” on your keyboard and delete everything until only the “Year (1930)” button remains
- Press the “Apply” button
You should see the results as shown below.
STEP #3 – Creating a Table to Summarize Revenue
Before creating tables to summarize the revenue, cost of goods sold, and expenses, let us increase the width of the first column, as shown below.
Now, let’s begin.
- Select all the cells from A6 to C6
- Go to the toolbar section and click on the Merge Cells icon
- Type “Revenue“
- Select the cell B7 and type the formula “=B4”
(This will make sure that the current year selected by you at the top of the template will reflect in the table automatically) - Similarly, select cell C7 and type the formula “=C4” to make the selected previous year reflected in the table
- Now, click on the cell A8
- Type “Sales Revenue“
- You need to complete the column as shown below
Our table is almost ready. But to ensure that it automatically calculates the sum of the revenue, we need to use the SUM function in Google Sheets.
Here are the steps:
- Select the cell B12
- Type “=sum”
- Choose the first option from the popup or press the “Tab” key
- Provide the cell reference as “B8:B11
- Complete the bracket using “)“
- Press “Enter” on your keyboard
- Next, click back on the cell B12
- You will see the Fill Handle icon
- Click on it and drag over the cell C12
You should see “0” in both cells B12 and C12. Refer to the following image.
Next, let’s ensure that whenever you enter sales, service, and interest revenue in the table, a dollar ($) symbol automatically appears in the beginning.
- Select all the cells of the table as shown below
- Hover to the main menu and click on the “Format” tab
- Choose the “Number” option from the popup
- Next, click on the “Accounting” from the list
Finally, let’s add some colors to the table.
- Click on the merged cells (A6:C6)
- Change the background color to light green (Hex Code – #d9ead3)
- Select the cell B7 and C7
- Change the cell background color to light gray (Hex Code – #f3f3f3)
- Now, select the cells from A8 to A11
- Change the cell background color to light gray (Hex Code – #f3f3f3)
- For the bottom row, select the cells from A12 to C12
- Change the cell background color to light green (Hex Code – #d9ead3)
- Finally, let’s change the border color by selecting all the cells of the table, as shown below
- Go to the toolbar section and click on the Borders icon
- Change the border color to light gray, as shown below
- The color palette popup will be closed
- Choose “All borders” from the main popup. Refer to the following image
Now, our revenue table is ready. Here’s how it looks.
STEP #4 – Create a Table to Summarize COGS and Expenses
We need to follow the same process mentioned in the previous step. Here’s how our Cost of Goods Sold and Expenses table should look.
Make sure to add rows and information as per your needs, including expenses and revenues.
Note that we are using the same color code for the tables. You can change it as per your preference.
STEP #5 – Calculate Profits and Losses
This is the final step to calculate the gross and net revenue.
We will start by creating a table, as shown below.
Make sure to format it as per your preference.
Also, you need to change the cell formatting so that the dollar symbol ($) appears before the gross and net profit amounts.
The gross profit will be the total revenue minus the cost of goods sold. Our total revenue is in cell B12, and the total cost of goods sold is in cell B20. So, our final formula for 2024 will be,
=B12-B20Similarly, the subsequent profit will be gross profit minus total expenses. Our sum of expenses is in cell B39, and gross profit is in cell B43.
Here’s the formula for calculating the net profit.
=B43-B39Directly copy and paste the above formulas into your table.
That’s it.
Your Profit and Loss Statement template using Google Sheets is ready. Here’s how it should look,
You can adjust the formatting to take the template aesthetics to the next level.
Download the P&L template we created using the above steps. We have formatted the template based on our knowledge and expertise in Google Sheets.
It is a free-to-use template that can be customized as per user preference.
