A Profit and Loss statement (P&L) is a financial report that summarises your revenue, costs, and expenses over a specific period to show whether your business made a profit or a loss.
A Profit and Loss statement (P&L) is a financial report that summarises your revenue, costs, and expenses over a specific period to show whether your business made a profit or a loss.
The P&L is your store's financial scorecard. It starts with total revenue at the top, subtracts COGS to show gross profit, then deducts operating expenses like marketing, software, and wages to arrive at net profit at the bottom. Reading a P&L top to bottom tells the story of where your money comes from and where it goes. For ecommerce, a well-structured P&L breaks out key line items like ad spend, transaction fees, and shipping costs so you can spot exactly where margin is leaking.
Your monthly P&L shows: Revenue £25,000 minus COGS £9,000 equals Gross Profit £16,000. Then subtract marketing £4,000, Shopify fees £500, staff £2,000, and other costs £500. Net Profit is £9,000. At a glance you can see marketing is your biggest non-COGS expense.
A P&L gives you a complete financial picture in one place. Without it, you are guessing which parts of your business make money and which parts burn it. Regular P&L reviews are how successful store owners make informed decisions about pricing, spending, and growth.
Only reviewing P&L quarterly or annually instead of monthly or weekly
Not categorising expenses granularly enough to identify specific cost problems
Mixing personal and business expenses, which makes the P&L unreliable
StoreLyst generates an automated P&L for your Shopify store by pulling in revenue, COGS, ad spend, and fees in real time. No manual spreadsheets, no waiting until month-end to know where you stand.
Learn more about P&L Reporting →A P&L shows revenue and expenses over a period (like a month) to calculate profit or loss. A balance sheet shows what you own and owe at a single point in time. The P&L measures performance; the balance sheet measures financial position.
Monthly is the minimum for any ecommerce business. High-growth stores or those spending heavily on ads benefit from weekly reviews. Real-time P&L dashboards are ideal because they let you react to changes before they compound.
At minimum: revenue, COGS, gross profit, marketing/ad spend, platform fees (Shopify, apps), payment processing fees, shipping costs, staff costs, and net profit. More detail is always better for identifying where money leaks.
Shopify provides revenue and some fee data, but it does not track COGS, ad spend, or most operating expenses. You need to bring in data from other sources or use a tool like StoreLyst that consolidates everything into a single P&L automatically.
Stop calculating in spreadsheets. Get real-time p&l tracking for your Shopify store.