Income statement example

When I began practicing as an accountant would look at an income statement example from other accountants in the firm that I was working for. Since then over the course of my career I have formatted and designed many income statements off the top of my head. Until you get an idea of how things should look then it makes a lot of sense to take tips by looking at an income statement example.

Heading for an income statement

It is typical for an income statement have a heading which starts with the name of the company for example ABC Company. On the line following it would simply state “income statement” or if it more appropriate Profit and Loss, though I've never seen a professional set of financial statements with the heading Profit and Loss. The next line should stay that the income statement covers, in most cases that would be for the year ended December 31 ... . Though if the income statement is only covering a shorter period than a year it is important that states for example the six months ended...

Income statement example continued...

The main part of the income statement is basically to show how the business did for a period of time. So it will state the income at the top, possibly a calculation of cost of goods sold to arrive at a gross profit to be followed by a list of expenses which should yield at the end the net income or loss. It is possible also before the end that some items will be separated from the rest of income for expenses such as interest income or corporate taxes.

Other sources for income statement examples

Almost all publicly traded companies are required to give out audit financial statements to their investors and the public. Financial statements that have been prepared for a public company are usually formatted very well and can be a good example of how to present your income statement.

Other resources:

Balance Sheet 

 This article about how to create and collect information for an expense report is essential for getting good quality data with a correctly prepared and complet expense report that includes all the information realting to the many expenses that need an expense report to collect.

Managing Business Expense Reports With Microsoft Excel

Keeping track of your business receipts should be mandatory and not optional. Your employee should understand the importance of this and realize how this may impact the accuracy of their report if the receipts are not present. Lost receipts can be retrieved by contacting the vendor to get a copy. The employee should realize that this is their responsibility especially if they expect reimbursement for those types of expenses.

Your standardized business expense report should have different areas to account for your employee expenses. There should be an area of general ledger accounts numbers, general ledger account names, date and location of expenses, and if necessary mileage calculations. This information will greatly assist your accounting team when they reconcile the expenses!

Lastly, your business expense reports should be submitted on a set timed schedule. It should be encouraged to submit them weekly or monthly. This should be mandatory and not optional. The goal is to reconcile for expenses in a timely manner so they company can see where their funds are being spent and if they are being used responsibly. To get employees on board with this, try incentive based rewards in the first few months to get them used the new timed schedule.

Excel templates are an excellent tool to use when you are standardizing your business expense report. Most companies already have Office or a similar product loaded on their company computers so using templates can assist in this standardization process. Below is an example of an excel business expense report. This expense report contains a sheet that allows you enter up to 30 general ledger accounts names and numbers. It also contains a weekly business expense report area that allows you to select the appropriate general ledger account and detail the expense prior to printing.

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