Trading Statement Report (#226)

To run this report select from the main menu Section|Reporting, then select Customers and double-click on the Trading Statement report from the list of available choices.

The trading statement report is designed to give you a general overview of the performance of your business for a specified period of time. It lists sales by stock groups and then costs by stock groups to list your gross operating profit. It then lists expenses to produce a net operating profit for the period. Excluding your general ledger financial statements, it is probably one of the most important reports in the system for your business.

This report is sometimes referred to as the 'Income Statement' or 'Profit and Loss' Report.

Account Type

Specify the account type. The default is 'regular' which includes standard, cash and card accounts. For more information on this subject consult the topic: Account Types.

The Trading Statement Report will also prompt you for a date range (the trading period) and if you are operating in multi-department mode, a department code. If a department code is not specified, all departments are included in the report.

Trading Statement Report Versus General Ledger Profit & Loss Report

There are several important differences between the Trading Statement report and a financial statement such as a profit & loss and balance sheet, as produced by CAPITAL GL Controller, CAPITAL's general ledger application. When correctly installed and used, your general ledger financial report should produce a more accurate overall view of your business's trading position. However, a Trading Statement is useful because it can be produced quickly and for any specified date range, which is both useful and convenient.

Factors to consider when comparing the Trading Statement Report to a general ledger financial statement:

Cost of Sales Calculations

In the Trading Statement Report, cost of sales is determined by the cost price of the items invoiced, as known, at the time of the sale. A general ledger financial statement may use a different method, however, such as the opening/closing stock method, which may factor in wastage and other handling costs into cost of sales. These additional factors are not considered by Trading Statement Report.

General Ledger Set Redirections

When posting to the general ledger, general ledger set 'redirections' are often invoked to direct postings to specific accounts in the general ledger. For example, a particular stock item may be associated with an asset, expense or cost, even though the item is associated with a 'sale' transaction. The Trading Statement report ignores general ledger set redirections and attributes all items on sales transactions to the 'sales' section of the Trading Statement report.

Integration with General Ledger

When running the trading statement report in conjunction with CAPITAL GL Controller, ensure that the general ledger codes that you wish to include as expenses on this report have their Classification set to 'expenses' under General Ledger Code Maintenance. For more information on maintaining your general ledger chart of accounts consult the CAPITAL GL Controller help documentation.

Lay-Bys & The Trading Statement

Lay-bys are treated as having realised their full sale value and their full sale cost, even if they have not yet been fully paid off. (This approach is consistent with normal accounting procedures involving non-cash sale transactions.) Deposits and part payments are therefore excluded from the sales total. Keep this in mind if you are cross-checking or tallying totals from different reports. Lay-bys that are cancelled will have their original full sale value and cost reversed.

If lay-bys are in the reporting period this entry will appear:

Cash Payments - (Deposits/Others). This is the total amount for all transactions in the specified date range that represent lay-by deposits and follow-up cash payments.

Hints & Tips

• Printing an Expense Listing Report and a Sales Report will give you similar reporting information as to what is provided on this report. The advantage of this report is that it combines the information to give you a resultant net profit.

• 'Less Credits' refer to credits, returns or refunds that do not involve coded stock items.

• 'Inclusive Tax' is tax that forms part of the total sale value. In other words, it is a portion of the sales value, rather than something that is added on top of the sale value.

• This report deducts cash sale deposits from the invoice sales total.

• A Profit & Loss report that forms part of your financial statements in your general ledger should reflect a more accurate picture of income versus expenses for a particular trading period. This is because these reports may reflect special and additional operating circumstances not reflected in the basic trading statement.