Profit and Loss Calculator

A profit and loss (P&L) statement is the simplest possible view of whether a business, project, or side hustle made money over a given period: total revenue coming in, minus every dollar that went back out as an expense.

The Math Behind It

• Total Expenses = sum of every expense line item
• Net Profit / Loss = Total Revenue − Total Expenses
• Profit Margin % = Net Profit ÷ Total Revenue × 100 (this number is negative when you're running a loss — that's expected and correctly reflects the shortfall relative to revenue)

A Worked Example

With $10,000 in revenue and expenses of $3,000 (Cost of Goods), $1,200 (Rent), $2,500 (Salaries), and $300 (Other), total expenses are $7,000. Net profit is $10,000 − $7,000 = $3,000, a 30% profit margin. If salaries instead ran to $6,500, total expenses would hit $11,000 — a net loss of $1,000 and a margin of −10%, meaning you spent 10% more than you brought in.

Reading the Expense Breakdown

The % of Revenue column is often more useful than the raw dollar figures, because it tells you which cost category is actually eating your margin. A rent line that's 12% of revenue is unremarkable for most small businesses; the same rent at 40% of revenue signals a structural problem no amount of sales growth will fix on its own.

Notes on This Calculator

This tool computes a single-period snapshot, not a running ledger — it doesn't track multiple months, taxes owed, or non-cash items like depreciation. For a full accounting P&L, categorize expenses the way your bookkeeping software does (COGS separate from operating expenses) and treat this as a quick sanity check rather than a substitute for financial statements.