Does your P & L have too much detail?

Most default P & L reports have too much detail. More data is not better than precise, pertinent data. Too much data will cause clutter and make it harder to SEE the CRITICAL information.

Here is an example of common categories that you may see on a profit and loss statement.

By simplifying these categories, these same expenses can be represented as follows:

This simplification makes the data much easier to understand and digest. If you do need this detail occasionally, you can get it from a drill-down report, but you should not clutter your recurring financial reports with detail that you many only want to view a couple of times per year.

As a rule of thumb, if the expense represents less than 2% of total expenses, combine it with another category.