P&L For Marketplaces And Big E-commerce Business

There is a difference between an accounting report and a Profit and Loss report. An accounting statement is the table of income and expenses according to the law. It is the daily accounting of documents and strict reporting to the tax office. Profit and Loss reflect the meaning of expenses and income and not their names in the declaration. It is needed, first of all, for the business owner.

All types of businesses have to keep income and expenses accounting to control financial flows. Though, often, accounting can't explain quarterly losses and plan the budget for the next 2-3 months. But financial accounting can do this.

First of all, it is essential for business owners but not for auditing government agencies. P&l reporting and analysis is one of the main financial reports. Unfortunately, it's not the first thing that marketplaces and online stores take into account. The stable profitability and loss ratio analysis must be in every e-commerce business, especially when business is scaled and sales are growing.

Profit and Loss is a more informative report as it can evaluate the performance of the main activity. For instance, Cash-flow doesn't take into account the company's debts. Not all incomes received to the account can be spent. After the payment of taxes and repayment of the loan, the sum can reduce in many times.

You shouldn't be restricted by the Profit and Loss statement only. For example, you can see a profit in documents but not in the account. It's because you will receive this income in 2 weeks or more. But it has already been indicated in documents beforehand. But what if taxes payment has to be done tomorrow? The company gets a "Cash Gap" (CG) when profit is only on paper. It shows the importance of Cash-flow and P&L reports or Profit and Loss statement.

In accordance with international practice, the income statement can be prepared in two different ways:

1) Gross-report, which reflects the turnovers of the financial results accounts;
2) Net report, which contains the balance of the financial results accounts.

Thus, financial results accounts are intended to reflect the financial results of the company's activities. Positive results are income and profits, and negative results are expense and loss.

Cash-flow shows balances and receipt of funds, and Profit and Loss statement — revenue and profit. The first one is easier to build. When you have the bank statement for the reporting period, it is easy to post amounts by item and calculate the ten differences between receipts and payments. Even the negative result helps to make conclusions about money management effectiveness can be done.

Fundamental values in Profit and Loss are revenue, gross and net profit. The expenses are deducted from the revenue for the specific period (cost of goods, administrative, commercial, and financial fees, taxes). You can add the values list with operating profit if it excludes economic activities influences on the primary one. Then the cost of goods is deducted from the revenue. It is a variable indicator increasing with the growth of sales, and administrative, commercial expenses.

Incomes:

• Online sales of goods and services;
• Additional funds, for example, interest received from savings in the bank.

Expenses:

• Cost of goods — direct expenses from sales of goods;
  
• Discounts for clients to increase their loyalty;
  
• Fixed expenses, independent from sales growth (office rent, utilities, etc.);
  
• Variable expenses, depending on the sales volume (delivery or advertisement costs).

Business costs are combined in large-scale groups: operating – for workflow organization (rent, utilities); investment – a purchase in long-term operation (terminals in delivering points for customers); depreciation expenses – wear, loan repayment, and taxes.

Expenses list can look like: purchase of goods (purchase «bespoke,» can be done with buyer's prepayment), IT-maintenance (hosting, technical support, connection payment), warehouse and office rent for improving the company status in front of buyers, salary for all team members, taxes, web promotion depending on the product type, market competition, and seasonality.

A financial director is one who can prepare an audited p&l. But ideally, the business owner should create it. Further, reports of this type are needed by the founders, investors, they can be requested by banks and counterparties.

Let's form the most simplified example of a Profit and Loss statement for a small online fashion store. Below is the monthly profit and loss data.

This amount - $ 1,700 will become the starting point for deciding where to move next, how to develop, what tools to implement and what approaches to try.

Of course, this is a very primal Profit and Loss statement, made for understanding only. When you create your real profit and loss document, there will be many more budget lines in it. In the end, you will understand what can be improved or optimized so that a larger number appears in the "operating profit" column.

1. Budget: sales, margin (price minus goods cost), operating costs, salary, transport, and rental costs.
   
   
2. Sales, margin, and losses: sales by product groups, including a margin for each.
   
   
3. Operating cash: operating costs, including salary, transport, rental, utility costs, IT, marketing, insurance, equipment, business trips of employees.
   
   
4. P&L or Profit and Loss statement: depreciation (decrease in property value as it wears out).
   
   
5. Salary: all staff costs according to staffing table.
   
   
6. Data and constants: rent and utility payments — per 1 sq.m. store (office, warehouse), payroll taxes.

Online-business has to show income and expenses, not upon payment but as it arises (example: rental prepayment should be distributed throughout all paid periods); make sure that income and expenses consort with each other (example: if advertisement launched in January, and you got the first orders in February, you should write down expenses on February); reckon investments in fixed assets (example: the amount of equipment purchase is distributed during the entire period of operation).

A few indicators can reflect financial effectiveness. They are calculated based on the financial report and are known as the EBITDA formula. The calculation remains unchanged, no matter what standards you take as a basis (IFRS, RAS, UR(S)A, GAAP).

Direct way: sales revenue - costs without depreciation, interest on taxes.

Reverse way: net profit + Taxes + Percentage to be paid + Depreciation

A positive result of p&l analysis doesn't show business success. After payment of all interest, taxes, and depreciation, it is possible to get zero or even minus. The negative result shows operational losses. It is necessary to analyze indicators. It assesses the business profitability and its ability to cover costs.

The primary purpose of an e-commerce business is to generate stable financial flow: it must cover organizational costs and part of the head office expenses and reimburse depreciation. Otherwise, company existence has no sense. P & l analysis helps to value and deduce about business effectiveness. Complete financial picture simplifies the management of the online trade business, either marketplace, small online store, or a combination of the online store and retail chain.

Profit and Loss are actively used for predictions and calculating potential profitability. Here are 3 key points you should remember:

Profit and Loss statement is a universal tool for any business. The company size does not matter - P&L Profit and Loss will be vital in small and medium, and even in a large business.

You can customize Profit and Loss, focusing on your requests. Additionally, you can calculate a whole range of indicators: production profitability, marginality, break-even point (both for the entire business and some of its individual areas). With the help of the Profit and Loss, you will be able to manage your profits.

Profit and Loss statement is intended to display only current transactions that lead to profit or, conversely, to losses. Most often, P&L is a regular Excel spreadsheet that will do the job just fine.