Financials
Use this page to see whether your store made money (Profit & Loss) and where the cash went (Cash Flow), for any dates.
Quick steps
- Click Reports in the top menu, then the Financials card (under Sales & cash).
- It opens on the Profit & Loss tab for the year to date. Read Net sales (before tax), Gross Profit, Operating Income and Net Income across the top.
- To change the dates, tap This Month, Last Month, This Quarter, YTD or Last Year — or set Start Date and End Date and click Apply.
- Click the Cash Flow tab to see cash in and out for the same dates.
- Click CSV at the top to download the tab you're on (the Cash Flow tab also has PDF).
Financials is off by default. An admin ticks Enable Cash Flow Report under Settings → Edit Settings, Operations tab, Cash Flow Reporting, then clicks Update Settings. This also adds Expenses to the top menu.
Common questions
Why is tax not in my revenue? Tax is owed to the government, so it isn't revenue. Net sales are before tax, after discounts and returns — the same figure as the Sales Report and Daily Close.
Why does stock I bought show on Cash Flow but not on Profit & Loss? Cash Flow counts the cash you paid for received purchase orders. Profit & Loss only counts stock once it sells, as Cost of Goods Sold.
How do I add rent, payroll and other costs? Click Expenses in the top menu (or Manage expenses at the bottom of Financials) and add them. A recurring expense only needs adding once.
My gross profit looks too high. Products with no cost add $0 to Cost of Goods Sold. The report says how many lines are affected — fill in those product costs.
More detail: what Financials covers, and opening it
Financials puts your two money statements on one page, as two tabs over the same dates:
- Profit & Loss (the tab it opens on) — did the store make money? Net sales, less the cost of what you sold, less your expenses.
- Cash Flow — where did the cash go? Your store's money organized into operating, investing and financing activities, including stock you paid for but haven't sold yet.
Both combine your sales, returns, the cost of what you sold, received purchase orders, and the business expenses you record.
Financials is off by default. An admin can switch it on under Settings → Edit Settings → Operations tab, in the Cash Flow Reporting section: tick Enable Cash Flow Report and click Update Settings. This also turns on business expense tracking (Expenses in the top navigation) and Historical Data imports.
Opening Financials
- Log in to the Admin Panel.
- Click Reports in the top navigation.
- Click the Financials card (under Sales & cash).
The page opens on the Profit & Loss tab for the year to date (January 1 through today). Click the Cash Flow tab to switch — the dates stay the same. To change the period, click one of the quick presets — This Month, Last Month, This Quarter, YTD or Last Year — or pick a Start Date and End Date and click Apply. You stay on the tab you were on.
Old bookmarks to the Cash Flow Statement or Profit & Loss pages still work: they open the matching tab here.
More detail: the Profit & Loss tab
Profit & Loss Tab
Summary cards across the top show Net sales (before tax), Gross Profit (with the margin), Operating Income and Net Income. Below them, the statement reads top to bottom:
| Section | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Revenue | Gross Sales, Delivery & Shipping Fees, less Refunds, less Discounts, ending in Net sales (before tax). Tax isn't revenue — it's owed to the government — so it's noted under the total, not added in. |
| Cost of Goods Sold | What the items you sold cost you, and Gross Profit (net sales − cost of goods). |
| Operating Expenses | Your recorded operating expenses by category, and Operating Income (gross profit − operating expenses). |
| Other Income / (Expenses) | Card surcharges & cash rounding first, then investing and financing expenses (see below). |
| Net Income | Operating Income + Other Income / (Expenses). |
Card surcharges & cash rounding
Card surcharges added at the till and cash rounding are money you collected on sales, but they aren't sales, so they aren't in net sales. The P&L shows them as the first line under Other Income / (Expenses), and they count toward Net Income. Cash rounding can be a few cents either way, so this line can occasionally be slightly negative. The Cash Flow tab doesn't include this line.
Purchase orders on the P&L
Stock you receive isn't an expense on the P&L until it sells — it's counted then, through Cost of Goods Sold. So received purchase orders are left out of the P&L's other expenses. The Cash Flow tab does count them, because that cash has left the business.
A Monthly P&L table and a Prior Period Comparison follow the statement.
More detail: the Cash Flow tab, monthly breakdown and prior period
Cash Flow Tab
Summary cards across the top show Net Cash Flow, Net Operating, Gross Margin and vs Prior Period.
Report Structure
The Cash Flow tab is organized into three activity sections.
Operating Activities
Covers day-to-day business:
| Line | What it is |
|---|---|
| Gross Sales | The pre-tax subtotal of completed sales, before order-level discounts. Tax is not counted as revenue. |
| Delivery & Shipping Fees | Delivery fees and shipping charges on completed sales. |
| Less: Refunds | The pre-tax value of returns completed in the period (by the date each return was completed). |
| Less: Discounts | Order-level discounts on completed sales (order, promotion, spend-threshold, loyalty tier, loyalty rewards and points cash-out, promo code, promo game prize and membership discounts). Line-item and tier pricing is already reflected in Gross Sales. |
| Net sales (before tax) | Gross Sales + Delivery & Shipping Fees − Refunds − Discounts. This is the same net sales figure as the Sales Report and Daily Close for the same dates. |
| Cost of Goods Sold | The cost of each item sold, as recorded on the sale, times the quantity. A line with no recorded cost uses the product's current (average) cost, and the report says how many lines were estimated that way. Returned items put back on the shelf come off. |
| Gross Profit | Net sales − Cost of Goods Sold, shown with the gross margin percentage (Gross Profit ÷ Net sales). The same figure as the Sales Report's Profit tab. |
| Operating Expenses | Your recorded expenses in the operating section, listed by category. |
| Net Cash from Operations | Gross Profit − Total Operating Expenses |
Investing Activities
| Line | What it is |
|---|---|
| Each expense category (for example Equipment, or Maintenance if you moved a maintenance expense to the investing section) | Recorded expenses in the investing section, one line per category. With none recorded, one Equipment Purchases line shows $0. |
| Inventory Purchases (POs Received) | The total of purchase orders marked received, by the date they were received. |
| Net Cash from Investing | −(investing expenses + Inventory Purchases) |
Received purchase orders count here because this tab tracks cash going out. The Profit & Loss tab leaves them out: stock only becomes an expense there when it sells, through Cost of Goods Sold. So if you receive $20,000 of stock and sell $10,000 of it, the Cash Flow tab shows the $20,000 you paid, while Profit & Loss counts only the cost of what sold.
Financing Activities
| Line | What it is |
|---|---|
| Each financing category | Recorded expenses in the financing section (for example loan payments and owner draws). |
| Net Cash from Financing | −(Total financing expenses) |
Net Cash Flow
Net Cash from Operations + Net Cash from Investing + Net Cash from Financing.
Monthly Breakdown
The Monthly Breakdown table shows each month in your range with Revenue, COGS, Gross Profit, Expenses, Operating, Investing, Financing and Net. The first and last months only count the days inside your range. When your range covers more than one month, a Monthly Cash Flow Trend chart appears as well.
Prior Period Comparison
The Cash Flow tab automatically works out the prior period — the same number of days immediately before your range — and shows:
- Prior Net Cash Flow
- Prior Revenue
- Prior Gross Margin
- Change (dollar amount and percentage)
If the prior period's net cash flow comes to zero (for example, before you started using Brother POS) and you have imported historical data covering that period, the comparison uses the historical data instead and says where it came from.
More detail: business expenses and historical data
Business Expenses
Expenses are recorded under Expenses in the top navigation, which appears for admins and managers once cash flow reporting is on. The bottom of the Financials page has a Manage expenses link, and the Profit & Loss tab shows an Add expenses link when no operating expenses are recorded for the period.
Each expense has a date, category, amount and Cash Flow Section (Operating, Investing or Financing), plus an optional vendor and reference number. The section is filled in from the category, using the table below. If you change it yourself, your choice is kept. Tick This is a recurring expense to set a Frequency (Weekly, Biweekly, Monthly, Quarterly or Annual), a Starts On date and an optional Ends On date.
| Category | Default Section |
|---|---|
| Rent, Utilities, Payroll, Insurance, Licenses & Permits, Maintenance, Marketing, Supplies, Professional Services, Other | Operating |
| Equipment | Investing |
| Loan Payment, Owner Draw | Financing |
A recurring expense is counted once for each time it falls inside the report period.
The Business Expenses page lists your expenses with a Total Expenses card (broken down by category when you use more than one). Filter by search, Category, From and To — either date works on its own — and click Filter. Clear appears once a filter is on.
Click Export CSV to download the expenses matching your filters, with the date, category, description, vendor, reference, whether it's recurring, cash flow section, amount and notes.
Historical Data
If you are coming from another POS system, you can import financial summaries for earlier periods. Go to Settings → Edit Settings → Operations tab and click the Historical data link in the Cash Flow Reporting section, or use the Import historical data link at the bottom of Financials. Imported data is only used for the prior period comparison when there is no live data to compare against.
More detail: exporting, the owner portal and notes
Exporting
The CSV button at the top exports the tab you are viewing for the dates shown:
- On Profit & Loss, the CSV lays out the income statement (including the card surcharges & cash rounding line) followed by the monthly P&L.
- On Cash Flow, the CSV lays out the same statement (operating, investing, financing and net cash flow) followed by the monthly breakdown. The Cash Flow tab also has a PDF button that opens a print-ready version in a new tab.
Owner Portal
Owners with several stores can see combined Financials across their stores in the Owner Portal, under Reports on the Financials tab — with the same P&L and Cash Flow tabs. See Owner Reports.
Notes
- Dates follow your store's timezone.
- Cost of Goods Sold uses the item cost recorded on each sale line, or the product's current cost when the line has none (counted in the "lines estimated" note). A product with no cost at all adds $0, which makes your gross profit look higher than it really is — the report says how many lines that affects.
- Financials is a management tool. It is not a substitute for accounting software or statements prepared by an accountant.
What's Next?
- Sales Reports — Net sales, tenders, discounts and profit by product.
- Daily Close — The whole day on one page.
- Exporting Reports — Every report's CSV, PDF and print options.