How to use Profit & Loss Planner
Purpose
Use the Profit & Loss Planner to plan your complete income statement in detail. You
can maintain separate budgets per Company and Year. Using a
zero-based method, you enter amounts per reporting code and month.
Context
This planner can be used as your primary P&L planning tool, or combined with other planners
for additional or miscellaneous items. You can plan at organization level or per company, and
optionally select Tracking 1 to focus on specific business units. The planner displays
your full P&L structure together with last year actuals and the current
budget (from other planners), giving immediate context for your entries.
Entries are saved immediately for reporting and later adjustments. Depending on your
configuration, patterns are defined in Essentials and can be customized in
Standard or higher editions. VAT (Value Added Tax) and cash timing fields ensure
correct integration with your cashflow forecast.
Steps
- Open the Profit & Loss Planner from the planning menu.
- Select the Company and Year. Optionally choose Tracking 1.
- Review the columns:
- Last year actuals – prior year results.
- Current budget – values from other planners.
- Budget – your input column.
- Click a cell in Budget to open the detail popup and enter:
- Description, Amount, Invoice date, Invoice
number, and optional Comments.
- Set VAT% and Cash delay so costs are reflected correctly in the Cashflow Forecast.
- Choose a Pattern to allocate the total across months:
- Per month – equal monthly amounts.
- Per quarter – equal per quarter.
- Start of year / Mid of year / End of
year.
- Incline – increasing over the year.
- Decline – decreasing over the year.
- Summer – higher in summer months.
- To define a custom pattern, click Edit. You may enter absolute monthly amounts or
relative weights.
- Check Total Budget (Current Budget + Budget) and the Monthly distribution
preview.
- Click Save to store your entries.
Examples
Relative pattern example. For seasonal revenue you can enter either exact values
or relative weights:
- Amounts: January €1,000; February €2,000; March €4,000.
- Equivalent weights: 1 – 2 – 4. The planner scales these to your total and allocates by
month.
Common mistakes & tips
- Confirm Companies and reporting codes are correctly defined before
budgeting.
- If no data is visible, verify access rights and the selected planning version.
- Use VAT% and Cash delay consistently to avoid incorrect cashflow timing.
- Patterns come from Essentials; customization may depend on your edition.