122 Summer School Session 1: Let's Talk Profit & Loss

Hey hey, friend! Welcome to summer school! All month long we're diving deep into financial statements and the foundations you actually need to understand your business. And we're kicking things off with the report you've definitely heard of but maybe never fully understood — the profit and loss.

What We Cover in this Episode:

What even IS a profit and loss report? You might know it as the income statement, the P&L, or just "that scary report." They're all the same thing! It's basically your business's scorecard for a specific period of time — what came in, what went out, and what's left over.

Key terms you need to know:

• Revenue/Income — Every single dollar that came into your business (sales, services, affiliate income, referrals, all of it)
• Expenses — Everything you spent to run the business
• Gross Profit — What's left after you subtract your direct costs (cost of goods sold) from revenue
• Net Profit/Net Loss — The bottom line. What's actually left after ALL expenses come out

Revenue is NOT profit (and why this matters SO much) A million dollar month means nothing if you spent $900k to generate it. We talk about why it's not always about the big income number — it's about how much you're actually keeping.

A live walkthrough of your QuickBooks P&L Pull up your report and follow along! We walk through:

• The income section (and why you should separate your offers/services)
• Cost of goods sold — what it is and who actually needs it
• Operating expenses
• The net income line at the bottom

Your midnight Google questions, answered:

• How often should I actually look at my P&L? (Hint: at least monthly!)
• My P&L says I'm profitable but I have no money — what's going on?
• My categories are a mess — does that affect my report?

Action Steps from This Episode

1. Pull up your QuickBooks profit and loss report for the current or most recently completed quarter
2. Make sure your transactions are categorized before you run it
3. Look at your income section — are your different offers/services separated out?
4. Check out that bottom line — are you profitable? Does it match what you expected?

Mentioned in This Episode

Podcast Playlist Freebie — Not sure where to start with your bookkeeping? Grab the free playlist that meets you right where you are → [link in show notes]

Summer School Series — This is part 1 of 4! Each session covers one big financial foundation topic. Stay tuned for the next session!