Profit and Loss reports
How Sterling builds a period result from reconciled Income and Expense evidence, and where a draft stops short of statutory accounts.
How Sterling builds a period result from reconciled Income and Expense evidence, and where a draft stops short of statutory accounts.
Evidence and limitations
Reviewed · Current · Sterling explanation · From 10 September 2026
Sterling calculates Income less Expense from the classified totals for one named Business, one inclusive period, and one currency.
Every subtotal retains its statement-line, account-code, decision-memory, and source-memory identities. Sterling shows a draft result only when those amounts can be combined without inventing a Business assignment, date, amount, currency, or exchange rate.
Exceptions and branches
- Unattributed evidence can belong to a different Business and blocks the result until assigned.
- A missing date or amount blocks the result rather than becoming zero.
- More than one currency requires a separately reviewed exchange-rate treatment; Sterling does not convert it silently.
- Low-confidence and unconfirmed figures remain visible review questions even when a draft total can be calculated.
Assumptions
- Income and Expense classifications come from the current reconciled Statement of Accounts.
- The requested start and end dates are inclusive.
Statutory boundary
Reviewed · Current · Law · From 6 April 2008
Companies Act individual accounts include a profit and loss account that must give a true and fair view of the company's profit or loss for its financial year.
The output is not statutory accounts: a reproducible Sterling management draft does not establish a true and fair view or replace the applicable reporting framework, formats, notes, judgements, review, or approval.
Exceptions and branches
- Micro-entities have a statutory minimum-items branch in section 396(2A) and (6).
- Other entity types and accounting frameworks need their own applicability review.
Related concepts
Linked from
Sources
- Companies Act 2006, section 396 — Section 396(1) to (5). Primary authority.
Knowledge version: sterling-knowledge@2026-09-11.7. Last checked 11 September 2026.