Profit and Loss by Class in QuickBooks Online

Profit and Loss by Class breaks your income statement into a separate column for each Class you track, so you can see results by department, location, program, property, or any other segment you set up. A business that runs several lines under one company uses classes to answer the question a single combined Profit and Loss cannot: which part is actually making money.

Class tracking is a higher-tier feature

Class tracking is available on the QuickBooks Online Plus and Advanced plans, and it has to be turned on in Account and Settings before classes can be assigned to transactions. If a company is on Simple Start or Essentials, this report is not available. Even on Plus or Advanced, a transaction only carries a class if one has been assigned to it, so the usefulness of the report depends on how consistently classes were applied over the years.

What the Profit and Loss by Class shows

The rows are the same accounts as any Profit and Loss: income, cost of goods sold, expenses, and net income. Each class you track gets its own column, and transactions entered without a class usually collect in an unclassified or "not specified" column, with a total column at the end. Reading across a row shows how one line of the business performed against the others, which is the point of running the report this way instead of as a single combined statement.

Cash basis vs accrual basis

Like the standard Profit and Loss, this report changes with the accounting method. On the accrual basis it counts income when you invoice and expenses when you are billed. On the cash basis it follows the money as it moves. The per-class figures shift accordingly, so when you keep a copy it is worth saving both the cash and accrual versions so an accountant can work from either one.

Why a CPA or auditor asks for it

Segment results are what an owner, a partner, or a buyer wants when a single company holds several distinct operations. A CPA uses the class view to check whether a location or product line is carrying the others, a nonprofit uses classes to report by program or fund, and a buyer in due diligence wants to see which segment drives the numbers. Because classes are internal management categories rather than a tax figure, the history behind them exists only inside QuickBooks, which makes the report worth capturing before the company goes away.

How to run and export the Profit and Loss by Class in QuickBooks Online

1. Confirm class tracking is turned on under Account and Settings, since the report needs it.
2. Go to the Reports menu and open the Profit and Loss report by typing "Profit and Loss" into the report search box. Your report list may also show a ready-made "Profit and Loss by Class" entry.
3. Set the "Display columns by" option to Class so each class gets its own column.
4. Set the report period and the accounting method to Cash or Accrual, then run it.
5. Use the export control at the top of the report to export it to Excel or PDF, then switch the accounting method and export the other basis too.

Keeping the Profit and Loss by Class after you cancel

A cancelled paid QuickBooks Online company stays read-only for 12 months and is then permanently deleted, a trial only 90 days. When the company is deleted, the class structure and the per-class history go with it, and there is no way to rebuild the segment view from QuickBooks afterward unless you already kept an export or another archive. Since the IRS generally expects business records to be kept for at least three years, and segment results often matter in a sale or a partner dispute, this report belongs in a copy you keep outside QuickBooks.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a particular QuickBooks plan for this report?

Yes. Class tracking is part of the Plus and Advanced plans and has to be switched on in Account and Settings. On Simple Start or Essentials the report is not available, and turning class tracking on later does not automatically add classes to transactions already entered.

What is the unclassified column?

It collects the income and expenses on transactions that were entered without a class assigned. A large unclassified column usually means classes were not applied consistently, which is worth knowing before you rely on the per-class figures.

Can I also see this month by month?

Yes. The Profit and Loss by Month lays the same income statement out with one column per month, and both views are worth keeping in an archive so the segment and time-based angles are both preserved.