How much did I make, spend, and keep this month?

Revenue is not the same as money you kept

You invoiced $92,000 last month. Feels great. But after payroll, software subscriptions, ad spend, insurance, and that equipment repair you forgot about, you kept $6,200. That's a 6.7% net margin.

Most business owners know their revenue. Fewer know their expenses with any precision. And almost nobody can tell you their net income off the top of their head on any given day.

The gap between what you made and what you kept is where businesses quietly bleed out. A $500/month software tool here, a creeping payroll increase there. None of it feels like a problem until you realize your margins have been shrinking for six months straight.

How to find this in QuickBooks Online (step by step)

QuickBooks has everything you need. Here's how to pull your monthly make/spend/keep numbers:

1. 1
   Go to Reports

   From the left sidebar, click Reports. In the search bar, type “Profit and Loss.”

2. 2
   Set the date range to this month

   At the top of the report, change the date range to the current month (e.g. “April 1 - April 30, 2026”). Click Run report.

3. 3
   Read the three numbers

   Total Income is what you made. Total Expenses is what you spent. Net Income (at the very bottom) is what you kept. If that number is negative, you lost money this month.

4. 4
   Compare to last month

   Change the date range to last month and run it again. Compare the two side by side. Did revenue go up? Did expenses go up faster? Is net income trending in the right direction?

5. 5
   Optional: break down expenses

   Scroll through the expense section of the P&L. Look for categories that seem high or that changed significantly from last month. This is where margin leaks hide.

How to find this in Xero (step by step)

The process in Xero is slightly different, but you're looking for the same three numbers:

1. 1
   Go to Accounting → Reports

   From the top menu, click Accounting, then Reports. Find “Profit and Loss” under the Financial Statements section.

2. 2
   Set the date range

   Use the date picker to select the current month. Click Update.

3. 3
   Read the summary

   Total Revenue is what you made. Total Operating Expenses is what you spent. Net Profit at the bottom is what you kept.

4. 4
   Compare periods

   Xero lets you add comparison periods directly in the report settings. Select “Compare with: Previous Period” to see this month vs. last month side by side.

The problem with doing this manually

The steps above work. If you follow them on the first of every month, you'll have your answer. But here's what usually happens in practice:

• You forget.January you do it. February you're busy. By April you haven't looked at the numbers in three months and your margins have quietly dropped 4 points.
• You see the numbers but don't see the story. The P&L says expenses went up $3,200. But which categories? Is it payroll (fine, you hired someone) or is it ad spend with declining returns (not fine)? You'd need to dig further, and you rarely do.
• You only see accounting data.Your P&L tells you what happened in your books. It doesn't tell you that $14K in invoices are 60 days overdue, that your ad spend is up 30% but conversions are flat, or that 40% of revenue comes from one client. The numbers you kept don't exist in isolation.

Or get the answer automatically, every month

Bottomline connects to your QuickBooks or Xero account once. On the first of every month, it pulls your complete income and expense data and distills it into one line at the top of your report:

But here's what you get that a P&L report can't give you: Bottomline also cross-references your accounting data with your CRM, ad platforms, and payment processor. So next to “You kept $6,200” you also see that $14K in invoices are overdue, your ad spend is up 30% with flat returns, and your biggest client hasn't reordered in 45 days.

The P&L gives you the numbers. Bottomline gives you the numbers plus the context you need to act on them.