Best Graph to Show Profit and Loss in Your Business

You’ll agree when we say profit and loss analysis is one of the key financial tasks you have to undertake in your business or workplace.

And this is because these metrics are the lifeblood of your business. Remember, you need real-time insights into your business’s health. Keeping your profit and loss data in tables is not advisable because you can easily miss critical insights.

Google Sheets, which is one of the most popular data handling tools, lacks these types of graphs. However, the solution is not to ditch this freemium tool.

It turns out there’s a way you can access advanced charts, such as income vs. expense graphs in your Google Sheets. Yes, you read that right.

This blog will walk you through

You don’t want to miss the rest of the blog if you intend to take your Google Sheets skills to the All-Star level.

Before we delve into the best graph to show profit and loss, let’s define the Profit and Loss Statement.

What is Profit and Loss (P&L) Statement Analysis?

Definition: A Profit and Loss Statement summarizes a company’s revenues, expenses, profits, and losses over a given period.

The income vs. expenses graph shows your business’s ability to generate sales, manage expenses, and create profits. You can prepare it using accounting principles, which include revenue recognition, matching, and accruals.

Your business’ analysis of profit and loss should be conducted within a specified period, typically a month, quarter, or fiscal year. The main categories found in a Profit and Loss (P&L) Statement include:

• Revenue (or Sales)
• Cost of Goods Sold (or Cost of Sales)
• Selling, General & Administrative (SG&A) Expenses
• Marketing and Advertising
• Technology/Research & Development
• Interest Expense
• Taxes
• Net Income

Overview of P&L Graph

A company’s sales, expenses, and earnings across several time periods are displayed on a P&L (Profit and Loss) graph. Stakeholders can more easily and rapidly evaluate trends in financial performance. Its transparent depiction of earnings and losses makes it easier to identify areas that need improvement. P&L graph is vital for strategic planning and decision-making.

Purpose of P&L Diagram

The purpose of a P&L Diagram is to visually represent potential profits or losses across different price points. Before making a trading choice, investors can assess risk and return with the use of a P&L diagram. It clearly shows how outcomes change with market movement, making it easier to plan strategies. Using a P&L Diagram is especially valuable in options trading to spot break-even points and possible returns.

Video Tutorials: How to Create Profit and Loss (P&L) Chart

How to Create a Profit and Loss (P&L) Chart in Excel?

How to Create a Profit and Loss (P&L) Chart in Google Sheets?

How to Create a Profit and Loss (P&L) Chart in Power BI?

Why Do You Analyze Your Business’ Profit and Loss Data using Charts?

The first step towards making your target audience understand your data story is to provide context. Yes, you read that right.

Financial tables, such as Profit and Loss Statements, are time-consuming to analyze for meaningful insights, especially if they are long. How long would it take you to extract actionable insights from P&L statements dating from 5 years ago?

This is where business charts and graphs come in.

Essentially, you can extract key insights from your income and expense data faster using visualization.

Until recently, making sense of all of that raw data was too daunting for us. But recent developments, such as artificial intelligence (AI), are increasingly helping us crunch gigantic data sets on an unprecedented scale.

Remember, there’s a wealth of information hiding in your financial data just waiting to be discovered. In today’s world, we generate tons of data every day.

When leveraged fully, data can help you personalize marketing communication.

Data visualization promotes the creative exploration of your business data. With charts, such as income vs. expenses graphs, you can easily extract answers to back key strategic decisions. If you want your target audience (investors, top management, shareholders) to extract key insights into the financial position of your business with ease, use charts.

Profit and Loss Chart Examples

1. Waterfall Chart

A waterfall chart visually breaks down profit and loss components, showing how individual factors contribute to the final net profit or loss.

2. Bar Chart

Bar charts are ideal for comparing profit and loss across multiple categories or time periods. They clearly display positive (profit) and negative (loss) values for easy analysis.

3. Line Chart

Line charts effectively show profit and loss trends over time. They help identify growth, decline, and key turning points in financial performance.

4. Column Chart

Column charts provide a quick overview of profits and losses by representing data in vertical columns, making it easy to compare performance across periods.

5. Pie Chart

Pie charts display the proportion of profit and loss contributions from different business segments, helping identify which areas drive or impact overall performance.

6. Area Chart

Area charts highlight cumulative profit and loss trends over time, emphasizing total values and changes in financial performance.

6. Matrix Chart

Matrix charts organize profit and loss insights into a grid format, allowing for comparisons across multiple variables. This is particularly useful for evaluating performance by category, region, or time period in a structured way.

7. Sankey Chart

Sankey charts are excellent for showing the flow of profit and loss between different sources or categories. They visually map out how revenue streams transition into expenses and net profit, making it easier to understand key contributors to financial outcomes.

8. Scatter Chart

A scatter chart shows the relationship between two variables using dots, making it easy to spot patterns, trends, and outliers. It’s great for visualizing correlations in large datasets at a glance.

9. Sentiment Chart

Sentiment charts combine data visualization with color-coded indicators to showcase the overall financial sentiment. This is useful for identifying profitable (positive) and loss-making (negative) areas at a glance.

10. Stacked Bar Chart

A stacked bar chart displays data segments stacked on top of each other, making it easy to compare parts of a whole across categories. It helps visualize both the total and individual breakdowns in a single view.

Which is Best Profit Loss Graph Generator?

The simplicity and potent graphics of ChartExpo.com make it stand out as the greatest profit and loss graph creator.

It is ideal for both novices and experts since it provides easy-to-use charting capabilities that do not require any coding knowledge.

The options for profit and loss charts provided by ChartExpo are designed to clearly show revenue, expenses, and net results.

With only a few clicks, users can transform complicated financial data into meaningful images thanks to its integration with Google Sheets and Excel.

ChartExpo is a great option if you are searching for a dependable, eye-catching method to monitor financial success.

How to Create Profit and Loss Graph in Google Sheets?

ChartExpo has the best graphs to show profit and loss insights into your business.

Furthermore, it comes with an ultra-friendly dashboard to help you access income vs. expense graphs, cash flow charts, and many other advanced visualizations missing in Google Sheets. You don’t need extensive technical skills in programming or coding to visualize your Profit and Loss Statement data for in-depth insights.

Here are the 3 best graphs to show profit and loss:

1. Sankey Chart
2. Tree map Sentiment Chart
3. Matrix Chart

Let’s use each profit and loss graph with examples to show profit and loss.

• Sankey Chart

One of the best graphs to show profit and loss is the Sankey Diagram.

Let’s visualize the tabular data below using the Sankey Chart.

Locations	Revenue	Expenses	P&L Analysis	Count
North America	Revenue	Loss	Cost of Sales	132
North America	Revenue	Loss	Cost of General and Administrative	159
North America	Revenue	Loss	Cost of Marketing	170
North America	Revenue	Profit	Tax	182
North America	Revenue	Profit	Profit After Tax	834
International	Revenue	Loss	Cost of Sales	162
International	Revenue	Loss	Cost of General and Administrative	158
International	Revenue	Loss	Cost of Marketing	145
International	Revenue	Profit	Tax	171
International	Revenue	Profit	Profit After Tax	753
Middle East	Revenue	Loss	Cost of Sales	155
Middle East	Revenue	Loss	Cost of General and Administrative	166
Middle East	Revenue	Loss	Cost of Marketing	199
Middle East	Revenue	Profit	Tax	151
Middle East	Revenue	Profit	Profit After Tax	685

To get started with the best graph to show profit and loss, follow the easy steps below:

• Open your Google Sheets application.
• Open the worksheet and click the Extensions menu button.
• Once the Charts, Graphs & Visualizations by ChartExpo drop-down menu shows, click the Open button.

• Click the Create New Chart button.

• You’ll see a list of available charts and graphs.
  .

• Click the Sankey Chart to access this chart.

• Select the sheet holding your data, as shown.
• Fill in your metrics and dimensions, as shown below. In our example, we only have one metric, which is the dimensional variables to fill in are locations, revenue, expenses, and P&L Analysis.
• Complete the task (above) using the income vs. expense graph maker (ChartExpo) by clicking the Create Chart button.
• If you follow the super-easy steps (above), your final chart should look like this (below).

Insights

A Sankey is one of the best graphs to show profit and loss insights. And this is because it provides micro-insights into the flow of revenue and expenses.

For instance, North American sales territory is one of the significant contributors to the profit after tax.

• Tree Map Sentiment Chart

A Tree Map Sentiment Chart is one of the best graphs to show profit and loss insights in your business. In this section, you’ll learn how to use this chart to visualize your income and expense data.

Let’s use a hypothetical oil company’s P&L statement (below) to determine its financial health

Revenue	P&L Analysis	Expenses	Count
Revenue	Profit	Operating Profit	60$
Revenue	Profit	Profit before Tax	80$
Revenue	Profit	Profit from Sales	50$
Revenue	Profit	Management Profit	35$
Revenue	Profit	profit from Development	20$
Revenue	Loss	Loss from Marketing	40$
Revenue	Loss	Loss from Sales	22$
Revenue	Loss	Loss from Exploration	29$
Revenue	Loss	Loss from Management	20$
Revenue	Loss	Loss from Development	15$
Revenue	Expenses	Purchases	35$
Revenue	Expenses	Royalties and other Taxes	20$
Revenue	Expenses	Producing and Manufacturing	80$
Revenue	Expenses	Depreciation	60$
Revenue	Expenses	Selling	40$

To get started with a Treemap Sentiment Chart, follow the easy steps below:

• Copy the data table (above) into your Google Sheets.
• Open your Google Sheets application.
• Open the worksheet and click the Extensions menu button.
• Once the Charts, Graphs & Visualizations by ChartExpo drop-down menu shows, click the Open button.
• Click the Create New Chart button.

• You’ll see a list of available charts and graphs.
• In the search box, type “Tree Map Sentiment.”

• Select the sheet holding your data.
• Fill in your metrics and dimensions. In our example, we only have one metric, which is The dimensional variables to fill in our revenue, expenses, and P&L Analysis.
• Complete the simple data visualization task using the income vs. expense graph maker (ChartExpo) by clicking the Create Chart button.

Insights

The Tree Map Sentiment Chart is one of the best graphs to show profit and loss because it breaks key insights into distinct blocks of colors for easy interpretation by the audience.

• Matrix Chart

A Matrix Chart is one of the most advanced graphs you’ll ever find in Google Sheets. Besides, it’s one of the best profit and loss graphs to show profit and loss.

How can you use a Matrix Chart to visualize your business’ Profit and Loss Statement?

Keep reading because the above is what we’ll address in the coming section.

Locations	P&L Analysis	Period	Count
Florida	Expenses	Current	2470
Florida	Profit	Current	109
Florida	Loss	Current	3
Georgia	Revenue	Current	2030.9
Georgia	Expenses	Current	2459
Georgia	Profit	Current	35
Georgia	Loss	Current	16
Hawaii	Revenue	Current	803.1
Hawaii	Expenses	Current	2256
Hawaii	Profit	Current	112
Hawaii	Loss	Current	14
New York	Revenue	Current	2160
New York	Expenses	Current	1802
New York	Profit	Current	87
New York	Loss	Current	11
Ohio	Revenue	Current	1469.9
Ohio	Expenses	Current	750
Ohio	Profit	Current	56
Ohio	Loss	Current	30
Alabama	Revenue	Current	531.1
Alabama	Expenses	Current	637
Alabama	Profit	Current	58
Alabama	Loss	Current	0
California	Revenue	Current	1559.6
California	Expenses	Current	627
California	Profit	Current	38
California	Loss	Current	10
Colorado	Revenue	Current	377.6
Colorado	Expenses	Current	626
Colorado	Profit	Current	21
Colorado	Loss	Current	2
Connecticut	Revenue	Current	488.4
Connecticut	Expenses	Current	619
Connecticut	Profit	Current	47
Connecticut	Loss	Current	20
Delaware	Revenue	Current	4024.3
Delaware	Expenses	Current	587
Delaware	Profit	Current	21
Delaware	Loss	Current	9

To get started with a Matrix Chart, follow the easy steps below:

• Copy the data table (above) into your Google Sheets.
• Open your Google Sheets application.
• Open the worksheet and click the Extensions menu button.
• Once the Charts, Graphs & Visualizations by ChartExpo drop-down menu shows, click the Open button.
• Click the Create New Chart button.

• Select the sheet holding your data.
• Fill in your metrics and dimensions, as shown. In our example, we only have one metric, which is the The dimensional variables to fill in are period, locations, and P&L Analysis.
• Complete the task above using the income vs. expenses graph maker by clicking the Create Chart button.
• If you follow the ultra-easy steps (above), your final chart should look like this (below).

Insights

In the chart above, you can easily compare the loss, expenses, profit, and revenue of each location. For instance, Delaware leads in revenue generated but has a lower profit margin.

How are Profit and Loss Charts Good for Your Business?

1. Clear Financial Insights

Profit and loss charts provide a visual representation of revenue, expenses, and net income, making it easier to identify trends and understand your financial performance at a glance.

2. Identify Strengths and Weaknesses

These charts highlight areas where your business is performing well and pinpoint segments where losses occur, helping you make data-driven decisions for improvement.

3. Track Financial Trends

By analyzing profit and loss over time, businesses can recognize patterns, seasonality, and growth opportunities, enabling better forecasting and planning.

4. Improve Decision-Making

Visualizing profit and loss data helps stakeholders quickly assess the business’s health, leading to faster and more informed strategic decisions.

5. Monitor Cost Efficiency

Profit and loss charts make it easier to identify and reduce unnecessary expenses, ensuring that resources are used effectively to maximize profitability.

6. Enhance Stakeholder Communication

These charts simplify complex financial data, making it easier to communicate performance to investors, teams, and decision-makers.

How to Choose the Right Chart to Show Profit and Loss?

Choosing the right chart to show profit and loss depends on your data and purpose. Use Line Charts to display trends over time, Bar Charts for category comparisons, and Waterfall Charts to break down profit-loss components.

For visualizing financial flow, Sankey Charts are ideal, while Tree maps and Pie Charts highlight segment contributions. Considering your audience’s needs executives may prefer detailed charts like Waterfall or Sankey, while general teams benefit from simple visuals like Line or Bar Charts. The right chart ensures clarity and effective communication of financial insights.

FAQs

Why Visualizing profit and loss data is important?

Financial tables of data, such as Profit and Loss Statements, are time-consuming to analyze for meaningful insights. This is where advanced charts, such as income vs. expense graphs, come in.

You need the best graph to show profit and loss to establish the accurate financial position of your business.

What are the best tools to show profit and loss data?

Google Sheets is one of the popular tools for visualizing financial data. But, it comes with pretty basic charts to handle complex profit and loss data.

To visualize your P&L statement, supercharge your Google Sheets with third-party add-ons, such as ChartExpo to access advanced charts.

Wrap Up

Visualizing your Profit and Loss Statement shouldn’t be time-consuming at all.

Besides, if you’ve outgrown the basic charts (offered by Google Sheets), try income vs. expenses graph makers, such as ChartExpo add-on for a change.

A quick recap: the best graph to show profit and loss insights are namely:

• Sankey Chart
• Treemap Sentiment Chart
• Matrix Chart

ChartExpo is a third-party add-on you can install in your Google Sheets to access advanced charts for visualizing your financial data. Besides, this tool is incredibly easy to use and has over 50-plus advanced charts.

Give ChartExpo a try this 2021 to get unlimited access to high-level insights from your complex and bulky Profit and Loss Statements.