Mercury Books produces four reports from your books: a Profit & Loss, a Balance Sheet, a Cash Flow analysis, and a General Ledger. This article explains what each one shows, how to set the period, and how to drill in and export.
The reports
Go to Reports in the left-hand menu of Books and select the report you want.
Profit & Loss. Your revenue and expenses for a period, and the resulting net income. Built from your revenue and expense accounts.
Balance Sheet. What you own, what you owe, and your equity as of a point in time. Built from your asset, liability, and equity accounts, including Retained Earnings and Current Year Earnings.
Cash Flow. An analysis of cash coming in and going out over the period.
General Ledger. Every line entry posted to every account, in order. This is where you go to see the detail behind a figure on any other report. The general ledger is read-only — to change an entry, edit the transaction or journal entry behind it.
Setting the period
Each report has a period selector supporting:
- Monthly, Quarterly, and Annual columns
- A custom date range
- Multi-year ranges, so you can compare across years in one view
Note: Periods that fall entirely before your entry start date are hidden from the selector and excluded from report output, because there's no data in your books for them. The month, quarter, or year containing your entry start date remains available.
Filtering by tag
Every report page can be filtered by tag, so you can pull a Profit & Loss for a single department. Combine the tag filter with the period selector to compare a department across periods.
See our Tagging transactions in Books article.
Drilling into a figure
Click a period on a report to open a report drilldown for that period, where you can see every entry behind the number. From there, click into an individual entry to open its side panel and see the transaction, invoice, or journal entry that created it.
Exporting a report
Reports export to XLSX. Set your period and any filters first, then export — the file reflects what's on screen, with an "as of" header showing the date.
This is the usual way to hand something to your accountant, your board, or a lender.
Making sure your reports are accurate
A report is only as good as the books behind it. Before you rely on one:
- Clear your uncategorized transactions from the Transactions page
- Reconcile the accounts and periods the report covers
- Check your unreconciled entries for anything that belongs in the period
- Confirm invoices and bills are matched to their payments, so your receivable and payable balances are current
FAQs
Is the Cash Flow report a statement of cash flows?
It's a cash flow analysis — a view of cash in and cash out over the period.
Can I compare two periods side by side?
Yes. Use the monthly, quarterly, or annual column view, or a multi-year range, to see periods next to each other.
Can I build a custom report?
Not currently. The four reports can be filtered by tag and set to any period, and the General Ledger export gives you the underlying detail to work from in a spreadsheet.
Can I see my reports on the other accounting basis?
No. Your reports reflect the accounting method your books are set up on. See our Choosing your accounting method article.
Why is an account showing a zero balance?
Accounts with no activity in the selected period show as zero rather than disappearing, so the report keeps a consistent shape month to month.
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