> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.thredfi.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Profit & Loss Trends

> Understanding the Profit & Loss Trends structure with revenue, expense, and profit data over time

## Overview

The **Profit & Loss Trends** report provides a high-level view of financial performance with period-over-period breakdowns. It's designed for dashboards, charts, and comparative analysis across months, quarters, or years.

***

## Report Structure

The Profit & Loss Trends report contains two parts:

1. **Overall Summary** - Totals for the entire date range
2. **Trends** - Period-by-period breakdown

```
Profit & Loss Trends
├── Summary (entire period)
│   ├── Total Revenue
│   ├── Total Expenses
│   └── Net Profit
│
└── Trends (per period)
    ├── Period 1: Revenue, Expenses, Profit
    ├── Period 2: Revenue, Expenses, Profit
    └── ...
```

***

## Granularity Options

Control how trends are broken down:

| Granularity | Description              | Example          |
| ----------- | ------------------------ | ---------------- |
| `monthly`   | Data per month (default) | Jan, Feb, Mar... |
| `quarterly` | Data per quarter         | Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4   |
| `yearly`    | Data per year            | 2023, 2024, 2025 |

***

## Summary Fields

All values are in **cents** (divide by 100 for display).

| Field                  | Description                                               |
| ---------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- |
| `total_revenue_cents`  | Total revenue for entire period                           |
| `total_expenses_cents` | Total expenses (direct costs + operating + finance + tax) |
| `net_profit_cents`     | Revenue minus expenses                                    |

***

## Trend Fields

Each trend period contains:

| Field              | Description              |
| ------------------ | ------------------------ |
| `period_start`     | Start date of the period |
| `period_end`       | End date of the period   |
| `revenue_cents`    | Revenue for this period  |
| `expenses_cents`   | Expenses for this period |
| `net_profit_cents` | Profit for this period   |

***

## Example Response

```json theme={null}
{
  "business_id": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
  "start_date": "2024-01-01",
  "end_date": "2024-03-31",
  "currency": "GBP",
  "granularity": "monthly",
  "summary": {
    "total_revenue_cents": 15000000,
    "total_expenses_cents": 9000000,
    "net_profit_cents": 6000000
  },
  "trends": [
    {
      "period_start": "2024-01-01",
      "period_end": "2024-01-31",
      "revenue_cents": 4500000,
      "expenses_cents": 2800000,
      "net_profit_cents": 1700000
    },
    {
      "period_start": "2024-02-01",
      "period_end": "2024-02-29",
      "revenue_cents": 5200000,
      "expenses_cents": 3100000,
      "net_profit_cents": 2100000
    },
    {
      "period_start": "2024-03-01",
      "period_end": "2024-03-31",
      "revenue_cents": 5300000,
      "expenses_cents": 3100000,
      "net_profit_cents": 2200000
    }
  ]
}
```

***

## Use Cases

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Dashboard charts">
    Use monthly granularity to plot revenue/expense trends over time.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Year-over-year comparison">
    Use yearly granularity with a multi-year date range to compare annual performance.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Quarterly business reviews">
    Use quarterly granularity for Q1-Q4 performance breakdowns.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

***

## Related Endpoints

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Get Profit & Loss Trends" icon="chart-mixed" href="/api-reference/reports/get-financial-summary">
    Retrieve periodic Profit & Loss data
  </Card>

  <Card title="Get Profit & Loss Report" icon="chart-line" href="/api-reference/reports/get-profit-and-loss">
    Full Profit & Loss breakdown
  </Card>
</CardGroup>