Free Profit and Loss Statement Template for Ecommerce

A profit and loss statement shows what a business sold in a period, what it spent to make those sales, and what it kept. This template lays out a monthly P&L for an online store, from gross sales down to net profit, with the formulas already in place. Open it in Google Sheets or Excel, replace the example figures with your own, and the margins update as you type.

What is in the template

The file has one column with an example month and three empty months for your own figures. Enter sales as positive numbers and every cost or deduction as a negative number. The subtotal and margin rows are formulas, so leave them as they are.

The template also works out three ratios: gross margin, contribution margin ratio and net profit margin, each as a share of net revenue.

Reading the example month

The example store took $120,000 of orders, but discounts and refunds brought net revenue down to $109,000. Products, freight and duty cost $41,600, which leaves $67,400 of gross profit, a 61.8% gross margin.

That gross margin looks healthy until the costs of each order come off. Shipping, payment fees and $24,000 of ads take another $38,200, so each $100 of net revenue leaves about $26.80 of contribution margin to pay for staff, software and overheads. After those fixed costs, interest and tax, the store kept $10,300, a 9.4% net profit margin.

Reading the statement this way shows where to act. Advertising is the largest cost after products, so a small gain in ad efficiency moves net profit more than cutting a software subscription would.

How to fill in the template each month

1. Use the same dates for every line. Take sales, refunds and costs from the same calendar month.
2. Start from net revenue. Take gross sales, discounts and refunds from your store reports, not from bank deposits, which have fees already taken out.
3. Count the cost of what sold, not what you bought. Product cost belongs on the P&L when the unit sells. Stock still on the shelf stays out until it does. The COGS calculator works out the figure from your inventory counts and purchases.
4. Include every ad platform. Add Meta, Google, TikTok and any other platform spend for the month, even if you pay some of it on a different card.
5. Check the margins against last month. A gross margin that drops points to supplier or freight costs. A contribution margin that drops usually points to ads, shipping or discounts.

Keep your profit and loss current without a spreadsheet

A spreadsheet P&L is only as current as the last time someone typed into it. In Nummbas, the profit and loss report builds itself from your books. Nummbas Books, included in every plan, records sales, payouts, fees, refunds and bills from your store and bank, and produces profit and loss, profit by channel, balance sheet and cash flow reports. On Growth and Scale, inventory costing puts the landed cost of each unit sold on the P&L, freight and duty included.

Profit and loss template FAQs

What should a profit and loss statement include for an online store?

Net revenue after discounts and refunds, cost of goods sold including freight and duty, gross profit, the costs of each order such as shipping, payment fees and ads, fixed costs such as salaries and software, and net profit. Showing contribution margin between gross profit and fixed costs makes it clear whether each order pays its way.

How do I make a profit and loss statement in Excel or Google Sheets?

List every line from gross sales to net profit down one column and give each month its own column. Add subtotal rows for net revenue, gross profit, contribution margin, operating profit and net profit, each adding the lines above it. The template on this page already has those rows and formulas.

Is a profit and loss statement the same as an income statement?

Yes. Profit and loss statement, P&L and income statement all describe the same report: revenue and costs for a period, ending with net profit.

How often should an ecommerce business prepare a P&L?

Every month. A monthly P&L shows a rising cost or a falling margin while there is still time to fix it. Quarterly and yearly statements are useful for tax and for comparing seasons, but they show problems months after they started.

Should shipping go in cost of goods sold?

Freight and duty paid to bring stock in belong in cost of goods sold, because they are part of what each unit costs. Shipping orders out to customers is a cost of each order and sits below gross profit with fulfilment and payment fees.