Reading your financials
A founder's guide to your P&L, balance sheet, and the plain-language narrative the autopilot writes each month.
Each close produces three views of the same month. You don't need an accounting background to read them — that's what the narrative is for — but knowing what each one answers makes them far more useful.
The three statements
- Profit & Loss (P&L)
- Also called the income statement. It answers "did I make money this month?" — revenue at the top, expenses by category below, and net profit or loss at the bottom. It covers a span of time (the month).
- Balance sheet
- A snapshot on the close date. It answers "what does the company own and owe?" — assets (cash, receivables) on one side, liabilities and owner's equity on the other. The two sides always balance.
- Narrative
- A short, plain-language summary the autopilot writes: what moved, what's up or down versus prior months, and anything that looks unusual. Start here.
How to read a month in two minutes
- 1Read the narrative first
It tells you the story of the month in a paragraph — revenue trend, biggest expenses, and anything worth a second look.
- 2Scan the P&L for the bottom line
Check net profit or loss, then glance up the expense categories to see where the money went.
- 3Check the balance sheet for cash
Confirm your cash position and whether anything is owed to or by the business.
- 4Spot-check anything surprising
If a category looks off, open the transactions behind it — every number traces back to real, categorized bank activity.
You don't have to interpret the statements alone. The Co-pilot reads your closed books and answers questions like "what was my biggest expense last quarter?" — with citations you can hover to see the exact source rows.
Every statement is a document in your vault. Signed download links are time-limited, so a shared link expires rather than living forever.
When it's time to file, these closed books feed the Tax autopilot, which assembles a jurisdiction-correct packet for a licensed CPA partner to review and sign.