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Direct Profit and Loss Detail Report with Tax Columns (Match QuickBooks Functionality)

1. The Feature We Need

We need a dedicated Profit and Loss Detail report. This should be a single report that shows every transaction, grouped by account, including the Tax Rate and Tax Amount for every line. It should look and work exactly like the "Detail" report in QuickBooks Online.

2. Why the current "Account Transactions" report is NOT helpful
Xero often tells users to use the Account Transactions report as a workaround, but this is not a proper solution for these reasons:

Too much "Cleaning" required: The Account Transactions report shows everything. To make it look like a P&L, the user has to manually filter, add columns, and group accounts every single time. It is a waste of time.

Poor Layout: It is a flat list. It doesn't give you the clean "Income vs. Expense" layout that a P&L provides.

Missing Context: You cannot see the "Net Profit" or "Operating Profit" while looking at transaction details in that report.

Too Many Clicks: It forces the user to do the work that the software should do automatically.

Key Requirements:

Transaction Breakdown: Instead of just seeing "Travel: $1,000," the report should list every individual receipt and bill that makes up that $1,000.

Tax Columns: Every transaction line must show the Tax Rate (e.g., GST 15%) and the Tax Amount clearly.

Single View: This must be one continuous report, exactly like the "Profit and Loss Detail" found in QuickBooks Online.

3. The Benefit of the "QuickBooks Style" Report
One-Screen Audit: You can see your Sales and your Expenses in one long list. You can quickly scan down the "Tax Rate" column. If you see "No GST" where there should be "15% GST," you find the mistake in 1 second.

Zero Setup: You shouldn't have to "build" a report to see your data. It should be one click: P&L -> View Detail.

Accuracy: It is the only way to be 100% sure that every single transaction in the P&L has the correct tax code applied before you file your tax return.

Stop asking users to use 'Account Transactions' to audit their books. We need a native P&L Detail Report that shows the Tax Rate/Amount for every transaction in a P&L format. This is a basic feature in QuickBooks that saves hours of manual auditing. Xero should provide this to make tax reconciliation faster and more accurate."

This need to be put in place ASAP, and cannot be that difficult. Quickbooks offers a report like this in the same layout of the profit and loss report with detailed transactions under each header for any set reporting period, really helps with reviewing the general ledger.

A must for easy intercompany transfers !!!

I just cannot believe does not exists!

This is a critical need! Please make this type of report easily available!

Definite a must have, seems like a no-brainer! I did get a work-around from Xero - run the Account Transactions report and filter by (select) Account, and export to Excel to sort if necessary. If you play around with it, it definitely works and is sooo much faster and easier than exporting each line item into Excel, which is how I've been doing it!

Okay what am I missing here??? There was a time when pulling a Profit and Loss detailed report was easy..... now it's just missing????

Vital is an understatement. We NEED the details so that we can provide a better experience to our clients. I am SHOCKED that nobody in Xero gets this. And I'm completely baffled as to why the report is no longer available. Are we still doing "beautiful accounting" or not? I'm totally lost! Please fix this!

this is a must have, have to manually do in spread sheet now..

This is vital. Profit and Loss report - Detailed Profit and Loss to show all transactions
To show all expenses in the profit and loss report.

Purpose: To make it easier for a user to see all the expenses in the report rather than having to individually open each expens

As a bookkeeper, this feature is a make or break for our firm.

Good idea - I would love this

My monthly reports to my committee need to show ALL transactions for the previous period.
Previously I was using Reckon.

I agree it is ridiculous that such a report is not available...

I used to provide a client with an annual P&L Detail spreadsheet each year and have just realized that since we moved them to Xero this report doesn't seem to be available, closest I see is Account Transactions reports that don't total up the Sales/COGS/Net Income balances. I would love having a P&L Detail report as it is very helpful!

As a long standing Xero partner, hugely disappointed that Xero has not yet developed this. So basic!

It's disappointing to see that this has been an unaddressed issue for so long. A detailed P&L statement is standard for all accounting software. I hope this gets fixed as soon as possible. I hate the thoughts of moving to another software.

I second all of the comments below: It is incomprehensible that Xero still doesn't have a Detailed P&L report. There are so many aspects of Xero reporting that lag behind functionality standard in QuickBooks and Sage decades ago. It is almost like no one in Xero has ever worked in a real business.

If Quick books can supply this report I'm brain boggled as to why Xero can't. It would cut done the time to run this report for every single business that has a BAS to do just for starters. You should be able to run a profit & Loss then run all the transactions that make up this report without going to another window, selecting Account Transactions, then selecting the date period, then selecting all the accounts involved in the Profit & Loss just so you can check that all the items have been allocated correctly. When doing BAS's or end of year taxes this is an essential report to save time.

I'm amazed that the first post about this issue was back in 2022. It's unbelievable that generating a detailed Profit and Loss report still isn't possible. Given the cost of this software, this feature is an absolute must.

I hope this isn't true. A detailed P&L is so basic. If Xero does not provide this type of report, then I made a big mistake in switching to them. Please say it isn't so!!! FYI: I have no association to the other person posting "Julie Howard". Just two users with a similar concern. .. And the other comment I am reading from Angela Ofner is disturbing too! No one from Xero responded on this post?