The Period Profit Report shows you profit by invoice date rather than by job completion, so you can report profit for a specific month without waiting for jobs to be finished. It's the report most agencies reach for at month-end.
This article explains how the Period Profit Report calculates profit, what each column means, and how to use the report options to get the view you need.
Where to find it
Go to Reports > Key Reports > Invoicing & Profitability, then select Period Profit.
Report options
The Period Profit Report has several options that change what's included and how it's displayed.
Date selection
The report always calculates using the invoice date. Choose a specific date range, or use a pre-set option such as Last month.
Sort order and subtotals
Choose how data is grouped:
- Handler
- Job Type
- Phase Type
- Team
You can also add an optional subtotal by team or project.
Tick Show sub-totals only if you want the PDF version to display just the subtotals, without job or phase-level detail.
Adjusting for late purchase invoices
By default, the report adjusts previously reported profit if a purchase invoice arrives after the period it relates to.
Synergist's rule for reporting profit is to use the purchase order cost until a final supplier invoice is received. At that point, the actual purchase invoice value replaces it. If the two figures differ, the report posts an adjustment.
For example: a job has a purchase order for £1,000 and is billed in December for £1,500. Period Profit reports £500 profit for December. In January, the supplier invoice arrives for £1,100. Even with no sales invoice in January, the report adds a £100 adjustment against that job for January. Run the report for December-January together and it shows £400 profit overall.
Using timesheet date instead of tick-off
Tick this option to base time costs on the timesheet date, rather than on tick-off. The report will include all timesheets dated within the period, whether or not they've been allocated to a sales invoice.
Only show purchase values
Tick this to exclude time and material costs from the calculation entirely. This turns the report from a net profit report into a gross profit report.
Report versions
Use the report options drop-down to switch between different versions:
- Detail: lists every ticked-off cost individually, rather than rolling them up to job or phase level.
- Export based on summary table: uses summary data instead of checking every cost transaction at run time. This is faster on large data selections and unlocks extra columns, such as invoice number, invoice date and purchase invoice differences.
How the report calculates profit
The Period Profit Report works on an invoice-by-invoice basis, using tick-off (the process of marking time, materials and purchase costs against a specific invoice). This is what makes it different from a job-level profit report: it doesn't need a job to be final invoiced before its profit can be reported.
The report looks at everything dated within your chosen period, including:
- Sales invoices
- Write-offs
- Credit notes
- Revenue recognitions
For each of these, profit is calculated by deducting the cost value of any ticked-off costs from the invoiced amount. The results are then summarised by job or phase, and totalled up as a client subtotal and a company grand total when viewed as a PDF.
Gross profit vs net profit
Synergist uses two profit definitions throughout its reporting, and the Period Profit Report shows both:
- Gross profit: the invoiced or recognised value less the cost of purchases.
- Net profit: the invoiced or recognised value less the cost of purchases and time.
The difference between the two comes down to whether time costs are included. Net profit gives you the fuller picture; gross profit is useful when you want to strip time out of the equation, for example when comparing agencies with very different staffing models.
Reading the report columns
A typical line on the Period Profit Report includes:
- Job number: the job the line relates to, for example 2024.
- Client: the client the job belongs to.
- Description: the job description, for example "points equal flights campaign".
- A/H: the account handler assigned to the job.
- Recognised: revenue taken from the sales invoice, shown only if revenue recognition is switched on.
- Purchase Costs: only pulled through once the purchase order is matched to a purchase invoice, or once the job has been final invoiced.
- Gross profit: invoiced or recognised value less purchase costs.
- G.Margin %: gross profit divided by invoiced value, multiplied by 100.
- T&M Costs: time and materials costs.
- Net profit: invoiced value less purchase costs and T&M costs.
- Net margin %: net profit divided by invoiced value, multiplied by 100.
The report also displays markup % and margin % (profit as a percentage of total cost, and profit as a percentage of total invoiced value), plus a total recommended charge and total investment figure.
Getting accurate figures
The Period Profit Report is only as good as the data feeding into it. Four areas tend to cause the most discrepancies.
Timesheets
- Make sure all time is logged and allocated to the correct job or phase.
- Run the Missing Timesheets and Unsubmitted Timesheets reports regularly to catch gaps. See Missing timesheets.
Purchases
- Keep your purchase order list up to date.
- Log purchase invoices against the correct purchase order, with the correct date.
- Review the Purchase Accrual report at month end to check outstanding accrual values.
Expenses
- Submit and process expenses promptly.
- Check expenses are allocated to the correct job or phase.
Invoicing
- Raise invoices in the month they relate to.
- Check that every job or phase due to be invoiced has actually been billed.
Checking profit in real time
If you want a quicker, real-time view of a single job's profitability rather than a full period report, the Profit & Costs panel on the Job Dashboard shows current profit values based on timesheets and third-party costs logged so far. Find out more in Understanding the Job Dashboard.
Tips
- Run the report with Use timesheet date rather than tick-off if you want to see time costs as they're worked, rather than waiting for invoices to be raised.
- Use Show sub-totals only for a quick client or handler-level summary at month end, without wading through every job line.
- Check outstanding purchase orders before closing a period. Late supplier invoices create adjustments in the next period, so tidying these up first reduces surprises later.
- Switch to Only show purchase values if you need a gross profit view for comparison across teams with different staffing costs.
- Use the Export based on summary table version if you're running the report over a large date range. It's quicker and gives you extra columns like invoice number and date.