How to filter, compare periods and export a report

What is it for?

The trial balance, the ledger, the balance sheet and the income statement share the same bar at the top. Once you learn it in one, it works in the others: choose the period, compare it with the previous one, save the options for next time and take the report out.

When to use it?

• To see a month or a quarter instead of the whole fiscal year.
• To compare the fiscal year with the previous one and see the percentage variation.
• To send the report to third parties as a PDF, spreadsheet or CSV.
• For the details of a particular report, go to its article: trial balance, ledger and journal.

Where to find it?

Accounting › Review: Trial balance, Ledger, Journal (Books and trial balances group), Balance sheet, Income statement, Cash flows, Changes in equity (Financial statements group).

Before you start

• Your profile is Accountant. With it you can do every step of this article (tested with the Accountant profile).
• The example is the Income statement of Empresa Demonstração, Lda, on 01/11/2026.

How to use it

1. Open Accounting › Review › Income statement. It opens on Year, on the current fiscal year (01/01/2026 – 31/12/2026), with Sales €38,393.00 and Loss €60,831.84. Lines without values are hidden: the screen says how many and where to show them (“Tick “Show zero lines” in “More filters””).
2. Choose the period with Month, Quarter or Year and, in the list next to it, the month, quarter or year you want. The ‹ and › arrows move one period at a time. With Month, the list has the months around today (from 01/11/2026 to 30/11/2026 for November).
3. Tick Compare with previous period. The second column, 2025, appears and, on each line, the percentage variation. In the example, Sales and services goes from €279,000.00 to €38,393.00 (-86.2 %). In Periods, choose Previous periods or Same period last year.
4. To see more, click More filters (dates, Include drafts, Show zero lines, companies, journals and other report options).
5. To use these choices again, click Save options: “Options saved.” appears and the report opens like this next time. With the dates the wrong way round, the report says “The start date of the period cannot be after its end date.”, and Export PDF, Export and Save options disappear; Reset and Copy link remain. Copy link copies the address of the report with the chosen options (“Link copied.”) to send to a colleague. Reset goes back to the original options and deletes the saved ones.
6. To take the report out, click Export PDF, or click Export and choose Export with options…, Export XLSX, Export PDF ready to sign, Export CSV (PT format), Export CSV (technical) or Print. The file comes out with the period and options shown on screen.

Expected result

• With the comparison on, each line has the amounts of both periods and the variation.
• After Save options, the report opens with the saved choices (for example, on Month, November 2026); after Reset, it opens on the fiscal year again.
• Reports only read journal entries: nothing is created or changed.

Important notes

• Saved options are yours. Each user has their own; saving a month makes the report open on that month for you until you click Reset. If the figures look too small, check the period first.
• The variation does not say whether it is good or bad. The sign follows the line's amount: negative expenses that decrease appear with a positive sign (Personnel Costs go from -€86,400.00 to -€56,076.97, +35.1 %).

Common problems

A line is missing from the report

• Cause: the line has no values in the period and is hidden.
• What to do: in More filters, tick Show zero lines.

The report always opens on a month

• Cause: you saved the options with Save options.
• What to do: click Reset.