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How to export the Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet from QuickBooks Online and Xero

For a monthly report with trends and comparisons, export both statements with one column per month, ideally for the last 13 months (the current month, the 11 before it, and the same month last year). Menu names change from time to time, so treat these steps as a guide.

QuickBooks Online

Profit and Loss

1. Go to Reports and open Profit and Loss (search for it if needed).
2. Set the report period to whole months, for example September 1 of last year to September 30 of this year.
3. Set Display columns by to Months. Check the accounting method (Accrual or Cash).
4. Run the report, then use Export → Export to Excel (CSV export also works).

Balance Sheet

1. Open Balance Sheet from Reports.
2. Use the same period and set Display columns by to Months to get a month-end balance for each month. A single “As of” column also works if you only need the current month.
3. Export to Excel.

Tip: save each customised report (Save customization / Save as) so next month's export has the same layout.

Xero

Profit and Loss

1. Go to Accounting → Reports and open Profit and Loss (shown as Income Statement in some regions).
2. Set the date range to the latest month, then choose to compare with the previous 11 periods of one month each.
3. Update the report and choose Export → Excel.

Balance Sheet

1. Open Balance Sheet, set the date to the last day of the month, and compare with previous periods (months) if you want a cash trend.
2. Export to Excel.

Xero lists comparison columns newest first by default. That's fine for Closeleaf, which sorts columns by date.

Before you export

• Use whole months and the same accounting basis every month.
• Prefer summary reports over detail reports (no transaction lists).
• Keep account sub-totals visible; they help with grouping.
• Don't add or delete rows in Excel before importing. If a file comes from another system, use Closeleaf's mapping screen instead.

What Closeleaf reads from the files

It looks for the report title, the company name, the period headings, section headings (such as Income, Cost of Goods Sold, Expenses, Current Assets, Current Liabilities, Equity) and their totals. You can review and change the column periods and account categories before creating the PDF.

Closeleaf has been tested with Excel and CSV exports from the QuickBooks Online sample company. Xero support follows Xero's documented report layouts but has not yet been tested with real Xero files, so check the mapping screen the first time you import one.