Monthly

Receive last month's profit and loss

On the 1st, income, expenses and net profit for the previous month land in your inbox.

Runs: Monthly
Apps: QuickBooks
AI: Not needed
Access: accounting (read)

Send this to your assistant

Create a ClickRuntime automation: on the 1st of each month, email me last month's QuickBooks profit and loss with total income, total expenses and net profit.

Paste it into your assistant. It tells you what it will send or change before it runs live.

Add to ChatGPT Add to Claude

First time? Adding ClickRuntime to your assistant takes about two minutes.

Why use it

Why teams use this automation

Owners of small businesses are told to review their profit and loss every month, and most mean to. The report sits behind several clicks in QuickBooks, needs the right date range and accounting method, and gets postponed until the accountant asks. Problems like a margin that slipped three months ago are only discovered at year end.

On the first of each month, ClickRuntime calls the QuickBooks ProfitAndLoss report for the month that just ended, formats income, cost of goods sold, expenses and net income into a readable email, and sends it to you. The same layout arrives every month, so changes are easy to spot.

It suits owner-operators and partners who want a financial pulse without logging in or waiting for a bookkeeper's package, and who want to catch problems while there is still time to correct them.

What you get out of it

The month-end review actually happens
A report that lands in your inbox on the first gets read. A report that requires you to log in and configure it often does not, and silence from the books is how problems grow.
Margin shifts are caught within weeks
Comparing this month's email with last month's shows if cost of goods sold or an expense category jumped. Responding in the next month is much cheaper than finding it in a year-end review.
Conversations with your accountant improve
Because you have read the numbers before they ask, you can raise questions about odd categories and unexpected costs. That makes accountant time more productive and billable hours more focused.
Decisions use current data
Hiring, pricing and ad budgets are better set from last month's actual profit than from a gut feeling. Having the numbers every month removes the delay between a decision and its evidence.
A running record accumulates
Each email is a dated copy of the P and L as it stood at the start of the month. Keeping them lets you see later how figures changed after adjustments, which helps in lender or investor conversations.

How it works

What happens, step by step

On the 1st of each month, ClickRuntime pulls last month's profit and loss report from QuickBooks.
It picks out total income, total expenses and net profit.
You get an email with those three figures.

Before it runs live

Connect QuickBooks

What you get

RunsMonthly

Receive last month's profit and losstoday, 9:00Succeeded

Email · Monthly P&LTotal income: $48,200.00 Total expenses: $31,750.00 Net profit: $16,450.00

Build your own

Need it to work differently?

This template is a starting point. Copy the prompt and change it, or describe a different automation from scratch, with your own conditions, more apps or an AI step. Your assistant writes it, tests it and runs it on ClickRuntime.

Your own rules
Conditions, thresholds, filters and exceptions, written the way you'd explain them to a colleague.
Any number of apps
One automation can read from one app and update several others. Over 248 apps are ready, and anything with an API works too.
AI where it helps
Summaries, classification, extraction and drafts use ClickRuntime's built-in AI, with no extra key.
On a schedule or on each event
Runs as often as every 5 minutes, or the moment an app sends an event, and keeps track of what it already handled.

Changes you can ask for

Run it at a different time, more or less often, or only on weekdays
Add an AI step, for example to summarize, sort or draft a reply
Add another app, for example also send it to Slack
Combine it with other QuickBooks steps into one automation

Under the hood

The code that runs this automation

This is the Python script that runs each time the automation starts. Your AI assistant writes it for you when you send the prompt, and you allow each step in your assistant. To change how the automation works, describe the change to your assistant and it updates the script for you. For every function it can use, see the script reference.

monthly_p_and_l_email.pyexample

from datetime import date, timedelta
from clickruntime import on_trigger, credentials, http, notify

REALM_ID = "1234567890"
API = f"https://quickbooks.api.intuit.com/v3/company/{REALM_ID}"

def qb(method, path, **kw):
    headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {credentials.connection('quickbooks', 'company')}", "Accept": "application/json"}
    resp = http.request(method, f"{API}{path}", headers=headers, params={"minorversion": 73, **kw.pop("params", {})}, **kw)
    resp.raise_for_status()
    return resp.json()

def query(sql):
    return qb("GET", "/query", params={"query": sql})["QueryResponse"]

@on_trigger
def run(event):
    end = date.today().replace(day=1) - timedelta(days=1)
    report = qb("GET", "/reports/ProfitAndLoss",
                params={"start_date": end.replace(day=1).isoformat(), "end_date": end.isoformat()})
    totals = {}
    for row in report["Rows"]["Row"]:
        if row.get("group") in ("Income", "Expenses", "NetIncome"):
            totals[row["group"]] = float(row["Summary"]["ColData"][1]["value"] or 0)
    notify.email_me(f"P&L {end:%B %Y}: net ${totals.get('NetIncome', 0):,.2f}",
                    f"Total income: ${totals.get('Income', 0):,.2f}\n"
                    f"Total expenses: ${totals.get('Expenses', 0):,.2f}\n"
                    f"Net profit: ${totals.get('NetIncome', 0):,.2f}")
    return totals

FAQ

Common questions

Which accounting method does the report use?

The ProfitAndLoss report can be run on a cash or accrual basis. It follows the default set in your QuickBooks company preferences unless you specify otherwise. If your accountant prefers cash basis for review, say so and it will be requested that way.

Can I receive the report broken down by class or location?

QuickBooks can summarize the report by class, location or customer if those features are on in your company. Mention how you want it grouped and the request is built to match, so the email might show columns for each class.

How does it handle months that have not been closed by my accountant?

It reports whatever is in QuickBooks at the time it runs. Entries your accountant adds later will not be reflected in the email already sent. Many owners treat it as a preliminary view and compare it with the final numbers.

What permissions does it need?

accounting (read). Nothing else in your accounts is used.

Does it need AI?

No. It runs without AI, so it doesn't use your plan's AI allowance.

How many runs does it use?

One run each time it runs (monthly). Checks that find nothing to do and stop right away aren't counted.

Can I change how it works?

Yes. Describe the change to your AI assistant, for example a different schedule, channel or filter. It updates the automation, tests it and tells you what changed.

Daily