Slash

If you've been using Slash for a while and want to start using our P&amp;L feature, you might visit your P&amp;L page and see something like this – a bunch of uncategorized transactions!

While your unconfigured P&amp;L view might be helpful in that it gives you a birds eye view of all your revenue and expenses, it's not nearly as valuable as it could be if you spent the time creating <b>accounting categories.</b>

Here's a step by step of what you should do to make the most use of our P&amp;L feature:

STEP 1: Identify Your Business' Most Important Spend and Revenue Categories

For an Amazon FBA business, these may be some of your categories:

1. Revenue: Marketplaces
2. COGS: Health &amp; Beauty Products
3. COGS: Electronics
4. COGS: Toys
5. COGS: Shipping fees
6. OPEX: Software
7. OPEX: Payroll

For a sneaker reselling business, you might have:

1. Revenue: Marketplaces
2. Revenue: Payment Apps
3. COGS: Sneakers
4. OPEX: Software
5. OPEX: Proxies
6. OPEX: Information/Online Communities

1. Revenue: Marketplaces
2. Revenue: Consignment
3. COGS: Tickets
4. OPEX: Payroll
5. OPEX: Proxies

STEP 2: Create Those Categories In the Accounting Management Page

Visit the <a href="https://app.joinslash.com/business/analytics/accounting-management" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">accounting management page</a> and follow these steps: 

Click "Add category" to create an arbitrary accounting category. Give it a name like "Proxies" and add it to the correct overarching category (one of Revenue, COGS, or OPEX)

After you've created a category, click on the "Edit" button under the Merchant -&gt; Accounting category automation rule

1. Visit the "Expenses" tab if you want to assign merchants to a COGS or OPEX category, or the "Revenue" tab if you want to assign merchants to a Revenue Category.
2. Click "Add Mapping".
3. Scroll to the bottom of the tab to find your newly created mapping.
4. After your mapping is created, assign an accounting category, like "Proxies" to it.
5. Add all of the merchants you've transacted with or intend to transact with to that mapping. 

1. Every time you transact with a merchant you've added to a mapping in the future, those transactions will automatically be categorized into the correct accounting category.
2. Video tutorial below:
   1. 

1. Click "Add category" to create an arbitrary accounting category. Give it a name like "Proxies" and add it to the correct overarching category (one of Revenue, COGS, or OPEX)
2. After you've created a category, click on the "Edit" button under the Merchant -&gt; Accounting category automation rule
3. Once the mapping sidebar opens:
   1. Visit the "Expenses" tab if you want to assign merchants to a COGS or OPEX category, or the "Revenue" tab if you want to assign merchants to a Revenue Category.
   2. Click "Add Mapping".
   3. Scroll to the bottom of the tab to find your newly created mapping.
   4. After your mapping is created, assign an accounting category, like "Proxies" to it.
   5. Add all of the merchants you've transacted with or intend to transact with to that mapping. 
   1. Every time you transact with a merchant you've added to a mapping in the future, those transactions will automatically be categorized into the correct accounting category.
   2. Video tutorial below:
      1. 

STEP 3: Repeat until there are no uncategorized transactions!

Go back to the P&amp;L page and take a look at the merchants you've transacted with that are still uncategorized. Go back to the accounting management page until this number is effectively down to 0.

STEP 4: Enjoy effort-free profit tracking!

Once you've set up your automation rules, your reports page will automatically update every time you transact. In real time, you'll be able to see how much you're spending on different parts of your business and how profitable you are.