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profit-and-loss account

profit-and-loss account
An account of an organization's receipts and spending over a period. Both sides of the account include credit transactions and asset revaluations as well as cash transactions and changes in holdings of real assets. An excess of receipts over spending is profit; an excess of spending over receipts is loss. The profit-and-loss account is contrasted with the other part of the accounts, the balance-sheet, which records the composition of assets and liabilities on a particular date.

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