# Profit and Loss Comparison (Year-over-Year)

A comparative Profit and Loss report puts this year and last year side by side, so you can see growth (or decline) at a glance without exporting two separate reports. Here's how to set it up in QuickBooks Online.

## Steps

### 1. Open the Profit and Loss report

Go to Reports and select "Profit and Loss."

### 2. Set your date range to the current period

Choose the period you want to lead with, such as "This Fiscal Year." The comparison periods are added in the next step.

### 3. Turn on a Previous Year comparison

Open the "Compare to" dropdown at the top of the report and check "Previous year (PY)." Then check "$ change" and "% change" to add prior-year dollar and percentage change columns next to each period.

### 4. Review the year-over-year columns

The report updates automatically. You'll now see this year's figures alongside last year's, plus the dollar and percentage change between them.

## FAQ

### Can I compare more than two years at once?

The built-in Previous Year comparison only adds one prior period. To compare three or more years side by side, you'd typically need to export multiple report runs into a spreadsheet and combine them.

### Can I compare this month to last month instead of year-over-year?

Yes. That is a month-over-month comparison: set "Compare to" to "Previous Period (PP)" instead of "Previous year (PY)." See our Month-over-Month guide for the full walkthrough.

### Why do the percentage change columns show "n/a" for some rows?

That usually means there was no activity in that account in the prior period, so a percentage change can't be calculated (division by zero).