There’s a lot of financial data for you to include in your P&L statement. Like, a lot. Finding a starting point can be intimidating, but it’s much less so if you already have a great bookkeeping system in place. If you do, you should have easy access to your company’s receipts, invoices, pay stubs, credit card payments, tax data, accrued interest, and more so you can sit down and start running the numbers. If you don’t have a great bookkeeping system in place yet, cut yourself some slack—and then get right on creating one now. (Literally now. Right now. Step away from this page and get thee to a bookkeeper.) If you do cash transactions, start keeping receipts and storing them in a logical, orderly way. Organize your general ledger. Hire a part-time bookkeeper for a small fee or invest in bookkeeping software that keeps all your data in the same place. Getting organized—including entering all your information into new accounting software—can be a steep learning curve. But apart from creating excellent products and services and hiring fantastic employees, there’s next to nothing more important to your business than accurate, detailed financial records, profit and loss statements included.