In Accounting Services in Buffalo and business management, the specific name for a record of income and expenses depends on whether you are talking about the raw data collection, the formal summary, or a personal tracker.
Here are the most common terms used to describe these records:
1. The Formal Report: Income Statement
If you are looking for a professional document that summarizes all earnings and costs over a specific period (like a month or a year), it is called an Income Statement.
Other names: Profit and Loss Statement (P&L), Statement of Operations, or Statement of Earnings.
Purpose: To show the "Bottom Line"—whether the entity made a profit or a loss.
2. The Internal Database: General Ledger
The General Ledger is the master record of every financial transaction a business has ever made. Within this ledger, income and expenses are sorted into individual "accounts" (like a "Rent Expense" account or a "Sales Revenue" account).
Purpose: It serves as the central repository for all data that eventually gets summarized into the Income Statement.
3. The Daily Log: Cash Book or Journal
Before transactions hit the ledger or the statement, they are often recorded in chronological order in a Journal or a Cash Book.
Cash Book: Specifically tracks the inflow and outflow of physical cash and bank movements.
Purchase/Sales Journals: These track "on credit" transactions (money promised but not yet paid).
4. For Non-Profits: Statement of Activities
Because non-profit organizations don't technically seek "profit," they don't use an Income Statement. Accounting Services Buffalo, their record of income (donations/grants) and expenses (programs/admin) is called a Statement of Activities or an Income and Expenditure Account.