Understanding Positive and Negative Amounts in Naqood Reports

Do your income amounts appear as negative numbers in your reports?

Don’t worry - this usually means your revenue has been posted correctly.

In accounting, income is often shown as a negative amount, especially in technical reports like the Trial Balance. While this may look confusing at first, it is completely normal and follows standard bookkeeping principles.

If this doesn’t fully make sense yet, don’t worry, this guide will walk you through exactly why this happens and how to read each report in Naqood. 

When reviewing your financial reports in Naqood, you may notice that some amounts appear as negative while others are positive. This is normal and depends on accounting principles and how each report is designed to be read.

This guide explains how signs work across Naqood’s main reports and why the same numbers can appear differently depending on the report.

Reports Available in Naqood

In Naqood, you can access the following core financial reports:

• Profit & Loss

• Balance Sheet

• Trial Balance

Each report serves a different purpose and therefore displays amounts differently.

Profit & Loss Report

The Profit & Loss (P&L) report is designed to show how your business performs over a period of time.

From a business perspective, it is often easier to read when:

• Income appears as positive numbers

• Expenses appear as negative numbers

To support this, Naqood includes a feature called Natural Sign.

Natural Sign in Profit & Loss

In the Profit & Loss report, you will find a button called “Natural Sign”.

When enabled:

• Revenue accounts are shown as positive values (+)

• Expense accounts are shown as negative values (-)

This does not change your accounting data. It only changes how the report is displayed, making it easier to understand business performance at a glance.

You can turn this on or off at any time depending on how you prefer to view the report.

Balance Sheet

The Balance Sheet shows your company’s financial position at a specific point in time — for example, today, at month-end, or at year-end.

Unlike the Profit & Loss report, which measures performance over a period, the balance sheet shows what your business owns and owes at a given date.

It is structured into three main sections:

• Assets – what the company owns (bank accounts, receivables, inventory, fixed assets)(+)

• Liabilities – what the company owes (supplier balances, loans, VAT payable) (-)

• Equity – the owners’ interest in the business (-)

The balance sheet always follows the fundamental accounting equation:

Assets = Liabilities + Equity

For this reason, the signs in the balance sheet are not meant to be interpreted as “good” or “bad”. Instead, they reflect the accounting nature of each account.

Amounts are displayed according to standard bookkeeping principles to ensure:

• The balance sheet always balances

• The report is suitable for accountants and auditors

• Financial statements remain compliant with accounting standards

Naqood therefore does not adjust or flip signs in the balance sheet. The report reflects the true accounting structure of your company.

Trial Balance

The Trial Balance is the most detailed and accounting-focused report in Naqood.

It provides a complete overview of:

• All ledger accounts

• Their debit and credit balances

• How every transaction has been posted in the system

The primary purpose of the trial balance is to verify that:

• Total debits equal total credits

• All postings follow correct bookkeeping logic

• The accounting data is technically accurate

Because of this, the trial balance is mainly used by:

• Accountants

• Auditors

• Finance professionals

Natural Signs in the Trial Balance

In accounting, every account type has a natural sign:

• Assets and expenses normally have a debit balance(+)

• Liabilities, equity, and income normally have a credit balance (-)

The Trial Balance must always show these natural debit and credit signs exactly as they are recorded in the ledger.

For this reason, Naqood does not apply the Natural Sign function in the Trial Balance.

Changing or flipping signs in this report would:

• Break accounting logic

• Make reconciliation difficult

• Create confusion for auditors

• Make the report technically incorrect

Therefore, the Trial Balance always displays amounts in their pure bookkeeping form, even if this may look unfamiliar to non-accountants.

This ensures the report can be used reliably for:

• Month-end closing

• VAT reconciliation

• Audit preparation

• Financial reviews

Why Numbers May Look Different Across Reports

It is completely normal for the same account to appear with different signs in different reports.

This happens because:

• Profit & Loss focuses on readability and business insight

• Trial Balance focuses on technical accounting accuracy

• Balance Sheet focuses on financial position

All reports are based on the same underlying data, only the presentation differs.

Naqood, simple accounting, built on correct bookkeeping principles.