For the profit-and-loss account, the Directive (on the annual and consolidated accounts of insurance undertakings) has also retained only one format, the vertical one, in order to make comparisons more easy. The profit-and-loss account is divided into two parts, namely a so-called technical account, reflecting the results of insurance activities in the narrower sense, and a so-called non-technical account. Furthermore, in the case of those undertakings which carry on both non-life and life insurance, separate technical accounts are in principle required for the two categories. In addition, there are important differences in the content of the non-life and life technical accounts (context: insurance).