Sales Journal in Accounting: Definition and Examples

Sales journal entries should also reflect changes to accounts such as Cost of Goods Sold, Inventory, and Sales Tax Payable accounts. How you record the transaction depends on whether your customer pays with cash or uses credit. Read on to learn how to make a cash sales journal entry and credit sales journal entry. A Sales Journal, also known as the Sales Day Book, is a specialized accounting journal used to record all credit sales of merchandise.

Printing process

A sales journal is a journal entry whose function is to record types of credit sales transactions. The seller typically records the sale as a debit to Accounts Receivable or Accounts Receivable and a credit account. The risk of selling on credit is in the notes receivable and notes payable journals. In general, only accounts receivable are recorded in the sales journal. This means that cash transactions are not recorded, and cash transactions will be entered into the cash receipts journal. However, in reality, many may still use the journal account to record cash sales.

Definition of Sales Journal and its Various Types

It is also clear from the name that sales journal records sale transactions, whereas purchase journals record purchase transactions. While all companies maintain a single journal for bookkeeping records, some companies like to divide journals into multiple types which makes it easy to track down financial records. Some companies would have multiple sale journals for different types of products. These companies would keep multiple sales journals to track the sales of each product. The sales, their dates, and prices are all listed in chronological order.

Posting Entries From Sales Journal to Ledgers

Let’s say your customer purchases a table for $500 with cash. There’s a 5% sales tax rate, meaning you receive $25 in sales tax ($500 X 0.05). Keeping an accurate record of your business’s sales is a must. By creating sales journal entries, you’re keeping track of your company’s financial data. It helps create an understanding of both active sales and future sales. The best way to record entries is by using flexible accounting software.

Many accounting software options allow entries to be created both manually and automatically. Some even allow you to instantly make an accounting entry from a sales invoice. Automation is a way to make your business function smoothly. Offering credit to customers implies that they’ll be receiving goods without paying for them immediately. Because of this, a different method of recording sales has to be used. This method involves recording to your accounts receivable.

Information Listed in the Sales Journal

In addition, for reasons of damaged goods, defects or other reasons, the seller can reduce the price of the goods / provide sales discounts (sales allowance). When you sell a good to a customer, you’re getting rid of inventory. And, you’re increasing your Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) Expense account. Your COGS represents how much it costs you to produce the item. Your Accounts Receivable total should equal the sum of your Sales Tax Payable and Revenue accounts.

This is because of the fact that sales are basically an income-generating operation, so sales are entered in the credit side of the sales journal. These two are basically the same columns but the name just changes depending on whether the client made a purchase on credit or by paying cash. If the payment is made in cash, the column becomes the sales column, but when it is paid on credit, the column becomes account receivables. The six main parts of a sales journal are Data, account Debited, Invoice number, post Reference, Accounts Receivables, and cost of goods sold.

• Finance Strategists has an advertising relationship with some of the companies included on this website.
• This specific identification also helps track the inventory.
• An increase to your sales tax liability account is necessary.
• The accountant posts totals to the Sales account periodically.

All the sales on account for June are shown in this journal; cash sales are recorded in the cash receipts journal. Similarly, purchase journals are used to record the purchases of a company. Cash payment journals record the cash payments made by the clients of a company. Sales journals record sales and some other particular metrics related to sales.

In this article, we will consider the accounting for transactions on the sale of goods on credit from the seller’s point of view. Each entry in the sales journal represents a credit sale transaction. For instance, on July 1st, Elizabeth Walker purchased clothing on credit for $150. Instead of paying immediately with cash, she will be invoiced with terms provided by “Vogue Styles” (for example, net 30 days).

When a piece of merchandise or inventory is sold on credit, two business transactions need to be record. First, the accounts receivable account must increase by the amount of the sale and the revenue account must increase by the same amount. This entry records the amount of money the customer owes the company as well as the revenue from the sale. A sales journal entry records a cash or credit sale to a customer. It does more than record the total money a business receives from the transaction.

If you’re looking for more info like this, check out our resource hub! Our team of reviewers are established professionals with decades of experience in areas of personal finance and hold many advanced degrees and certifications. At Finance Strategists, we partner with financial experts to ensure the accuracy of our financial content. pnl explained faq For information pertaining to the registration status of 11 Financial, please contact the state securities regulators for those states in which 11 Financial maintains a registration filing. So, when a particular product’s amount goes down, the warehouse is notified of it, and they put more purchase orders for that particular.