Sales mainly has to do with recording transactions and processing the recorded data. Within this section, we discuss several components and processes involved with the everyday processing of various sales accounting functions.
Throughout this chapter you will learn about:
A subsidiary report with a simple structure can be used in NewViews to manage revenue/sales accounts. This report contains one account for each category or item and it totals to a REVENUE/SALES controlling account on the trial balance or income statement. Revenue/Sales can be ordered in any way on the report and they can be rearranged at any time using /Block Move when sorted by line number. Sales can also be grouped and sub-totaled by any category.
Ledger views of sales accounts display the sales transactions along with quantity, total quantity, rate, amount and running balances. Typically, transactions consist of the revenue portion of invoices and credit memos.
Invoices are added to a sales invoice journal. Debiting a customer account and crediting appropriate accounts for sales, shipping, sales taxes, and so on. If you have only one sales account then all sales items on the invoice post to that account. If you resolve sales by product or by any other categories, then the item for each product sold posts to the sales account for the appropriate category. As an alternative to adding invoices directly to the invoice journal, you can add them to a customer accounts as distributions.
If you provide your customers with invoices over the counter at the point of sale, then you can fill in pre-printed invoices and hand them to the customer. The invoices are recorded later in NewViews. On the other hand, you can use NewViews to print invoices. The decision depends mainly on the timing of orders and deliveries and on the circumstances of sales. If orders are taken by email or phone, you can record the order in detail and then print the invoice at the time of shipment or invoicing. The ability to add transactions dated in the future is useful for planning and order management.
When perpetual inventory is employed NewViews will add an additional transaction to cost the goods sold. The amount of the transaction equals the cost of the goods sold according to the costing method used. The transaction is added to cost of goods sold, posting to appropriate inventory accounts.