Sales day book format

The standard format

1. Date of each credit sale
2. Customer name and invoice number
3. Invoice total for each sale
4. Total for the period
5. Posting: customers debited individually, sales credited with the total

Filled example

Notes

• Only credit sales are entered; cash sales go in the cash book.
• Each customer is debited individually in the sales ledger.
• The total is credited to the sales account in the nominal ledger.

Building and reading this format

A business that sells on credit needs an orderly list of every credit sale before the figures reach the ledger.

The sales day book is that list. It is a book of prime entry, not part of the double entry. It gathers similar transactions so they can be totalled and posted together.

The columns run in the order a bookkeeper meets the information: date, then customer and invoice number, then the money value. Take each sales invoice in turn. Record the date, the credit customer's name, the invoice number and the net amount.

If the business is registered for sales tax, add separate columns for the goods value and the tax, with a total column on the right. For example, on 3 May a business sells goods to A. Rahman for RM800.

Write the date, the name, the invoice reference and RM800 in the value column. The next credit sale goes on the next row.

Cash sales never appear here. They belong in the cash book. This is the most common mistake candidates make.

The date shows when the obligation to pay arose, which matters when chasing overdue accounts. The customer column shows whose personal account to debit. At the end of the period, rule off and add the value column.

Post that total to the credit side of the sales account in the general ledger. Post each individual amount to the debit side of the customer's account in the sales ledger.

The sum of the customers debited must equal the sales account credited. If they differ, an entry was left out or added up wrongly, and the trial balance will fail to balance.

Marks are mostly lost on four points. Putting cash sales in the book is the first. The second is entering the gross figure when tax should be shown separately, or the net figure when a total is asked for.

Check which value each column expects. The third is forgetting to total the value column, which leaves nothing to post. The fourth is giving a day book debit and credit headings as if it were a ledger account.

A day book is a list. Its headings are date, details, folio and amount.

Use the folio column to record where each entry was posted in the ledger. It gives an audit trail so any figure can be traced back. Leaving it blank is not fatal, but it shows incomplete technique.

If you keep mixing up which book a transaction goes in, we can help. One of our teachers can sort a set of past-paper transactions with you until you can place each one at once. Book a trial class

Related how-to

• How to prepare a sales day book
• How to post from books of prime entry to the ledger

These formats are standard accounting practice with our own figures. Check your board's exact requirements on the exam boards page.