Small Business Accounting

Bookkeeping 101

Accounting System

Accounting Software : The Best of the Best

Profit and Loss Statement

Accounting System: Selling Transactions 

Daily sales in your accounting system 

Your small-business accounting system needs to keep a record of each sale completed.  This can take one of several different forms, depending upon your type of business and the number of daily sales. For Example:

• If you are selling a service, or selling to a business that will pay later, you would probably use an invoice.
• A low-volume business might use a sales slip.  These often can be purchased in booklet form.
• A high-volume business might use a cash register.

In each of these cases, you need two copies, one for the customer, and the other for your own accounting system records.  If you use a cash register, get one that can print the second copy.

In some cases you may not give the customers a receipt such as at fairs and flea markets.  In this situation your accounting system would require a list of daily sales in a "cash" book, which can be purchased at stationery stores.  If you are selling low cost, high-volume items, you may be basing your total sales on the daily cash receipts without a record of individual sales. 

There are several styles of each of these sales forms available. Visit a stationery store to pick the one that suits you and your specific accounting system.  To appear professional, you may also want to have them printed with your company name.  You should also have them sequentially numbered. When you fill out a sales form, record the sales tax separately.  Then add the tax to the base price to get the total sales price. 

At the end of the day. An adequate accounting system recognizes the need to total the day's sales and tax receipts on a daily basis.  Enter the total in a monthly income ledger.  Again, these are available in several forms at stationery stores.  You can frequently summarize a month's worth of daily sales on one sheet. 

At the end of the month: Add the totals for sales and taxes for the month into the income ledger. 

Accounting system: Business Purchases/Expenses 

Daily: Keep copies of invoices for all business purchases.  If it is an inexpensive purchase, you may want to pay for it with "petty cash".  But you still need to keep a record of the purchase. 

At the end of the day: Record the details of each purchase made that day in the expenditure ledger (from a stationery store).  For tax purposes, you will have to separate the different types of expenditures in your small-business accounting system. The ledger forms that you purchase should help you to make this separation on a routine basis as the expenses are entered. 

At the end of each month: Add up monthly totals and enter them into the expenditure ledger. 

Your accounting system should collect the information related to sales or revenue and the related expenses, to determine the amount of money you make. This calculation will be reviewed on the web page for the “Profit and Loss Statement. 

Information from  Start Your Own Business for $1,000 or Less

Web page by Paul Susic MA Licensed Psychologist CEO/President Susic Psychological Consulting P.C.