Difference between Shop Takings, Sales and Tax Reports

Definitions:
Posted - When a post end of day is performed it marks payments for that day as posted, and means you can not go back and change that payment. It also marks sales that are final (i.e a fully paid regular sale ,  layby created, account sales created and insurance sales created as Posted and you cannot edit the items on the sale)
Finalisation Date - the date items on the sale are considered 'sold' and will show on sales reports and remove the stock from your stock holding. For regular sales this is the date the sale is fully paid. For layby's, account sales and insurance sales this is the date the sale is created
Shop Takings: These are the payments on the sale. One sale can have mulitple payments
Sale: This is the total of the sale.



The shop takings, sales report and Tax reports are three very different reports and are calculated in three different ways. The figures of these three reports will usually be quite different, and should not be compared against each other, as they are looking at different figures.

Shop takings: Shop takings are the payments that have come in on the dates specified. The shop takings reports will show all the payment types and the amount of the payment. The report will include gift vouchers, customer credit used, store promotion dollars etc and will distinguish between which payment types are bankable, and which are not. The non bankable payment types such as gift voucher show on the report for your reference, so you know every transaction that happened for the day. These non bankable payment types will not contribute to your banking totals or tax reports.  The shop takings reports use the 'posted' date of the payment rather than the actual payment date. The posted date is the date the payments were posted on the post end of day. If you perform the post end of day every day, then the posted and payment date will be the same. This is why posting every day is important.

Sales reports: Sales reports show the full amount the items that have been finalised. For sales report purposes, layby sales, account sales, insurance sales are considered finalised as soon as the sale is made. The sales reports uses the finalisation date of the sale (note: this is not the posted date. The finalisation date is the date the sale is fully paid for regular sales and for layby's, account and insurance sales it is the date the sale is made)

Tax/Bas reports: There are two types of tax reports, cash and accrual.
Cash reports show all shop takings that are 'bankable' for the date specified. The cash report uses the payment date and the amount of that payment
The Accrual report shows all taxable sales for the date specified. A taxable sale is a fully paid layby, fully paid sale, account sale (using the date the sale was made) and an insurance sale (using the date the sale was made). Accrual Tax reports uses the full sale amount and the finalisation date.


Example 1: The best way to show how these reports will be different is to look at a layby.

If I create a new layby on 1 May 2008 for $400 and the payment is $50 visa and I post that day, the reports for 1 May 2008 will show the following figures:

Shop takings report: $50
Sales report: $400
Tax report cash: $50
Tax report accrual: $0

The shop takings report only shows the payments, so it will show $50. The sales report will show all sales, and as a layby is treated as a sale at the time it is created, it will show on the sales report for the full sale amount. The tax report cash shows bankable payments, and as the payment is by visa, it shows $50 and the tax report accrual only shows layby's when they are fully paid, so the report will be blank.

If the client then comes in on 15 May 2008 and pays $100 cash and the post end of day is performed, the reports for 15 May 2008 will show:

Shop takings report: $100
Sales report: $0
Tax report cash: $100
Tax report accrual: $0

As you can see, the payment will show in the shop takings and 'tax report cash'. As the layby is not fully paid it will not show in the 'tax report accrual' and as the layby is not new (I.e was not created on the 15th May), the sales report will also be zero.


If the client then comes in on 20 May and pays the remaining $250 by amex, the reports for that day will show as:

Shop takings report: $250
Sales report: $0
Tax report cash: $250
Tax report accrual: $400

So as you can see, the payments will appear in the shop takings and 'tax report cash', the full amount of the layby will show in the 'tax report accrual' as it is now fully paid, and nothing will show on the sales report for the 20th May as the layby was not created on that day


Example 2: The deposit sales are another example of how the reports show differently.

If I create a new deposit sale on 1 May 2008 for $5000 and the payment is $750 visa and I post that day, the reports for 1 May 2008 will show the following figures:

Shop takings report: $750
Sales report: $0
Tax report cash: $750
Tax report accrual: $0

The shop takings report only shows the payments, so it will show $750. The sales report will show all sales, and as a deposit sale is not treated as a sale until it is fully paid, the sales report is zero. The tax report cash shows bankable payments, and as the payment is by visa, it shows $750 and the tax report accrual only shows sales when they are fully paid, so the report will be blank.

If the client then comes in on 15 May 2008 and pays $500 cash and the post end of day is performed, the reports for 15 May 2008 will show:

Shop takings report: $500
Sales report: $0
Tax report cash: $500
Tax report accrual: $0

As you can see, the payment will show in the shop takings and 'tax report cash'. As the sale is not fully paid it will not show in the 'tax report accrual' or the sales report.


If the client then comes in on 20 May and pays the remaining $3750 by amex, the reports for that day will show as:

Shop takings report: $3750
Sales report: $5000
Tax report cash: $3750
Tax report accrual: $5000

So as you can see, the payments will appear in the shop takings and 'tax report cash', the full amount of the sale will show in the sales report and the 'tax report accrual' as it is now fully paid.