Summarize Sales with the Sales Receipt Form in QuickBooks

Many businesses rely on a cash register or customized software to track daily sales transactions. Since most are likely to record checks and other financial transactions in QuickBooks, they need to quickly bring the data from both systems together. If the front-end "point of sale" system has an integration tool available, sales results can be imported into QuickBooks. Other systems may not have such a tool. For those systems that do not integrate, you can easily summarize this information in QuickBooks by utilizing the detailed information from the point of sale system "z-outs" or "end of day" reports. By combining this with all of your other purchase and financial transactions, your company can pull it all together.

In QuickBooks, create items to track as much or as little detail as desired. Whether the detail is entered by taxable or non-taxable sales, by product category or department, or by individual products and services, the choice is yours. To add items, simply select "Items List" from the "Lists" menu. Click the "Item" button and then click "New."

Choose to add any of the following types of items to record sales results (and perhaps subtotals) that help you match to your end-of-day report from your point of sale system:

• Service
• Inventory Part
• Inventory Assembly
• Non-inventory Part
• Other Charge
• Subtotal
• Group
• Discount
• Subtotal
• Sales Tax Item
• Sales Tax Group

Then, add Payment item types to represent the different ways you get paid (such as cash, check, American Express, VISA, MasterCard, etc.).

With the items established, simply open a "Sales Receipt" (under the "Customers" menu) and select the items based on how they appear on the z-out or summarized sales report. Usually, sales items appear first, followed by sales tax and then method of payment. You can even add an item for Cash over/short in order to balance out the daily sales against actual cash in the drawer. Payment type items are used to record methods of payment and automatically appear as a negative.

Some Things to Consider:

• Sales tax in QuickBooks is calculated at the bottom of a sales form based on the taxability of the items in the detail area. You cannot override this calculation. Since the actual amount collected from your customers may vary from this calculated amount, you may prefer to turn off the sales tax feature in QuickBooks and add an "Other Charge" type item (directed to a liability account for sales tax) to the detail area of the form.
• You many also need to account for any reductions to inventory and the corresponding cost of goods sold. This can also be done using items on the sales receipt form (one item entered as a positive amount and directed to an inventory account on the balance sheet, and the other item entered as a negative amount and directed to a cost of goods sold account).

To make your daily data entry even easier, memorize a daily sales summary to use as a template (choose Memorize Sales Receipt under the "Edit" menu). On a daily basis, simply locate the template by choosing Memorized Transaction List from the "Lists" menu. Select your memorized daily sales summary and click Enter Transaction. Type in the new information for the day and click "Save & Close."

Bringing it all together: This simple task will allow you to accumulate summarized sales information, sales tax liabilities and banking information. Contact our office if you have any questions about daily sales tracking in QuickBooks.