Sales
POS or billing export, day-end reports, and credit notes for returns.
Industry
Retail accounting starts at closing time
A shop makes many small sales through several payment channels. If the day's figures are not matched while people still remember them, small gaps become a year of guesswork.
A ten-minute daily close
Do this at the same time every day. Use a sheet or your billing software's day-end report. The figures here are invented.
| Line | Billed | Actual |
|---|---|---|
| Cash | ₹12,000 | Counted: ₹11,900 |
| UPI | ₹18,500 | App report: ₹18,500 |
| Card | ₹6,000 | Machine batch: ₹6,000 |
| Returns | ₹1,000 | Credit notes: ₹1,000 |
| Difference | ₹100 short in cash. Note a reason, and who checked it | |
Why this matters later
- Card and UPI money arrives net or later
- Settlements may be less than sales because of charges and timing. Bank credits do not equal the day's sales.
- Cash spent from the till disappears
- If you pay a supplier or staff from the counter, record it, or the cash will never match.
- Personal UPI confuses everything
- Shop money received in a personal account is hard to separate. Use a business account where possible.
- Items carry different GST rates
- If you sell goods at different GST rates, set the correct rate for each item in your billing software, so that every bill records it at the point of sale.
What to hand over each month
Money
Bank and payment-app statements, card settlements, and cash banked.
Purchases
Supplier bills, transport, and your payments to each supplier.
Stock
A count, even of main lines. Without one, profit is an estimate.
Expenses
Rent, staff, electricity and small cash spends, with vouchers.
Oddities
Damaged goods, gifts, owner's drawings, or stock taken for personal use.
Stock is your biggest unknown
For most shops, stock is where the money sits. You do not need to count everything each month. Count your top items, count everything at least at year end, and check for dead stock. Billing software only helps if purchases and sales are entered item by item.
Common problems
- Selling without a bill. It understates sales and makes stock impossible to reconcile, and it can create tax exposure.
- Customer credit in a notebook. Move "udhaar" into a proper list, so that it can be followed up and counted.
- Refunds in cash, without a record. Tie each refund to a bill.
- Treating all deposits as sales. Your own money put in, or a transfer between accounts, is not income.
Questions to ask Deepak Mittal before work starts
- Will you reconcile my POS, UPI, card and bank figures, or only record bank entries?
- How do you handle card machine and UPI gateway charges?
- How should I count and value stock, and how often?
- What GST scheme or rate treatment suits my shop? Am I eligible for any simpler scheme?
- Does the presumptive income scheme under section 58 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 fit my turnover?
Shop or trader?
If most of your sales are on credit to other businesses, accounting for traders is closer to your needs. If you are starting from nothing, try the small business guide.
Want your shop's sales, stock and bank to agree?
Tell us what you sell, how you bill, and how customers usually pay.
