Sales accounting is a department of the enterprise's accounting department, responsible for recording, tracking and managing transactions related to sales activities and revenue. In this article by Bizzi, let's learn in detail the role and job duties of sales accounting in the enterprise.
What is sales accounting?
Sales accounting is the job of managing and recording all activities related to sales; including recording sales invoices, VAT, recording sales revenue, cashiering, storing invoices and tasks related to sales. Sales accounting involves recording, controlling and accounting for the sales activities of the business. This is an important part of business accounting, helping to track revenue, debts and profits from sales activities.
The important role of sales accounting in business
If a sales accounting position is absent from a business – whether due to not being hired, quitting, or missing a function – it will lead to many risks and serious consequences, especially for trading, manufacturing or retail businesses.
Therefore, in addition to understanding the nature of sales accounting, it is necessary to grasp the role of this position in the finance department in particular and the business in general:
For business activities:
- Is the core element in commercial enterprises.
- Requires close supervision and management of production, purchasing and inventory processes.
- Help businesses grasp the complete level of sales situation.
- Helps to find out the shortcomings in the process of purchasing, selling and storing goods.
For management and decision making:
- Provide information and sales figures to management.
- Support managers to grasp business situation, detect and correct shortcomings.
- Provide data to make strategic decisions, drive growth.
- Help management develop more effective business strategies in the future.
- Sales reports show sales results, production and sales variances.
For financial and cost management:
- Ensure revenue is recorded accurately, transparently and promptly.
- Control customer debt, monitor receivables, collect on time, reduce bad debt risk. Helps maintain stable cash flow.
- Record sales expenses, determine actual costs, and analyze them to cost optimization.
- Control the quantity and value of inventory, create inventory reports to avoid shortages or overstocking, helping to better manage the quantity of goods.
- Supports financial planning and future revenue forecasting, helping to manage resources effectively.
- Enhance financial transparency, create trust for partners and investors.
- Ensure compliance with laws and accounting standards related to sales, invoices, and taxes.
Duties and Responsibilities of a Sales Accountant
Sales accountant is a position that plays an important role in ensuring accurate revenue figures, serving financial reporting, calculating taxes and managing customer debts.
Below are the jobs of a sales accountant:
Monitoring and supervision:
- Monitor the progress of sales plan implementation to ensure goals are on track and adjustments are made promptly.
- Monitor profit plan.
- Check and monitor the collection of money from sales departments to evaluate sales potential.
- Check and monitor sales performance.
Record and summarize:
- Record, summarize and provide information and data related to sales activities.
- Record fully and promptly the volume of finished products/goods sold and consumed internally.
- Summary of sales expenses incurred (shipping, marketing, warranty, advertising, labor).
- Gather relevant documents (quotations, orders, contracts, delivery notes) as a basis for recording.
- Record sales invoices in detail, calculate total sales value and daily VAT.
- Enter sales data into the business management software.
Business processing and management:
- Check documents, quantity, selling price to create and send invoice to customer.
- Classify documents according to arising transactions and revenue deductions.
- Manage pricing and sales policies to sell products according to policies and record appropriate revenue.
- Calculate trade/payment discount rate (if any).
- Manage cash flow, ensure timely collection.
- Track customer debts (shipments, debt amount, term, debt payment status). Urgent debt collection (if there is no separate debt accountant). Participate in planning debt collection and collection.
- Calculate cost of goods sold/services provided.
- Determine actual purchase price of goods, allocate purchasing costs (commercial enterprises).
- Carry over and allocate selling expenses to consumed goods as a basis for determining sales/business results.
- Manage documents and sales books.
- Check and urge timely product recall in case of defective goods.
- Update selling price, new product quantity into software, notify price adjustment.
- Manage customer and supplier information.
- Make sales contracts, collect debts (specific tasks may be required).
- Consulting, customer care (specific work may be available)
Compare and match:
- Check and compare output and inventory data with the warehouse keeper at the end of the day.
- Support work, link data with related accounting sections (summary, warehouse, accounts receivable, cash, bank deposits).
- Coordinate with warehouse accountant to cross-check quantity and value of imported and exported inventory.
- Coordinate with payment accountant, cashier to finalize debt, cash, and bank deposit figures.
Report generation:
- Prepare periodic sales reports (revenue, expenses, debts, plan implementation) and provide to management.
- Compile daily data and report to the accounting manager.
- Prepare daily sales and purchase reports at the end of the day.
- Prepare periodic tax reports (VAT, CIT).
- Provide accounting information for financial reporting.
- Provide sales and revenue information as requested by management (evaluate results, plan for next year).
Consulting:
- Advise the board of directors on matters related to sales, revenue, debt, sales strategy, pricing, products, and markets.
Other jobs:
- Perform other tasks as required by superiors.
Sales accounting process in business
Below is the sales accounting process in a business, from the time a sales transaction occurs until payment and accounting are completed:
Basic process:
- Step 1: Receive orders/contracts from sales staff or business department. KTBH records and arranges orders.
- Step 2: Check inventory
– If inventory is insufficient: Notify sales department to advise customer or cancel order.
– If inventory is sufficient: Create a warehouse release request form and send it to the warehouse keeper; create an invoice, warehouse release form, and delivery receipt to the sales department to deliver to the customer.
- Step 3: Record sales accounting transactions in the general ledger and related details.
More detailed process (including payment and reporting):
- Step 1: Receive orders and make sales contracts.
- Step 2: Create sales invoice.
- Step 3: Delivery and delivery confirmation (delivery receipt).
- Step 4: Record sales revenue into accounting software (net revenue, VAT, discounts/rebates).
- Step 5: Generate receipt (cash) or check credit note (transfer) when customer pays.
- Step 6: Accounting and recording of receivables (if customers owe), detailed tracking.
- Step 7: Update sales accounting books (sales detail books, sales journals, general ledgers, related account ledgers) and prepare related financial reports.
- Step 8: Prepare periodic tax reports (VAT, CIT).
Notes in the process:
- For service providers: Invoice after completing the service and receiving payment/accepting payment, accounting for transactions based on documents.
- Manage debt closely, remind customers to pay on time.
- Check goods before delivery.
- Ensure accuracy of invoices.
- The process needs to be carried out closely, with coordination between departments.
Professional knowledge and skills required in the work of a sales accountant
Below are the professional knowledge and skills required for the job of a sales accountant, helping to perform well at work and develop a career in the modern business environment:
- Professional knowledge:
– Related fields of study: Accounting, Finance - Banking, Business Administration, Economics, Auditing. Provides a foundation in finance, management, accounting.
– Understand accounting principles and standards, how to record revenue, account for costs, and handle debts.
– Master how to prepare and analyze financial reports related to sales.
– Understand VAT regulations, invoices, documents and legal regulations related to sales. Know how to prepare tax declarations.
– Master the rules for recording business results and profits (calculation formula).
– Understand the rules for recognizing sales revenue (5 conditions: transfer of risks/benefits, collection of economic benefits, determination of revenue, loss of ownership, determination of related costs).
– Master related documents (VAT/sales invoices, warehouse delivery notes, payment documents, statements, minutes, quotes, orders, contracts...).
– Understand the accounting and reporting system (Sales detailed/summary ledger, related account ledger, order status, profit and loss by order, detailed/summary/analysis of receivables, other administrative books).
– Understand the order of accounting document circulation, how to create 3-copy invoices and process documents according to payment methods (debt, cash, transfer).
– Understand the process of monitoring, managing and collecting debt. Know how to assess credit risk and build debt policies.
– Understand the sales process from order to payment, promotion and discount policies.
– Have knowledge of business data analysis (reading, analyzing sales figures, trends) to support management.
– Master the regulations on storing accounting documents.
- Soft skills:
– Proficient in using accounting software (recording, processing, and analyzing data quickly and accurately).
– Analyze and solve problems (analyze data, detect errors, provide timely solutions, find causes).
– Communication (convey information clearly to customers, colleagues, managers, explain accounting concepts in an easy-to-understand manner).
– Meticulous and accurate (careful and meticulous to ensure accurate financial data, avoid errors, and reduce risks).
– Time management (complete work on time, prioritize important tasks, maintain high performance).
- Good office skills, especially Excel.
- Know how to synthesize and analyze reports.
- Responsible, careful, enthusiastic.
Powers of sales accountant
The authority of a sales accountant is the authority granted within the scope of work to ensure that they can effectively perform the assigned tasks. Below are the common authorities that a sales accountant usually has in a business:
- Request adjustments, changes or cancellations to invoices as needed.
- Propose solutions for invalid or inappropriate invoices.
- Directly propose payment problem solutions to the accounting manager if encountering difficulties.
- Proactively remind and collect debts, monitor customers' debt payment process.
- Propose payment levels and schedules to customers (through the accounting manager).
- Work under the supervision and direction of the chief accountant.
Sales accounting support tools
With the development of technology and the role of software in process optimization, more and more software and tools appear to support sales accountants in their work. Smart tools have the ability to record, calculate, and synthesize data quickly and accurately.
Some typical software serving sales accounting operations include:
- Sales Management Software (POS): Suitable for retail stores, inventory management, revenue, transactions, data synchronization.
- Revenue Management Software/CRM: Supports customer management, sales channels, and daily revenue tracking.
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software: Comprehensive system that integrates many core business processes (finance, human resources, manufacturing, supply chain, sales). The Finance/Accounting module in ERP includes debt management, financial reporting. KTBH links data with ERP.
- Expense and Finance Management Software: Bizzi Expense is an expense management solution
- Electronic Invoice Management Software: Bizzi – Supports data entry, invoice information retrieval, issuance, management, and regulatory compliance.
Bizzi.vn is a specialized financial automation platform, focusing on invoice processing, expense management, debt control. The solution allows real-time expense tracking, recording and reporting, while proactively and accurately controlling budgets. Seamlessly integrating with many ERP systems and with the potential to integrate with CRM, Bizzi provides maximum support for sales accounting in:
- Centralized cost management – transparent, consistent: Automatically check and compare invoice information with accounting data
- Real-time cost updates – reflect true financial status: Minimize errors and manual operations.
- Optimize budget – reduce loss: Track detailed costs for each budget unit – support managers in making timely decisions.
- Improve resource efficiency, Automate expense approval processes: Standardize approval flows, reduce processing times, and increase transparency in internal expense management.
Conclude
In short, sales accounting is an essential position, playing a central role in financial management and supporting business decisions through the processing and provision of accurate sales information.
Understanding what sales accounting is, combining it with being fully equipped with solid professional knowledge and applying modern software tools will help improve efficiency. In addition, the tool is the key to optimizing the process and contributing value to cost management and overall business efficiency of the enterprise. Experience Bizzi now - a financial automation platform for modern enterprises to automate revenue and expenditure operations!
- Link to register for a trial of Bizzi products: https://bizzi.vn/dang-ky-dung-thu/
- Schedule a demo: https://bizzi.vn/dat-lich-demo/