Sales Discount in Accounting

He has been the CFO or controller of both small and medium sized companies and has run small businesses of his own. He has been a manager and an auditor with Deloitte, a big 4 accountancy firm, and holds a degree from Loughborough University. A financial professional will offer guidance based on the information provided and offer a no-obligation call to better understand your situation. Finance Strategists is a leading financial education organization that connects people with financial professionals, priding itself on providing accurate and reliable financial information to millions of readers each year. The Statement of Profit or Loss (a.k.a. Income Statement using Canadian ASPE) shows the company’s earnings and expenses.

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As you can see, full amounts of cash are received and the full amount of account receivables are discharged from the company account. Let’s discuss the step by the step accounting treatment of sales discount. Trade discount refers to the reduction in the price of a commodity or service sold to wholesalers at the time of bulk purchases. It is also not shown in the face of financial statements as well as in the noted to sales or revenue of financial reports.

By receiving payment earlier the business now has use of the cash for an extra 20 days and reduces the chances that the customer will eventually default. The sales discount normal balance is a debit, a cost to the business. The discount is recorded in a contra revenue account which is offset against the revenue account in the income statement. When a company offers sales discounts, it is essentially offering the customer a cash incentive to pay for their purchase earlier than when the account would normally be due. However, these cash reductions offered to customers have an effect on a company’s financial statements so they must be recorded as a reduction in revenue under the line item called accounts receivable. Sales discounts do not reduce any assets or liabilities, only revenue which reduces net income.

Accounting Treatment for Sales Discounts

For the past 52 years, Harold Averkamp (CPA, MBA) has worked as an accounting supervisor, manager, consultant, university instructor, and innovator in teaching accounting online. The income statement of the XYZ Company will show the following figures. Suppose the XYZ company recorded only one invoice in their accounting period. Sales discounts are not technically expenses because they actually reduce the price of a product. It is offered to the purchaser if they are able to pay off their credit purchases in a given period.

1. Concerning categorizing customer discounts, you can place them in the expense account.
2. For the past 52 years, Harold Averkamp (CPA, MBA) has worked as an accounting supervisor, manager, consultant, university instructor, and innovator in teaching accounting online.
3. Sales discounts are not technically expenses because they actually reduce the price of a product.
4. There are two methods an entity can use when accounting for discounts.

When preparing the year-end financial statements, the contra-revenue account is netted from the Revenue account, resulting in a Revenue figure net of all discounts. As you can see in this entry, $750 is the sales discount or cash discount which is recorded as expenses and the company received cash only $24,250. In this instance the accounts receivable is cleared by the receipt of cash and no sales discount is recorded. The sales discount will be shown in the company’s profit and loss statement for an accounting period below as the gross revenue of the company. An example of a sales discount is for the buyer to take a 1% discount in exchange for paying within 10 days of the invoice date, rather than the normal 30 days (also noted on an invoice as “1% 10/ Net 30” terms).

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When analyzing financial case studies, always break them down into smaller issues, which can then be addressed individually. This is the rate for the use of the funds for 20 days, to convert this to an annual percentage rate (APR) we simply divide by 20 to convert it to a daily rate, and then multiply by 365. This is one of the best ways most of the sellers could improve the cash flow for their operations. Our team of reviewers are established professionals with decades of experience in areas of personal finance and hold many advanced degrees and certifications. At Finance Strategists, we partner with financial experts to ensure the accuracy of our financial content.

When a sales discount is offered to few customers, or if is sales discount an expense few customers take the discount, then the amount of the discount actually taken is likely to be immaterial. In this case, the seller can simply record the sales discounts as they occur, with a credit to the accounts receivable account for the amount of the discount taken and a debit to the sales discount account. The sales discount account is a contra revenue account, which means that it reduces total revenues. Sales discounts will entice customers to pay ahead of time their credit purchases which in turn will improve the collection of a company’s accounts receivable.