Sales report format

Four reports most owners need

1. Daily sales summary: bills made, cash vs credit, GST collected, collections received. Read every evening.
2. Item-wise monthly sales: quantity and value per item or brand, with gross margin if you can. Drives buying.
3. Party-wise sales: who bought how much this month vs the same month last year. Shows customers going quiet.
4. Salesperson or area-wise sales: orders, sales and collections per person, against target.

One big report with every column is rarely read. Four short ones, each answering one question, are.

Sample sales report format

Figures are made up but add up. Download CSV opens in Excel or Google Sheets as a starting template; Print blank template gives the same layout with the amounts left empty.

What to put on it

• Report period and date of preparation
• Bill number and date
• Party name and area
• Item or group
• Quantity and unit
• Taxable value
• GST amount
• Total bill value
• Cash or credit
• Salesperson
• Returns and credit notes
• Net sales
• Comparison with same period last year

Columns in a daily sales report

Keep taxable value and GST in separate columns. Sales figures for decisions should be without GST, because GST is not your income.

Item-wise and party-wise layouts

For item-wise sales, use: item, unit, quantity sold, sales value, average rate, cost, gross margin %, and the same month last year. Sort by value so the top 20 items, which usually make most of the sales, sit at the top.

For party-wise sales, use: party, area, this month, same month last year, change %, outstanding, and days since last order. A good customer whose orders have dropped sharply is a phone call worth making today. Pair it with an ageing report so you do not push sales to a party who is not paying.

Salesperson report

For a field team: salesperson, visits made, orders booked (value), sales billed, collections, target, achievement %. Orders booked and sales billed differ when goods are short or orders are held for credit. Watching both shows whether the problem is selling or supplying. See sales order processing in Tally.

Common mistakes in sales reports

• Mixing GST into sales, which inflates growth when rates change.
• Ignoring returns and credit notes, so net sales are overstated.
• Comparing with last month instead of the same month last year in seasonal trades.
• Reports typed by hand from bills, a day late and with errors.
• Counting a sales order as a sale before the goods are billed and dispatched.
• No owner for the report: if nobody is expected to act on a figure, it soon stops being read.

Who should read which report

The owner reads the daily summary and the monthly party-wise report. The purchase manager reads item-wise sales with stock in hand, to decide what to reorder. The sales manager reads the salesperson report every week. Accounts reads the GST columns at month end. When each report has a reader and a decision attached, it gets looked at. Send each person only the report they act on.

Getting these from Tally

TallyPrime's Sales Register gives month-wise and voucher-wise sales; Stock Item and Group summaries give item-wise figures; ledger and group vouchers give party-wise sales. Salesperson-wise reports need a cost centre or a field on the voucher. Exported to Excel, these fit the CSV template on this page. See Tally reports every owner should check.