What is the purpose of a sales day book?

• A. To record all credit sales in date order before posting to the debtors' ledgers and the sales ledger.
• B. To summarize cash sales for the month.
• C. To record purchases.
• D. To record expenses.

Answer: (A)

The main idea is that a sales day book is a book of first entry used to record all credit sales in date order. This creates a detailed, chronological record of sales made on credit before any posting to the debtors’ control account and the individual customer accounts in the sales/ debtors ledgers. By keeping these entries in date order and separating credit sales from cash sales (which go to the cash book), it becomes easy to post totals to the ledgers, maintain accurate customer balances, and check that the debtor control account reconciles with the individual debtor records.