Deposit received
Balance still unpaid
Net sales after shipment
Committed stock versus available
Which day a refunded deposit hits
A deposit is not the full sales amount
A presale takes a 100 deposit against a 400 balance and ships a week later. Booking 500 on presale day makes that day look strong and the ship day look empty. Booking 500 only on the ship day hides the deposit and the stock it holds. An operating board needs three columns: deposit received, balance still due, and shipped net amount. They answer different questions. Do not add them and call the sum today’s sales.
The figures are an example of timing, not a store’s results and not an accounting opinion. IFRS 15 discusses when revenue from a customer contract is recognized. A deposit can appear earlier on a management board, under a different name. It should not be labeled recognized revenue.
Say what one row represents
A presale has several events: deposit, balance, stock hold, shipment, deposit refund. Kimball’s grain rule says to declare what one row is before adding amounts. If both the deposit row and the balance row store an order amount of 500, the sum becomes 1000. The order header can store 500. The cash lines store 100 and 400. The report must say which level it uses.
Stock splits the same way. Units with a deposit but no shipment are either committed or still sellable, depending on whether inventory is locked. Locked units that remain available will oversell. Unlocked units removed from available stock hide quantity that can still be sold. Show committed units and available units as two numbers.
Unpaid balances, refunded deposits, and partial shipment
An unpaid balance means the deposit is still cash or a prepayment, not shipped net sales. A switch that includes or drops the whole order loses the middle state. If 4 of 10 units ship, shipped net sales should include only those 4. The other 6 stay in the unshipped column.
A refunded deposit should point back to the original presale, not become a negative sale on the refund day with no source. A non-refundable deposit and a reversed balance are different rules. Do not mix them in the same day’s net figure. A campaign review compares deposits taken with the amount that eventually shipped. Failed presales should not remain inside shipped sales.
Two board paths
Path one follows cash: deposits and balances received today. It shows collections and buying pressure. It is a poor target for “how much product sold.” Path two follows shipped net sales. It lines up with stock and cost, and presale day will look close to zero. A small company can keep both columns and rank on only the column named in the definition card.
Do not treat a blank balance as zero and multiply the deposit by a hoped-for conversion rate to invent today’s sales. A conversion estimate can be its own column, labeled as an estimate. It should not be written back onto cash received.
Counterexamples, acceptance, and the boundary
Counterexamples: full price on presale day and again on ship day; unpaid orders shown as sold out; a refunded deposit as an unexplained negative; deposit orders left in available stock and then oversold. Replay four orders: deposit only, balance paid but not shipped, partial shipment, refunded deposit. Check that the three columns are not added into a fourth “total sales,” and that locked stock is visible on its own.
BI0.AI can be a candidate place to take orders through to an operating board for a small business. This article does not show that the current release already separates deposits, balances, and shipped net sales. Check the order and stock fields you actually have.
Public references
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