What route accounting covers
Five records, kept stop by stop, make up the route’s accounts.
- Load: the stock assigned to the vehicle at the start of the route.
- Sales and deliveries: each stop’s invoice, at the customer’s own prices.
- Collections: cash, card and cheque taken on the route, including payments against older invoices.
- Returns: damaged, out-of-date and returned goods, and empties.
- Settlement: the end-of-route check that stock and money add up.
Route settlement
Settlement, also called check-in or cash-up, is where route accounting earns its name. Every unit that left on the van is sold, returned or still on board. Every invoice is paid, on account or outstanding.
A variance is only useful if it can be traced to the call that caused it. That is why the records need to be made at the stop, not rebuilt afterwards. Keep old-debt collections apart from today’s takings too, or a customer settling last month’s invoice can hide a shortfall on today’s sales.
Route accounting and the main accounts
Route accounting sits upstream of the finance system. The invoices, payments and credit notes raised on the route end up on the sales ledger in the accounts package. The cleaner the route records, the less the finance team has to query or re-key.
