Gross Sales Definition

Gross sales is a metric for the overall sales of a company, unadjusted for costs incurred in generating those sales, as well as things like discounts or returns from customers. The gross sales metric is calculated with a simple equation, where all sales invoices or related invoices are totaled. This calculation, notably, does not include the cost of goods sold (COGS), operating expenses, tax expenses or other charges—all of these instead deducted to calculate net sales.

$\text{Gross sales} = \text{Sum of all sales receipts}$Gross sales=Sum of all sales receipts

Gross sales are calculated by adding all sales receipts before discounts, returns and allowances together.

Gross sales can be an important tool, specifically for stores that sell retail items, but it is not the final word in a company's revenue. Ultimately, it is a reflection of the total amount of revenue a business brings in during a certain period of time, but it does not account for all of the expenses accrued throughout the process of generating the products that have been sold. Gross sales are not typically listed on an income statement or often listed as total revenue. Net sales reflect a truer picture of a company's top line.

Analysts often find it helpful to plot gross sales lines and net sales lines together on a graph to determine how each value is trending over a period of time. If both lines increase together, this could indicate trouble with product quality because costs are also increasing, but it may also be an indication of a higher volume of discounts. These figures must be watched over a moderate period of time to make an accurate determination of their significance. Gross sales can be used to show consumer spending habits.

Most companies don’t provide gross sales in their publicly filed financial statements. Instead, it’s generally used as an internal number. For example, a company like Dollar General (NYSE: DG) or Target (NYSE: TGT) sells products to customers.

However, they offer discounts and experience product returns. These companies and many others choose not to report gross sales, instead presenting net sales on their financial statements. Net sales already have discounts, returns and other allowances already factored in.

While gross sales are the grand total of sale transactions within a certain time period for a company, net sales are calculated by deducting costs of goods sold, sales allowances, sales discounts, and sales returns. Net sales reflect all reductions in the price paid by customers, discounts on goods and any refunds paid out to customers after the time of sale. These three deductions have a natural debit balance where the gross sales account has a natural credit balance. Thus, the deductions are constructed to offset the sales account.

Gross sales are generally only significant to companies that operate in the consumer retail industry, reflecting the amount of a product that a business sells relative to its major competitors. A company may decide to present gross sales, deductions and net sales on different lines within an income statement.

However, this is generally more confusing, so net sales are typically the only value presented. When gross sales are presented on a separate line, the figure is often misleading, because it tends to overstate the amount of sales performed and inhibits readers from determining the total of the various sales deductions.

For related insight, read more about the differences between gross and net sales.