Sale of small goods piece by piece: how to sell?

Every entrepreneur engaged in the sale of small piece goods sooner or later faces a mathematical problem: although accounting programs can calculate internal prices with high accuracy, not limiting themselves to pennies alone, external document flow dictates different rules. When a percentage discount is applied to the cost of a penny item, Ukrainian legislation, fiscal registrars, and accounting programs (for example, BAS) require strict rounding of the price to two decimal places. When selling large batches of small items, this inevitably leads to discrepancies of a few pennies between the actual and calculated total amount, which blocks the import of invoices and creates chaos in reporting.

Trying to "even out" these pennies in the receipt, some business owners resort to risky methods — for example, they start writing off piece goods in fractional numbers. This temporarily smooths out financial discrepancies, but completely breaks warehouse accounting, making a correct inventory impossible. To avoid grading issues and seamlessly transfer data to the tax office or accounting department, the rounding error should be solved by systemic methods. In this article, we will consider three safe and legal ways to set up the accounting of small goods that will permanently relieve you of discrepancies in documents.

Problem: rounding error when selling small goods

According to the requirements of Ukrainian legislation and the algorithms of fiscal registrars (PRRO/RRO), only two decimal places (pennies) are allowed in the "Price" column.

Essence of the problem

When selling small goods by the piece with a percentage discount applied, fractional amounts arise.

Example: the price of 1 self-tapping screw is 0.10 UAH. The client has a 3% discount.

Calculation: 0.10 UAH - 3% = 0.097 UAH.

Since the receipt or invoice must include a price with two decimal places, the system rounds it:

As a result, a discrepancy arises between the calculated and total amount in the receipt or expense invoice, which creates problems when importing data into accounting programs or during fiscalization.

To avoid this, entrepreneurs are advised to use one of the three systemic methods of accounting:

Solution 1. Selling goods in packages (the simplest method)

Instead of accounting for each unit of small goods by the piece, the goods are received and sold in whole packages.

Example: 1 package of self-tapping screws (100 pcs.) costs 10.00 UAH.

Calculation with a 3% discount: 10.00 UAH - 3% = 9.70 UAH per package.

Result: when selling 10 packages, the amount in the invoice will be exactly 97.00 UAH. No problems with rounding pennies arise.

Solution 2. Accounting and selling goods by weight

According to the legislation of Ukraine, small goods can be sold by weight. In the accounting program, such goods are received in kilograms or grams.

Example: 1 kg of self-tapping screws costs 10.00 UAH. With a 3% discount, the price will be 9.70 UAH/kg.

Result: if the client buys 0.253 kg, the system will correctly multiply this weight by the price: 9.70 UAH × 0.253 kg = 2.45 UAH. All requirements regarding two decimal places in the price are met.

Solution 3. Using the «Metric characteristics of goods» function

If the product must necessarily be written off in pieces but is shipped in packages, a special program functionality is used (in Торгсофт this is the «Metric characteristics» option).

How it works: a fixed parameter «Quantity of pcs. in a package» (for example, 100 pcs.) is set in the product card.

Document settings: a separate column — «Calculated price per package» — is displayed in the expense invoice template.

Result: the correct price for a whole package (9.70 UAH) is displayed in the documents for the client, and the exact quantity in pieces is written off from the warehouse. This removes the buyer's or accounting department's questions regarding the price per piece.

Програма обліку товару для інтернет-магазинів, крамниць, торгових точок, складів та виробництва