In the fast-moving consumer goods sector, especially with products like beers and sodas packaged in returnable glass bottles, managing empties (empty crates) is crucial for smooth operations. When customers take goods but do not return the equivalent number of empty crates, they become empty crate debtors.
A business entity dealing in fast moving consumer goods like beers and sodas with returnable glass bottles exchange full goods with empty crates. Sometimes customers may not be having enough crates vis-Ã -vis the quantities he/she is taking. Therefore these customers without enough crates and owing a business entity are called empty crate debtors.
It’s really vital for a stock controller to record empty crates debtors in debtors book of accounts showing details of debtors names, number of cases owed (empties out), in case of empties received from the debtors (empties in) and running balance showing empties still owed as shown below.
General empty debtors account capture all the customers who owe a business entity crates and individual empty debtors account only capture a single running transaction per person.
| DATE | DESCRIPTION | BAL | REFERENCE | EMPTIES | EMPTIES | RUNNING |
| B/F | OUT | IN | BALANCE | |||
| TOTAL |
PREPAIRED BY……………………. SIGN………………… DATE………………….
HOW TO USE THE TABLE
DATE = Record the transaction date
DESCRIPTION = Record first the balance from previous accounting period and list the details of transaction by mentioning the name of the debtor.
REFERENCE = Quote the document number used during the transaction.
EMPTIES OUT= Record the quantity of empties not brought
EMPTIES IN = Record the quantity of empties received as payment.
RUNNING BALANCE = EMPTIES OUT – EMPTIES IN
BALANCE B/F = these are balances of empties from the previous month and they are added to the current total to give the overall total quantities of the goods in consideration.
