Sales Types A-E Explained: Codes 4000, 4001, 4002, 4100 & 4101

Sage's default chart of accounts gives a business five generic sales codes to start from — Types A through E — rather than trying to guess in advance what a particular business actually sells.

The codes, and what each one holds

Code 4000 — Sales Type A, 4001 — Sales Type B and 4002 — Sales Type C sit together as the first block of general sales codes, while 4100 — Sales Type D and 4101 — Sales Type E form a second block. In practice, businesses rename these to match their own product lines, sales regions, or VAT rates — for example splitting standard-rated sales from zero-rated sales. All five are Sales codes and normally carry a credit balance.

A worked example

Say a business sells both standard-rated consultancy services and zero-rated printed materials, and renames its sales codes to match.

Sales Type A → "Consultancy" (code 4000): £6,000 credited for the month's standard-rated invoices.

Sales Type B → "Printed Materials" (code 4001): £1,500 credited for the month's zero-rated invoices.

Each code rolls up separately in the profit and loss report, showing exactly how much of the month's turnover came from each type of sale.

Why this matters day to day

Leaving everything in a single generic sales code makes it impossible to see which part of the business is actually growing, and it also makes VAT return preparation harder if different products carry different VAT treatments. Renaming these codes early, before too many transactions have been posted, is one of the easiest wins when setting up a new Sage company.