A contra account for revenues, i.e., a revenue account that has a debit balance, rather than the credit balance of a typical revenues account. Contra revenue accounts include sales discounts, sales returns, and sales allowances, which all by nature have a debit balance, contrary to revenues. Contra revenues are a deduction from the gross revenues reported by an entity, in order to arrive at net revenues.

For instance, the sales returns account records the sale value of goods returned by customers. It is netted against the revenue account, and the net balance of the two accounts shows the net value of sales achieved by the entity for the relevant accounting period. If revenues are CU 10,000 and sales returns are CU 2,000,  the two accounts will be shown on the statement of income as follows (an extract):