Receipt Generator

A receipt is proof of payment, not a request for it

An invoice asks for money and creates a receivable. A receipt confirms money arrived and closes it. They are different documents with different legal weight, and issuing one when you mean the other causes real confusion in bookkeeping: a receipt recorded as an invoice double-counts the revenue. The receipt's job is to be the buyer's evidence that the debt is settled.

What belongs on it

Receipt number, date payment was received, who paid, who received, the amount, the payment method, and what it was for — ideally referencing the invoice number it settles. The payment method matters more than people expect: it is what lets both sides reconcile against a bank statement when the amount alone is ambiguous.

Partial payments need a running balance

A receipt for a partial payment should state the amount received, the amount previously received, and the balance still outstanding. Without that, a client holding three receipts and no summary reasonably believes something different from what your ledger says, and the disagreement surfaces months later.

Receipts are what expense claims run on

Employees and contractors reclaiming costs need receipts, not invoices, because the reimbursement is for money already spent. Tax authorities typically require the supplier's details, the date, the amount and the tax component to be legible; a card terminal slip showing only a total is often insufficient for reclaiming tax.

Cash payments especially need one

Electronic payments leave a bank record that corroborates both sides. Cash leaves nothing, so the receipt is the only evidence the transaction happened at all. For a cash transaction of any size, issuing a receipt protects the seller as much as the buyer, since it establishes what was paid and for what.

Sequential numbering applies here too

The same reasoning as invoices: unique, sequential, no gaps. Where a business issues both, keeping separate sequences with distinguishable prefixes prevents the two document types being confused in an audit.

Retention

Keep receipts as long as the transactions they evidence, typically five to seven years. Thermal till receipts fade within a year or two, which is why photographing or scanning them at the point of collection is standard advice for anyone who will need them later.

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