Admit it. You have a bad habit of throwing away a receipt right after making a purchase. Considering the significance of a receipt, doing so would be a bad idea. Thus, it’s important for businesses to issue professional receipts that customers won’t want to ignore.
Lucky for you creating a simple receipt isn’t as difficult as it may seem. By following the right steps and meeting standard requirements, you won’t have to worry about a thing!
A good receipt should be comprised of the following elements:
1. Business Name and Address: Often placed at the top section of the page, it’s important to indicate the name of the business issuing the receipt and its office or store address. Even store-bought receipts have these elements handwritten on paper so that any problems with the transaction may be settled with the right parties.
2. Contact Information: Paying a visit to your head office just to place in an order or to forward a concern might be a bit inconvenient for most customers. Thus, it’s important to provide your contact details as well. This will make it easier for clients and customers to make inquiries, reservations, and suggestions, among others.
3. Date Issued: The date as to when the receipt was issued is vital to both the buyer and the seller alike. By specifying the exact date of issuance, you can quickly trace the transaction using a personal record or an automatized system. This may also come in handy when writing a sales report for the period.
4. Receipt Number: In addition to the receipt’s issuance date, a receipt number will also be valuable for tracking reasons. That way, you can match your own record with that of the customer and assess whether the receipt is authentic. And to ensure the correct order of these files, you can simply write the receipt number by hand.
5. List of Purchased Items: In the body of the receipt, you’ll find a designated area for the goods and services purchased by the customer. This usually comes in the form of a table, where a brief description of the product along with the quantity of the same item are specified.
6. Price of Items: On the same line of the purchased item, the price of the acquired good or service is indicated. The selling price per item should be multiplied by the quantity specified to leave you with the total amount due.
7. Subtotal and Grand Total: Once all the items have been listed and totaled, you can then sum up everything on the list to get the subtotal of the transaction. This should then be added to the taxes, fees, and charges due to give the grand total of the transaction. This refers to the final amount the customer must pay to the business in cash, debit, or credit, depending on the company’s required method of payment.
When managing a business, knowing how to make a professional receipt is essential to your day-to-day operations. Fortunately, issuing an official receipt isn’t as hard as it seems. Refer to the step-by-step guide below and you should be on your way.
1. Receive the payment: A receipt is used to record a transaction for the business and its clients to refer to. However, this only happens once a payment has been received. One common example would be the rent receipt provided by landlords to their tenants. While a rent receipt is typically issued on a monthly basis, an average receipt may be supplied at any given instance, as long as money has been exchanged in return for a product or service provided.
2. Download a template: Receipts of any given type generally share a similar structure. So instead of constructing one from scratch, it’s a good idea to use a receipt template that best suits your purpose. All you need to do is to look for an appropriate template, download a copy of such in a chosen file format, and customize its content. Be sure to fill in the empty spaces with your company name, business logo, and contact information. This is a great alternative for those who don’t have the extra time to spare for the receipt.
3. Fill in the necessary information: In many cases, details of the transaction have to be noted by hand. This includes the date of the transaction, a list of purchased items and their corresponding prices, the total amount due, as well as the amount paid by the customer. You can also indicate the name of the customer and the person responsible for issuing the receipt, warranty details, and other supporting data when necessary.
4. Secure a copy of the receipt: Always secure a personal copy of the document for future purposes. This can be used to address a problem that may arise. While a carbon copy of the original receipt would do just fine, you also have the option to file a digital version of the document just in case. That way, you’ll always have a backup copy of the receipt in the event of an emergency or loss.
It isn’t rocket science, yet a lot of people still struggle with making a good receipt. So to ensure your receipts serve their intended purpose, here are a few things to consider:
A receipt can be divided into three different categories. These are as follows:
1. Product Receipts: This type of receipt may be used during business-to-customer transactions or even business-to-business transactions. Manufacturing and retail companies often issue these receipts to record sales and keep track of their inventory. In case of a product defect or any similar scenario, customers may use the receipt for compensation purposes.
2. Service Receipts: Service providers will find these receipts very useful when settling disputes with customers and vice versa. Like for instance, an internet service provider sends a disconnection notice to a customer. But the customer claims the bill has been settled and has a service receipt to prove it. Since the receipt is clear evidence of a transaction made, no further action against shall be made the customer.
3. Product & Service Sales Receipts: When you purchase something online, an invoice is sent via email to confirm your purchase. After which, the seller provides you with a delivery receipt presenting the product and shipment costs for you to use as reference. To put it simply, this receipt is basically a combination of the two receipt types listed above.
A receipt can carry a wide array of information. Some essential, while others optional. This would depend on the exact purpose of your receipt along with the information that clients and customers might find useful. Generally, the receipt must consist of your company details, the name and price of the items bought or services received, the payment amount, the change given (if any), along with the date of sale.
Receipts are typically used to prove that a transaction has been made, as claimed by either of the parties involved. This can also be used for customer information, internal accounting, returns and exchanges, and nonprofit donations. This is why it’s important for the receipt to contain the necessary information to support a claim.
As an average customer, you’ve probably encountered these two terms (invoice and receipt) multiple times before. While they may seem alike in many ways, you can easily distinguish one from the other through a few distinct qualities. This primarily points to when these documents were issued by the opposite party. For one, an invoice is usually issued prior to the completion of a transaction. Customers are often asked to review the invoice for confirmation before the order can be processed. Receipts, on the other hand, contains a summary of the transaction after it has been completed.
Given the legal importance and business value of a receipt, it’s important to create one with the right approach. And with the help of our wide selection of receipt templates and examples, it won’t be as challenging as you thought it would!
