Do you have to put a Receipt Number on a receipt?

WilliamO

Hi all,

If you are self-employed and not VAT registered and have a custom made receipt book made; Does it have to contain a numbering system by law etc? Or can you just have it whereby you put a date paid, customer address details, services provided, etc so that the Date is sequential as opposed to a numbering system.

Example: You put on your first receipt page a unique word/phrase (i.e. Cake Job) and on the second receipt page another unique word/phrase (i.e. Baked Sponge) together with the date details and so on for each job on each page whereby you then put on your Microsoft Excel file - Receipt Number 1: Cake Job.....other details. Receipt Number 2: Baked Sponge.....other details. In other words, the excel file is recording the receipt numbers that correspond to the worded/phrased receipts.

Everything I have read so far on the net suggests a receipt number (in sequence) is only for VAT registered companies???

The reason I ask is because the numbering system tells people, quite rightly or wrongly, how busy you are!! I.e. Tracey is given receipt number 1 and then a week later gets receipt number 5, therefore telling her you only did 3 jobs after your first meeting with her. Surely if you have dated your receipt book etc this is good enough??????

Thanks in advance for any help on this matter.

Regards

WilliamO

Owain_Moneysaver

Serial numbered invoices/receipts are usually preferred, if not actually mandated, so the auditor and the taxman can tell you're not issuing invoices and receiving payments 'off the books'.

Business customers usually require a unique invoice number on things so they can be sure they don't pay the same invoice twice.

Perhaps you could omit the serial number on the top copy of the receipt book?

You also don't have to start serial numbering at one, which makes it a bit less obvious. Or you could use a non-decimal numbering system so your numbers go up faster? Eg 1-9 in decimal is 1 2 3 10 11 12 13 20 21 in quaternary (base 4)

WilliamO

Hi Owain,

Thanks for the clarification. My accountant pointed out that numbering would be better but I was also told that "there is no law" that states you have to use numbers.

I have also seen on the net that people have a client based system. I.e. they have clients Bob and Peter whereby they are known as B!!! and Peter2 but then jobs thereafter are named B!!!.1 B!!!.2 etc and the same with Peter (i.e. Peter1.1, Peter1.2 etc). If this is possible; how would you know the sequence? Did job B!!!.2 come before or after Peter1.4??? In other words, it goes back to the Date being relied upon to know which jobs were done in what order.

One question about the sequence of base 4: Surely someone might argue that you have also done the in-between numbered jobs (i.e. 4, 5 and 6 for example) but are then stating base 4 for whatever reason(s)? In other words, how would you explain you are using a base 4 system? They might say "come off it.....I know you are using 1 to 10 and therefore have done 10 jobs"??? Just a thought.

Going back to Excel; Is an excel file the preferred way of recording invoices and receipts in terms of an accountant "doing your books".

Regards

WilliamO

PinkLipgloss

If you decided to use the Peter1, Peter2, Bill 1 system then I would keep an excel log detailing: date, client, work, invoice number and amount.

I wouldn't worry about "appearing dodgy" and appearing to be "doing your books" as, if you did have something to hide, it would be obvious from a detailed look at your company accounts (e.g. buying in lots of fresh ingredients for cakes every day but only selling one cake a fortnight!).

ETA - I would definitely recommend using an invoice number as, as has been already mentioned, a lot of companies account payable departments use them as a point of reference.

WilliamO

Thanks everyone for your input, it has been most helpful.

Regards

WilliamO

ladylouise62

How about using a date number - e.g. 211211/01. It's long (which doesn't show up number change so much), and resets everyday so no-one would be able to see how much work you do.

paddyrg

Using a date-based system such as YYYYMMJJJ (where JJ is the job number that month) it is easy to keep in date order, keep uniquely numbered, and satisfy HMRC if they ever want to see your books

You can buy pre-numbered receipt books which start at some randomish high number and run for a hundred/thousand invoices - you don't have to start at 1 and increment - the advanctage is any 2 of these books will never duplicate a number.

I have an automated number stamp too - useful for VAT time - where I number each receipt and tie it back to the master spreadsheet with a reference - very convenient as it can be set to go up every stamp, every other stamp, every third, etc upto every 12th stamp! Great for when you need to tie several bits of paperwork together!

Notmyrealname

I can't see personally why the OP is getting so hung up about it. I've sold to customers when its been quiet and there's been maybe only a couple of numbers different in the invoice. TBH I doubt any customer takes much notice - they'll just input the invoice number into their accounts, file and forget.

Some of the jobs I've done self employed in the past have taken a week or two with a bill of £1000's. Does that mean I'm not busy because Bob who I did a job for before this and then directly after only got an invoice that had a number two higher than the one he got before?

Do you think builders who can spend several weeks on a job worry about it?