Keeping track of your business’s cash receipts in a timely manner is necessary for efficient financial management. Proper accounting procedures for cash receipts allow you to maintain adequate records for financial statement development and income tax preparation, so it’s critical to learn how these receipts work and how to manage them. 

What Are Cash Receipts?

Cash receipts are proof that your business has made a sale. A cash receipt should be generated whenever you receive cash from an external source and record an increase to your cash account on the balance sheet. This will ensure that your cash flow and ultimately your profit are correct. Cash receipts are also necessary to minimize theft and stop fraud.  In order to qualify as a cash receipt, certain information must be present on the printed receipt:

The date of the transactionThe amount of the transactionDescription of the service of productThe quantity soldThe name or company of the payorWhether the payment was made by cash, check, or some other methodThe signature of the payorAn identifying number

When You Need a Cash Receipt

You need to generate a cash receipt when any of the following payment methods are used:

Cash CheckPurchase on store credit

Whenever a cash receipt is generated and you have received one of these three forms of payment, you debit your cash account in your cash receipts journal and credit your sales on your profit and loss statement.  The physical or electronic owner’s copy of the cash receipt is called a source document in the accounting for cash receipts. Source documents are the proof that a sale was actually made and payment received. It should be kept for income tax reporting purposes and to support your financial statements. Source documents are now most conveniently stored online. If you use bookkeeping or accounting software, you can conveniently store one copy with the sale. Another copy should be placed in cloud storage as a backup. 

How To Account for Cash Receipts

Here are the steps in accounting for cash sales and cash receipts. 

  1. Make the sale: Make the sale of Product A for $50 paid in cash. Generate a cash receipt.
  2. Make the entry in the cash receipts journal: Make the cash receipt accounting entries if you have sold $50 of Product A for cash in the cash receipts journal: For tax reporting purposes, the situation can be just as precarious. You need to report all your cash sales to the IRS. If you are missing cash sales receipts, you may understate your sales on your tax return. If you are audited but your sales are stable from month-to-month or year-to-year, here are some options: 

Try to estimate your sales. It is safest to overestimate them. Present canceled checks, debit/credit card statements, photographs of items, or any applicable emails as evidence of transactions. Seek the counsel of a CPA or tax attorney to avoid any issues with the IRS.