What is a receipt?

business.gov.au says the Australian Consumer Law sets out when a business must give a customer a receipt, and that it is good practice to offer one at the time of the sale. It says every receipt must show the business name, its ABN or ACN, the date of the sale, details of the goods or services and their price, and it lists cash register, handwritten and digital receipts among the types a business can give.

Its cash flow guidance lists receipts, invoices and bank statements as examples of the records of sales and costs to keep, and says to keep financial records for at least 5 years. For companies, the Corporations Act 2001 lists receipts among financial records in section 9, and section 286 requires a company to hold on to those records for 7 years once the transactions they cover are completed.

business.gov.au also says the ATO will accept a scanned or photographed copy of a paper record if the copy is clear, faithful to the original and kept under the record-keeping rules, and that the paper version then no longer needs to be kept unless a particular law or rule says otherwise.

• Filing the card statement in place of the receipt. The statement shows the supplier and the amount, but not what was bought.
• Leaving paper receipts in a drawer to fade instead of scanning or photographing each one as it arrives.
• Entering the same purchase twice, once from the receipt and again from the bank transaction.
• Throwing receipts away once the purchase has been entered in the books, without first saving a clear copy.