Receipt Voucher and Payment Voucher: What a Proper Template Contains

A receipt voucher records money your business receives. A payment voucher records money it pays out and shows who approved the payment. Together they are the paper trail behind every cash and bank entry in your books. A proper voucher is numbered in an unbroken sequence, states the amount in figures and in words, names the other party and the reason, and carries the right signatures. Neither one is a tax invoice, and neither replaces the e-invoicing documents that ZATCA requires.

What a receipt voucher is and when to issue it

Issue a receipt voucher every time money comes in, whatever the method: cash at the counter, a cheque, or a bank transfer from a customer. The customer keeps the original as proof of payment, and you keep the copy, or the system record, as support for the entry in your books.

It protects both sides. The customer can prove that a balance was settled, and you can prove which invoice the money was applied to. Without it, disputes over who paid what turn into arguments built on memory and bank statements.

Typical cases:

• A customer settles one invoice or several.
• An advance or down payment before delivery or before work starts.
• A refundable deposit from a customer or a tenant.
• A refund from a supplier.
• A partner or owner putting cash into the business.
• The sale of a used asset such as a vehicle or a piece of equipment.

What a payment voucher is and why it needs approval

A payment voucher is first of all an internal control. It is prepared before money leaves the business, it states what the payment is for, and it is approved by someone other than the person who prepared it. When the payment is in cash, the person receiving the money signs the voucher to confirm it.

Attach the supporting documents: the supplier’s tax invoice, the purchase order, the delivery or receiving note, a signed service contract, or an approved expense claim. A payment voucher with nothing behind it is the first thing an external auditor or a new finance manager will question.

Typical uses are supplier payments, petty-cash expenses, employee advances and expense refunds, rent, government fees paid in the company’s name, and partners’ withdrawals.

Fields a proper voucher contains

Whether you use a printed book, a spreadsheet or accounting software, a sound template has three parts.

Header

• Company name and logo, commercial registration number, VAT number if the company is registered, and address.
• The voucher type in plain words: Receipt Voucher or Payment Voucher.
• A serial number, pre-printed or generated by the system in strict sequence.
• The date.

Body

• The payer’s name on a receipt voucher, or the payee’s name on a payment voucher.
• The amount in figures and in words, with the currency.
• The method: cash; cheque, with its number, bank and due date; or transfer, with the bank reference.
• The description: the invoice numbers settled, the advance, the deposit, or the nature of the expense.
• The account and cost center the amount is posted to, usually an internal field.

Footer

• Name and signature of the person who prepared it.
• Approval by the authorized manager on a payment voucher.
• Signature of the person who received the money: your cashier on a receipt voucher, the payee on a cash payment voucher.
• The company stamp, if your practice uses one.
• On a cancelled voucher, a clear Cancelled mark, with the original and every copy kept on file.

Print receipt vouchers in at least two copies, or issue them from the system and send a copy to the customer. Never leave the amount in words blank: it is the field that stops anyone from adding a digit later.

How vouchers feed the books

Every voucher becomes a journal entry. The usual treatment:

• Customer payment against an invoice: debit cash or bank, credit the customer’s receivable account.
• Advance from a customer: debit cash or bank, credit customer advances, a liability that stays until the work is delivered and invoiced.
• Cheque received but not yet cleared: many companies record it in a cheques-under-collection account and move it to bank when it clears.
• Payment to a supplier: debit the supplier’s payable account, credit cash or bank.
• Petty-cash expense: debit the expense account, credit petty cash; the custodian’s vouchers are reviewed before the fund is topped up.

The voucher number goes into the journal entry, and the entry number goes back onto the voucher or its system record. That two-way link is your audit trail: anyone can start from a bank line or an expense and reach the document and the approval behind it.

Three routines keep the trail intact:

• A daily cash count, matched against the day’s receipt and payment vouchers.
• A monthly bank reconciliation that ties every transfer to a voucher.
• A check of the numbering for gaps, with every missing or cancelled number explained.

Digital vouchers and e-invoicing

Most accounting systems now issue both vouchers electronically: numbered automatically, approved through a workflow, and sent to the customer by email or message. That is usually better than paper, provided the system blocks edits after approval, keeps a log of who changed what and when, and stores scans of the supporting documents with the voucher.

Keep a clear line between vouchers and e-invoicing. ZATCA’s e-invoicing requirements cover tax invoices, simplified tax invoices, and credit and debit notes. A receipt voucher is proof of payment, not one of those documents, so it does not replace an invoice and is not handled like one in your e-invoicing setup.

Watch advance payments. Under VAT, tax can become due on an advance when it is received, which may require a tax invoice at that point, not just a receipt voucher. ZATCA’s published guidance explains when this applies.

Keep vouchers and their supporting documents for the full retention period that applies to commercial books and tax records; the Ministry of Commerce and ZATCA publish these requirements. If you keep them electronically, make sure the copies stay complete, readable and easy to retrieve for that whole period.

Common mistakes

• Numbering that restarts every year or at every branch without a prefix, so two vouchers carry the same number.
• An amount in figures that does not match the amount in words.
• Cash paid out with no signature from the person who received it.
• One person who prepares, approves and pays.
• Vouchers written days later from memory, with the wrong date.
• Treating a receipt voucher as a tax invoice, or missing the VAT on an advance.
• Tearing out spoiled vouchers instead of marking them cancelled and keeping them.
• Paying salaries in cash through payment vouchers, when wages should go through the bank and be reported for wage protection on Mudad.
• Using a template downloaded from the internet that lacks the company’s details, or accepting a customer’s form instead of your own series.

If your vouchers, petty cash and bank reconciliations do not tie together, Innovant’s accounting team can set up the voucher series, the approval limits and the monthly routine that links them.

Frequently asked questions

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