Every legitimate business should issue receipts of payment. They confirm that the customer has paid for the goods or services, so they’re essential for accounting, bookkeeping, and auditing purposes.
When it comes to receipts, there’s one thing that often gets overlooked: they can be much more than a confirmation of received payment.
In this article, we’ll show you some great receipt of payment templates that you can use to make issuing receipts a more efficient, straightforward, simple, and informative practice for you and your customers.
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If you run any kind of business, invoices and receipts are definitely a part of your day-to-day practices. These two types of documents might be similar at first glance, but their purpose and contents are quite different.
Let’s start with the invoice.
An invoice is a document you send to request payment from your customer. You usually send them after the product or service has been delivered to the customer, but before the customer has paid for it. In other words, you’d issue an invoice after your work is done.
On the other hand, a receipt is a document you send to your customer as an acknowledgment that they’ve paid you. In other words, it’s a confirmation that you received compensation for your product, service, or work from your customer.
So, in a nutshell, the key difference between an invoice and a receipt is the point at which they come into play during your dealings with the customer.
An invoice is a payment request, and a receipt is proof of payment.
In addition to that, there are noticeable differences in the information they contain. An invoice is typically more detailed than a receipt.
For example, an invoice should include the following:
We should emphasize that not every item from the above list is necessary for the invoice to be valid. For example, if you don’t include a due date or payment terms, you can still receive a payment from your customer.
However, by omitting those details, you risk making the whole invoicing process more complicated and confusing.
Therefore, the listed elements are what is recommended for an efficient, well-composed invoice.
A receipt doesn’t usually have that much information. For instance, it typically doesn’t have customer information or an identification number.
However, it still contains elements that make it an important document for accounting and bookkeeping purposes. But more on that in the following section.
Knowing when and how to use invoices and receipts and understanding their differences can be beneficial for your business, as well as for your customer.
That way, you ensure that everyone included in the transaction has all the necessary information for hassle-free business dealings.
There are many ways to compose and design a receipt of payment. It’s up to you to decide which elements to include.
Once you’ve created the perfect receipt for your needs, it’s a great idea to turn it into a template to save time, simplify the process and reflect your business’ image that you want to present to your customers.
Whether you choose a simple template or something more elaborate, it would be wise to include some essential information to make the receipt as clear and easy to understand as possible. Here are a few suggestions:
Listed above are elements every receipt should contain, but that doesn’t mean you’re limited only to that.
For example, you can include a discount for the next purchase. Also, you can feature a logo of your business in the template design to use this opportunity for some self-promotion.
Finally, to make bookkeeping easier for your customers, you can mention their details, as you did in the invoice.
As you can see, a receipt of payment can be a handy and flexible business document, as long as you include in it the crucial information we mentioned. If you’re using a template, compose it with that in mind.
In the next section, we’ll show you some templates that do that very effectively.
Templates can make your life a lot easier, there’s no doubt about that. It’s important to get your template just right because you’ll be using it for all of your future transactions.
To get you inspired, check out the following templates for receipts of payment. As you’ll see, some of them differ mainly by design, and some of them are meant for specific types of payment. In any case, there are some great practices to follow here, so let’s dive right in.
Google has a lot of handy applications that can help you with all types of tasks and aspects of your business.
One of those apps is Google Docs. It’s a part of the Google Workspace platform (formerly G Suite), which has over 2 billion users, according to their General Manager Javier Soltero .
Among the reasons for the popularity of Google Docs certainly are the simplicity and convenience of use.
You can also use it to create some great receipt of payment templates. The best part is that Google Docs are so versatile and flexible that you can create receipt templates for any industry and every type of customer. Here’s one example:
As you can see, in the receipt of payment above are the elements we mentioned earlier: seller information and contact details, date, and all the relevant information about the service and the paid amount.
You can design your own template in Google Docs and save it, or you can find a free template on many websites. They are easily customizable, so you can remove or include any information you want.
When you need a starting point for writing a receipt of payment, having a basic template on hand can be immensely helpful.
A basic receipt template is, in a nutshell, a blank canvas for writing receipts of payment. It can be customized at will and fit any purpose that you might have.
Let’s take a look at one basic template below:
This kind of template is universal and has blank fields, making it very easy to fill out in a flash.
This particular example has additional information like the billing and shipping address, which isn’t essential for a receipt.
However, there’s no rule saying that you can’t include such details, and they may even help you and your customer with your accounting and bookkeeping needs.
If you’re dealing with cash during a transaction, you should issue a cash receipt.
A cash receipt is simply a type of receipt that you use when you receive cash from your customer in exchange for your work. Take a look at the example below to find the essential information this kind of receipt usually has:
Some elements to note here include the seller’s information, the date, a list of products or services with prices, and the total amount due.
This type of receipt is used in situations where a deposit is paid ahead of the full amount. If you offer this option, it might come in handy to have a deposit receipt template ready to go.
For example, a landlord might issue it to a tenant to confirm the received security deposit or paid rent. Also, sellers can issue deposit receipts after a private sale of an item, like a car, for instance.
Besides that, they can be used for any purchase when the buyer pays the seller in advance.
Here’s a template for a deposit receipt you can use.
If you agree with your customer that they’ll pay in advance for your service, such as a field trip you’re organizing, a deposit receipt template can be very useful.
You can issue it after you receive the agreed amount, and that way, provide your customer with a confirmation that the deposit has been accepted.
Then, after the full service has been delivered, you can go ahead and issue the full receipt.
If you’re working on a larger project for a customer or they hired you long term, you likely agreed on some kind of partial payment arrangement. This is where partial payment receipts come in.
Those receipts confirm that the customer has paid you a certain portion of the total sum. Therefore, it features information that other types of receipts don’t have. That’s why using a specific template for partial payment receipts saves you time.
You may notice that the template above has the full amount due, the amount that the customer already paid, and how much they still owe. Also, there’s a due date for paying the full amount.
That kind of information is crucial for the partial payment receipt; both you and your customer know the details about the transaction, and it’s easier to keep track of it that way. So, be sure to include it in your partial payment receipt template.
When sending a receipt via email, it’s important to know how to compose the body of the email, not only the receipt in the attachment. You can convey a lot of information and make the whole process easier by using a reliable payment receipt email template.
Below is an example of an email like that. Notice how this template combines a message with the basic elements of a standard receipt.
As you can see, the email body is used here to its full potential.
Everything the customer needs from the receipt is featured, including the extra information like how the purchase will appear on the credit card, a link to update payment information, a discount coupon, and a link for downloading the receipt as a PDF.
That’s a great template for email payment receipts. Why would you write only Thanks for your purchase and attach a receipt to the email when you can use the email to the fullest?
When you want to issue a simple, informative, and pragmatic receipt without too many details that can be distracting, you can opt for the minimalist receipt of payment template.
Minimalist and clean design is a good way to keep the customer’s attention on what really matters: a confirmation that your business is now complete. Here’s a very chic example:
Although a minimalist design is a matter of preference, it certainly doesn’t mean bare or ugly, so put some effort into making it look good.
The important guiding principle in the design of this receipt template, as well as any other, is that it’s a valid document with relevant information that can be useful for you and your customer in tracking finances and transactions.
A receipt of payment has the potential for being much more than a simple confirmation of the received payment. It can be a versatile document and a valuable tool for you if you employ some of the practices we discuss in this section.
We briefly mentioned earlier that one of the elements in the receipt could be a discount or a voucher for your customer. While you don’t have to include that in your receipt, doing so has multiple benefits.
For example, your customer will see it as a sign that you appreciate them and their business. It is a great way to strengthen your relationship while at the same time promoting your services. That’s just sound marketing. Check out the example below.
It’s always a good idea to ensure that your receipts are clear, straightforward, easy to read and, above else, practical for your customers and their accounting teams. After all, that’s the whole purpose of sending a receipt.
What to include will also depend on the country you’re doing business in and its laws.
Be sure to include the relevant tax information or even just a customizable area where they can add that information themselves.
On a similar note, one of the best practices you can do while issuing receipts of payment by email is to attach a PDF of the receipt.
Even though you may have composed a flawless receipt right in the body of the email, there’s a good chance that your customer will need to print it out for paperwork purposes. Providing them with a printable version will be a time-saver.
In light of everything mentioned in this section, probably the best practice you can employ when issuing receipts is to use an automated solution like Regpack .
Once you set it up the way you want, it can save you much of the kind of time-wasting and repetitive work which composing and sending receipts requires.
For example, Regpack will automatically send a receipt to the customer upon receiving their payment. If you like to have more control over the process, you can set up a trigger so that you receive a copy of the receipt at the same time.
Of course, you can design and customize your email templates using tokens that automatically insert customers’ information, lists of products or services, etc.
There are many ways to make your receipts of payment a helpful document that’ll make your and your customer’s life easier. Consider the advice in this section to see if you can improve the way you issue receipts to make life easier for you and your customers.
Receipts of payment complete their purpose even if they’re bare and not pretty to look at, so long as they have a few necessary pieces of information.
But if you’re running a business, you need them to be more than that.
As discussed in this article, receipts can be versatile and useful for establishing your brand, communicating with your customers, and simplifying the paperwork.
Having a great template that is effective and well-written will make it easy to achieve these goals, so look at the examples we’ve provided and implement them in your own business, and you’ll be sure to reap the benefits.
About The Author
Asaf, Founder and CEO of Regpack, has extensive experience as an entrepreneur and investor. Asaf has built 3 successful companies to date, all with an exit plan or that have stayed in profitability and are still functional. Asaf specializes in product development for the web, team building and in bringing a company from concept to an actualized unit that is profitable.
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