Free receipt template and receipt maker

What a receipt is and when to give one

A receipt is a short document that confirms you have received a payment. It sits at the opposite end of a sale from an invoice: the invoice asks for money, and the receipt says the money has arrived. For your customer it's proof that they paid, which they may need for their own bookkeeping, for an expense claim or in case there's a disagreement later. For you it's a record of income that you can match against your bank statement or the cash you took that day.

The most common reason to give one is a cash sale. When someone pays you in cash at a market stall, at their front door or at the end of a job, there's no bank transfer or card statement to show that money changed hands, so the receipt is the only record either of you has. Customers who pay by card or transfer sometimes ask for one too, because a bank statement shows an amount and a name but not what was bought. Someone whose employer pays back their expenses, for example, will often need a receipt that names your business and lists the items before the money is refunded to them.

Deposits are another good reason. If a couple pays a photographer $500 to book a wedding on June 19, 2027, a receipt that reads "Deposit for wedding photography, June 19, 2027" records exactly what the money was for, so nobody has to remember months later whether it was a deposit, part of the fee or a booking charge. When a client pays an invoice, a receipt confirms that the invoice is settled, and some clients ask for one so their own accounts show the bill as closed. Landlords who collect rent have the same need, with a few points of their own that the page on rent receipts explains.

What goes on a receipt, with an example

A receipt has one job, which is to show that a particular payment was made, so everything on it helps to identify that payment beyond doubt. The details below are what a customer, an accountant or a tax inspector would look for to tie the receipt to a real payment, and they're worth checking before you hand a receipt over:

• Your business name, address and contact details
• A receipt number that you use only once
• The name of the person or business that paid you
• What the payment was for, line by line, with quantities and prices
• The amount paid, with any sales tax or VAT shown separately
• The date you received the payment
• How it was paid: cash, card, bank transfer, check or another method
• The invoice number, if the receipt is for an invoice that has been paid

The receipt number matters more than it looks. It lets you and your customer refer to one specific receipt, and when the numbers run in order you can see at a glance if one is missing, which is why receipts are best kept in their own series apart from your invoices (the page on invoice numbers explains the same idea for invoices). The date is the date the money reached you, not the date of the job or of the invoice, because the receipt is evidence of the payment itself. The payment method lets both sides match the receipt to a bank statement, a card terminal report or the day's cash.

Here's what that looks like in practice. A piano technician tunes a customer's piano and replaces two worn hammer felts, and the customer pays in cash when the work is done. The receipt is numbered R-14 and dated March 3, 2026, and it shows that the payment was received from Ellen Ortiz, in cash, for the following work:

Notice what isn't on it. There's no due date, no bank details and no "please pay within 30 days", because nothing is owed any more, and a receipt that asked for payment could easily be read as a second bill. If Ellen had paid only $100 that day, the receipt would say $100, since a receipt records the money that arrived and not the money still to come.

How a receipt differs from an invoice

An invoice and a receipt often list the same items and the same total, which is why they get mixed up, but they do opposite jobs. An invoice comes before payment and asks for it: it has a due date, payment terms and the details the customer needs to pay you, and until it's paid the customer owes you the amount on it. A receipt comes after payment and confirms it, which closes the matter. If you sell for cash on the spot to private customers you may only ever write receipts, while if you bill clients first you send an invoice and then, when the money arrives and the client wants one, a receipt.

This is where the idea of a "paid invoice receipt" comes from. Some businesses simply mark a copy of the invoice as paid and send it back, and many clients are happy with that, but a separate receipt is clearer because it has its own number and date, it says how the money was paid, and it can't be confused with a reminder to pay the same bill again. The page on invoice vs receipt goes through the difference in more detail, including when you need each one. And if you haven't been paid yet, what you need is the invoice template rather than a receipt.

Sales tax, VAT and keeping copies

If a sale includes sales tax, show it on the receipt the way it was charged, as a separate amount on top of the price, so the customer can see which part of the payment was tax. Check the amount before you hand the receipt over, because tax you collect by mistake isn't simply yours to keep. As a rule, sales tax you charge by mistake, or charge too much of, is not yours to keep: in California it must be returned to the customer or else paid to the state, and in Texas the state will not refund a seller until the seller has refunded or credited the customer. The details differ by state, so check with each state where you collect sales tax. In practice that means knowing which of your items are taxable in the state where you sell and leaving the others without tax, rather than adding sales tax to everything to be on the safe side.

In the UK the first question is whether you may show VAT at all. Only a VAT-registered business may issue a VAT invoice: if you are not registered you must not show VAT, and if you do, HMRC can charge a penalty of up to 100% of the VAT shown and still collect that amount from you. If a VAT invoice shows more VAT than is due, you must pay HMRC the higher amount unless you correct the error with your customer by issuing a credit note. So if your business isn't VAT-registered, keep VAT off your receipts just as you keep it off your invoices. The receipt then shows plain amounts, and some businesses add a short note that explains why: Not registered for VAT. If you are registered and the sale includes VAT, it's clearest to show the VAT on each line, matching the invoice the receipt relates to, so your customer isn't left with two documents that tell different stories. If your customer is a VAT-registered business, though, they may need a VAT invoice from you rather than a receipt, and the UK invoice page explains what one must show.

Keep a copy of every receipt you issue, together with the invoice it belongs to if there is one. Your copies are part of your income records, and for cash sales they may be the only record you have of the money coming in. The usual retention period for business records is 3 years in the United States and 6 years in the UK, so a folder of PDFs for each year is a simple way to keep them easy to find for as long as you might need them.

Making a receipt in the maker

In the maker a receipt is its own type of document, laid out to confirm a payment rather than ask for one. Where an invoice shows a due date and payment details, a receipt shows "Received from" with your customer's name, the date paid and the payment method, and there's no request to pay on it. Receipts are numbered in their own series, R-1, R-2 and so on, so they never use up or interrupt your invoice numbers. To make one on its own, for a cash sale or a deposit, follow these steps:

1. Open the maker and start a new receipt. Enter your business name and address, plus your VAT number if you have one and a logo if you like; you enter these once and they're filled in on every document after that.
2. Fill in who paid you under "Received from", or pick a client you've saved before.
3. Add a line for each thing that was paid for, with the quantity, unit and price. If you charge sales tax or VAT, set the rate on each line that's taxed, and the maker works out the tax and the total.
4. Enter the date you received the payment and choose how it was paid: cash, card, bank transfer, check or other.
5. Download the PDF to print or to attach to an email to your customer, or print the receipt straight from the maker.

If the customer is paying an invoice you made in the maker, you don't need to type anything twice. Open the invoice and use Create receipt: you get a receipt for the same client with the same lines and amounts and the invoice number on it, and the invoice itself is marked as paid, so your overview shows it as settled. The same works for a proforma invoice that the client has paid before delivery.

Receipts have their own tab in the overview and never count in your invoice totals or the VAT summary. That's deliberate, because a receipt for a paid invoice records income the invoice already shows, so adding both would count every paid invoice twice. Keep in mind that the maker records payments you have received but doesn't take card payments itself, so a card sale still goes through your own card reader, and the receipt is best made once the money has actually arrived.