You stroll around a local market and come across a nice stall full of old comic books. It turns out to be an independent who has been buying – and selling – old comic books through local markets for years.
You buy some old Suske and Wiske comic books! You pay and then continue your walk, but a bit further on you suddenly realise that you haven’t received any invoice, receipt or whatever from your purchase. Did that pedlar just sell you something in black?
No way, that market vendor is using a daily receipt book.
What is a daily receipt book? 📓
A day receipts book, also sometimes called day receipts or revenue book, is a paper book (although Dexxter has a digital alternative) in which you can record receipts as a self-employed person.
Normally, as a self-employed person, you prepare a sales invoice; that sales invoice has two raisons d’être:
- A prepared sales invoice enters your accounts, the amount of that sales invoice is turnover for your accounts. So it is important for your bookkeeping.
- You give a sales invoice to your buyer, so the buyer has a document that states what he bought from you, how much he paid for it, what your bank account number is (if he still has to pay), general conditions …
Now imagine a situation where your buyer has no need for that second point, think of the earlier example of comic books.
The buyer has bought something small, he is not interested in not having received an invoice for it with a description on it and stating the amount paid.
The buyer has also paid immediately (cash, bancontact … it doesn’t matter) and doesn’t need to know your bank account number or the applicable general conditions afterwards.
Then you are exactly in the situation of daily receipts! Such situations occur in many sectors, think of a bakery, hairdresser, butcher, psychologist, (physical) shop …
If your buyer is a private individual who does not specifically ask for a sales invoice, then as a self-employed person you are not obliged to create a sales invoice for it. In that case, you may use a record in the daily receipts book.
You may use the daily receipts book regardless of how your private customer paid (bank card cash, cash, meal vouchers, Payconiq).
Attention!
A daily receipt book is not a cash book! Would you like some more information about a cash book?
What is the advantage of a daily receipt book? ✅
We go back to our market vendor who sells comic books, he sells as many as 100 comic books that day.
That would mean he should have made 100 sales invoices that day. And actually even immediately after each sale, because his customers want to walk on again quickly. Quite an administration for our market vendor.
Fortunately, he can also opt for the daily receipts system! At the end of the day, he simply notes in his receipt book that he has sold 100 strips and for what amount. A line in his daily receipts book and he thus fulfils his administrative obligations!
Still, quite a time saver compared to creating 100 sales invoices!
How do daily receipts enter my accounts? 🧾
In the identical way as a sales invoice, there is no difference in accounting terms between turnover from sales invoices or turnover from a daily receipt book.
Either our market vendor effectively created 100 sales invoices where he sold each comic book at 2 euros. So he arrives at 200 euros of turnover for his accounts.
Or, on one line in his daily receipts book, our peddler has noted: 100 comic books sold; 2 euros each; 200 euros of turnover. Just the same as above, 200 euro turnover for his accounts.
So it’s safe to say that a receipts book works even easier for your accounting. You don’t have to start entering each sales invoice separately in your accounts, you just take the total amount from your daily receipts book.
That on top of the huge time savings for our market vendor, because he didn’t have to create 100 sales invoices.
Either a sales invoice or daily receipts!
A common mistake, but it is therefore either one or the other. If you make a combination of the two, you’re going to double declare turnover in your accounts, and we certainly can’t recommend that!
Because double turnover obviously means (unfairly) more profit in your accounts which in turn means (unfairly) more taxes to pay.
How do I fill in my daily receipts book? 🔎
Either on paper: beware, only the legally accepted version will do!
Or digital: be sure to go for a digital solution that complies with all the rules, such as Dexxter! An Excel to keep track of your daily receipts is not sufficient and can even result in fines of 50 to 4000 euros!
The government has set the ground rules for keeping track of your daily receipts digitally quite sharply, you can find out more in the 2020/C/20 circular. To meet these conditions, you have to work with specialised software such as Dexxter.
For example, it should not be possible to simply modify or delete data without leaving a digital trace.
In Dexxter, this is a piece of cake!
Your daily receipt book via Dexxter is correctly completed if you record the number of products sold daily, per separate product category and per separate VAT rate.
There are still many conditions, but simply use Dexxter as a self-employed person with a sole proprietorship. Our handy module guides you effortlessly through the process of entering your daily receipts.
Did you fill in your daily receipts book first and afterwards your customer still asks for an invoice?
No worries, in Dexxter you can make a correction afterwards, automatically taking into account the legal rules, of course. So you will have to give a reason, but that reason is then obviously the creation of a sales invoice.
On which day should I enter my daily receipts?
The law says, on the one hand, that you have to fill in your daily receipts book every day. But when do you enter something as turnover? When you sell? When the customer pays? Or when you receive the pennies? With a bank statement, for example, there can be some time in between.
The law says you have to enter revenue on the day you receive the payment. In other words, when the money arrives in your bank account or when you receive the cash payment.
Entering your daily receipts in Dexxter 💪
To make it practical, here is an example of how you, as a VAT-registered entrepreneur, can get started in Dexxter:
Of course, you also have a customised application in Dexxter for entering your daily receipts as a VAT-exempt or non-VAT liable entrepreneur!
