Accounting Manual

Receipts - Submitting

Overview

Who

These procedures should be followed by anyone who has made a purchase.

When

These procedures should be followed as soon as possible after a purchase is made.

Time Requirements

Submitting a single receipt should take less than a minute.

Procedures

Physical Receipts

This procedure describes how to submit a physical receipt to the bookkeeper after a purchase has been made.

1. For receipts that are smaller than a standard sheet of paper (8.5”x11”), staple them to a blank sheet of paper with one staple in each corner of each receipt (only one receipt per sheet of paper). Receipts that are the size of a standard sheet of paper or larger can be submitted directly.
2. Attach all receipts to their corresponding [Purchase Request Form] with a paperclip.
3. Place the receipts in the [Accounting Inbox] in the Factor e Farm Office along with the fully signed and initialed corresponding [Purchase Request Form].

Digital Receipts

This procedure describes how to submit a digital receipt to the bookkeeper after a purchase has been made.

1. Email receipts to accounting@opensourceecology.org
2. Attach the [Purchase Request Form] in the same email.

Comments

• Receipts are stapled to a standard sheet of paper in order to keep the filing cabinet organized and orderly, and in order to preserve the legibility of receipts over time.
• Receipts are filed by vendor, so receipts from different vendors should never be stapled to the same sheet of paper.
• All purchases must be accompanied by a [Purchase Request Form], even if made by the someone with the authority to approve purchases (Operations Manager and Executive Director), so that the bookkeeper knows how to log all transactions and to follow internal control guidelines.
• Receipts are paperclipped to their corresponding [Purchase Request Form] in order to keep them organized for the bookkeeper.

Receipts - Filing

Procedures

Physical Receipts

This procedure describes how to file a physical receipt in the [Accounting Filing Cabinet] and is done by the bookkeeper.

1. Log all transactions according to the [Transaction Logging Procedures].
2. Take a photograph of (or scan) each receipt and [Purchase Request Form].
3. File physical receipts in the [Accounting Filing Cabinet] in the corresponding vendor folder and order them chronologically within each vendor folder.
4. File [Purchase Request Forms] in the Purchase Request Form Folder by number in the [Accounting Filing Cabinet].
5. File digital files according to the Digital Receipts Procedure in the next section.

Digital Receipts

This procedure describes how to file a digital receipt in the [Online Accounting Archive] and is done by the bookkeeper.

1. Name digital files according to the following naming convention:

   date (year/month/day) - vendor - purchase request form number

   Example: 2013 - 01-10 - Surplus Center - 101

   Note: if two purchases were made from the same vendor on the same date with the same purchase request form number, add a hyphen and a two-digit number.

   Example: 2013 - 01-10 - Surplus Center - 101 - 01

2. File digital copies of receipts in the [Online Accounting Archive] in the corresponding vendor folder (the software will file them chronologically).
3. File digital copies of [Purchase Request Forms] in the Purchase Request Form Folder in the [Online Accounting Archive].

Comments

• Physical receipts deteriorate and become unreadable over time. This is why we create digital backups of each receipt. It is not sufficient to only have a digital archive, because digital files are easy to forge, while physical records are more difficult to forge.

References

• Open Source Ecology Process Documentation Standards