What Are Source Documents in Accounting?

These include accounting reports, invoices, and sales receipts where the company sells products. Internal source documents can be used to keep records and track business activity over time. Before recording a business transaction in your business’s accounting books, you must be sure that you’re reporting the correct transaction date, payer, payee, and amounts. Source documents are the physical proof of this information, providing a reference point for the bookkeeping process. They can also be used as evidence for an audit or for tax preparation.

Purchase orders, invoice source documents, and receipts form the backbone of the accounting books, containing all relevant details regarding each transaction. Here’s a rundown of these various business source documents and how they are used. Source documents are the physical basis upon which business transactions are recorded. Source documents are typically retained for use as evidence when auditors later review a company’s financial statements, and need to verify that transactions have, in fact, occurred. They usually contain a description of a business transaction, the date of the transaction, a specific amount of money, and an authorizing signature. Many source documents are also stamped to indicate an approval, or on which to write down the current date or the accounts to be used to record the underlying transaction.

It may also be prudent to retain these documents irrespective of regulations, if only to provide evidence in the event of a lawsuit, or to provide better customer service. They are important because they prove, first, that a transaction occurred, and they also serve as evidence of the details of that transaction should there ever be a discrepancy or dispute. Papers that your business obtains from other people or businesses are referred to as external source documents. A source document is an original record which contains the detail that supports or substantiates a transaction that will be (or has been) entered in an accounting system. Once the information in a source document has been recorded in the accounting system, the source document is indexed for easy access and archived.

This is the standard form required to be filled in duplicate or triplicate whenever cash cheques, bank drafts etc. is being paid into an account maintained with the bank. When paying with cash, it’s a good practice to have a receipt as confirmation of payment. When purchasing goods from a store or an online retailer, receipts are typically automatically issued. This is referred to as a credit note in the supplier’s bookkeeping system because it lowers the amount the client owes. Because it lowers the amount the customer owes the seller, it is known as a debit note in the customer’s bookkeeping system. GoCardless helps you automate payment collection, cutting down on the amount of admin your team needs to deal with when chasing invoices.

Credit Card Receipt

Find out how GoCardless can help you with ad hoc payments or recurring payments. It’s important to devise an organized filing system to ensure your supporting paperwork is available for reference. The person who is an authorised signatory of the bank account from which the check is issued must sign the check. Each check has a unique number that needs to be entered into the accounting software.

• When cheques are issued to make payment, the cheque itself or its counterfoil (or stub) would serve as the source document for the payment.
• Source documents can either be internal or external, depending on their origination.
• We understand that organizing all of the different types of source documents is overwhelming at best.
• This can be anywhere from three to seven years, depending on your tax situation.
• Before recording a business transaction in your business’s accounting books, you must be sure that you’re reporting the correct transaction date, payer, payee, and amounts.
• Nothing is more stressful than scrambling to find a receipt from two years ago while trying to run a business.

Source documents are a very important part of accurate business accounting. They serve as proof of the details of a transaction, and they are part of the key first step in the accounting process, so keeping accurate records of their contents is vital. Personal notes and record-keeping are not considered source documents as they can neither prove that a transaction has occurred nor prove the details of a transaction. In accounting, the definition of a source document is a piece of paper that proves that a transaction has occurred. Source documents contain pertinent information about the transaction, such as the date, the dollar amounts, the involved parties, and the purpose of the transaction. These documents serve as proof not only that the transaction has occurred but also of the details of the transaction.

A variety of documents are utilised in small business accounting to compile the financial accounts of the enterprise. The accounting books’ core papers—purchase orders, invoice source documents, and receipts—contain all pertinent information about each transaction. When conducting audits, compliance checks, or for other business-related purposes, source documents are frequently inspected.

Originality of Source Documents

Transactions, general ledgers, trial balances, diaries, and financial statements are a few examples of source documents. All of the paperwork needed to create a company’s financial statements are known as source documents. This is in case they need to be audited, according to several regulatory organisations. There is a primary reason why source papers are crucial to the bookkeeping and accounting process.

This is that they provide tangible proof that a financial transaction actually took place. These days, these documents may be in a traceable electronic form rather than a physical hard copy. Bank statements do not update immediately, and businesses sometimes forget to record credits and debits. When this happens, the numbers in their ledger don’t line up with the account statement. It can be a chore to track down the problem when your statement doesn’t show an accurate description of the transaction. However, you can create a more efficient system when you have all of your source documents.

AccountingTools

It’s vital that you make sure you’re reporting the correct transaction date, and payer. As well as the right payee, and amounts before entering a transaction into your company’s accounting records. Source documents can be used to serve as tangible evidence of this data and serve as a point of reference for the bookkeeping procedure. Various regulations mandate that some source documents be retained for a number of years.

The successful supplier will then convert the quote into a sales invoice after an order has been placed. A business will fill out an order form when it needs to purchase something. The order form could be as straightforward as a page cut out of a duplicate book or it could also be one that the seller provides through its online store or catalogue. A credit card receipt can be used as evidence for a disbursement of funds from petty cash.

Thus, in this situation, the timesheet is the source document for a sale transaction. Some other types of source documents include payroll records, accounting notes and reports, leases, financial contracts, and credit memos. Think of a situation when we sell goods to customers, we prepare invoices for sending goods, bills receivable in case of credit sales, and cash memos in case of cash sales. The copy  is delivered to the customer, and the original  is retained as a record in the business.

They provide the information needed to complete journal entries that are recorded in the accounting journal. Any information generated through source documents should be properly recorded in either the company’s journal, accounting software, or financial books. After the initial recording, all documents should be preserved and organized into a file and put into a system so they can be retrieved at any time. It is also important to make a record of general internal control procedures specifying who in the firm can access and authorize payments, orders, and other transactions. There are many kinds of source documents, including payroll documents, sales receipts, invoices, purchase orders, and banking documents. Most can be classified as either internal or external documents, depending on whether they were generated within or outside a company.

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Overall, to run a business more smoothly and enhance transparency, all its source documents should be kept and stored for future reference. A source document is a piece of paper that documents and proves that a transaction has occurred. The examination and verification of source documents is the first step in the accounting cycle.

Auditors require complete access to all the papers in order to confirm the accuracy of the company’s balances in each account. All of a company’s source papers should be saved and stored for later use in order to improve transparency and streamline operations. Once the period of limitations has ended and you no longer need your source documents, you should dispose of them securely.

Examples of source documents, and their related business transactions that appear in the financial records, are noted below. Source documents are, first and foremost, important to the bookkeeping and accounting process because they serve as physical evidence that a financial transaction actually occurred. Nowadays, these documents do not necessarily need to be a physical hard copy – they may be in a traceable electronic form. We understand that organizing all of the different types of source documents is overwhelming at best. For that reason, we recommend that you use an IDP platform such as VisionERA to organize, and capture business critical information from heaps of documents. This can be anywhere from three to seven years, depending on your tax situation.

Documents generated within the past year are generally stored on-site, with older documents being stored in less expensive off-site storage facilities. In addition to a source documents invoice, there are many other forms that this evidence might take. It’s advised to keep your source documents for five to seven years for tax purposes, though rules will differ.

Shred all physical paperwork and ensure your cloud storage is empty, making room for more recent documents. For evidentiary purposes, electronic images of source documents are generally acceptable, though paper-based documentation may still be required in some cases. A cheque is a written order made by a customer to the bank to pay a stated sum of money to the person or business named on the cheque. When cheques are issued to make payment, the cheque itself or its counterfoil (or stub) would serve as the source document for the payment. In the majority of cases, photocopies of source documents are legally permissible.

If there is any question regarding the retention period for a document, consult with a knowledgeable attorney. This is all the information needed to create an accurate accounting entry. When a consumer pays with a check or cash, the seller creates a bank deposit slip, which is presented to the bank along with the check and cash. The total amount being deposited as well as a breakdown of the cash and check amounts will be shown on the deposit slip.

Examples of source documents are cancelled checks, credit memos, deposit slips, expense reports, invoices, material requisition forms, purchase orders, time cards, and sales receipts. Purchase receipts paid invoices, and banking documents such as statements, deposit receipts, and cancelled checks are all types of external source documents. Source documents can either be internal or external, depending on their origination. Internal source documents originate within the company and include documents such as accounting reports, payroll data, and billed invoices. These include documents such as sales receipts, paid invoices, and bank records.