What a South African receipt must show

If you are not VAT registered

You must not show VAT on anything you issue, and you must not describe a document as a tax invoice. Charging or displaying VAT without being registered is an offence, not a formatting mistake.

A plain receipt — who you are, what was sold, what it cost, the date — is what you issue. Keep your own copy: the record-keeping obligation exists whether or not you are registered for VAT.

If you are VAT registered

The VAT Act sets out what a tax invoice must contain. There are two forms, and which one you need depends on the value of the supply.

Under R50, no tax invoice is required at all, though you still need a record of the sale. Between R50 and R5,000 an abridged tax invoice is enough. Above R5,000 a full tax invoice is required, which additionally names the customer and their address.

These thresholds have been stable for years, but they are set by legislation and can change. Confirm the current figures with SARS or your accountant rather than trusting any vendor's documentation, including ours.

• —The words "Tax Invoice", "VAT Invoice" or "Invoice".
• —Your name, address and VAT registration number.
• —An individual serial number, and the date of issue.
• —A description of what was supplied, and the quantity or volume.
• —The value, the VAT charged and the total — or the total with the VAT rate shown.
• —For a full tax invoice, the customer's name and address as well.

Why the serial number matters more than it looks

"An individual serial number" means receipt numbers must be unique and must not restart. A till that numbers from one again after a reinstall, or that reuses a number when two devices sell at the same time, produces two documents with the same serial — which is the single most common finding when till records are examined.

This is worth testing before you commit to a system: ring up sales on two devices at once and check that no number repeats.

Rounding

South Africa no longer mints a 1c or 2c coin, so cash totals are rounded to the nearest five cents. The rounding applies to the cash tendered, not to the sale or to the VAT on it.

A till that rounds the sale itself, rather than recording the sale exactly and the rounding separately, will drift out by cents against your VAT return — small amounts, but they are the kind of discrepancy that turns a quick review into a long one.

Reprints and copies

You need to be able to produce the same document again — months later, after a price change, after the product has been renamed or discontinued.

That means the till has to store what the sale actually said at the time, not rebuild it from today's prices. Ask whether a reprint is a stored copy or a recalculation.

How long to keep records

Five years from the date of the last entry, in a form that can be produced on request. Electronic records are acceptable, which is one of the better arguments for a till over a receipt book — provided you can actually get the records out.