Why are checks not processed?

Why leave receipts?

Why you may need terminal receipts:

maintaining financial statements;
resolution of disputes with the buyer;
proof of payment for the bank in case of incomplete receipt of funds to the current account;
to return money to the buyer;
data recovery in case of loss of a shift report (Z-report);
request from the bank to provide checks.

Banks may ask you to provide information on card transactions, namely acquiring receipts or copies thereof for a certain period or for specific transactions. This is necessary to resolve disputes or to eliminate fraudulent activities. The deadline for submitting documents to the bank is 3 business days. Therefore, it is better to organize all receipts and save them in such a way that the data on them is not lost.

Price comparison

Obviously, prices will vary from store to store. Some things are cheaper in one way, and some things are cheaper in another. With the help of receipts, you can find out with almost 100% accuracy which supermarket your basket will be most profitable at. In addition, this way you can track the regular price of goods to check whether the discount is really profitable or is it nothing more than a marketing ploy.

If you shop once a week and use approximately the same products, then you can try another interesting option. Try shopping at different stores throughout the month and keep your receipts. At the end, compare which supermarket or hypermarket has the lowest cost of food and household items. Don't forget to add the cost of travel or gasoline here as well. It may well turn out that shopping at the nearest Perekrestok is much more profitable than traveling 10 kilometers to Auchan.

Review of profitable business areas

How to store acquiring slips

There are no strict rules on how to store acquiring slips. You decide for yourself how it will be convenient for you to do this. Please note that the terminal uses a special thermal tape for printing receipts. Over time, when exposed to light, the checks fade and become white, and when heated, they darken. Therefore, so that you do not lose data, take a photocopy of the checks, which is better to immediately certify and put the seal of your organization.

Be sure to attach the original receipt to the copy and keep it, even if it is no longer legible.

For ease of searching and reporting, you should organize receipts per day or per shift. They can be stored in a box, jar or other place convenient for you, most importantly, away from light and direct heat sources. Create a folder in which you will file acquiring receipts, use date separators so that you can quickly find the required transaction.

We recommend reading: How to connect trade, mobile and Internet acquiring + connection to the cash register.

How are cash register receipts stored?

Can a company keep checks when paying in cash?

The rules for storing cash register receipts, as well as other primary documents and accounting registers, are established by clause 1 of Art.
29 of the Law “On Accounting” dated December 6, 2011 No. 402-FZ. However, the company will not be able to keep cash receipts when paying in cash. After all, according to paragraph 1 of Art. 2 of the Law “On the Application of CCP” dated May 22, 2003 No. 54-FZ, they must be issued to the buyer at the time of payment for the product or service.

Therefore, the question of how to store cash register checks for the recipient of the money does not even arise here.

The company may keep a shift close report taken at the end of the day. It is submitted to the accounting department of the enterprise or to the senior cashier (if the enterprise has several cash registers). The seller also stores information about punched checks in the cash register’s fiscal storage. It must be stored for 5 years from the end of use.

But the accounting department is required to keep “incoming” checks (attached, for example, to employees’ advance reports), since they confirm the company’s expenses for accounting and tax purposes.

Should a company keep receipts when acquiring?

Acquiring is a payment using a plastic payment card. In this case, the company issues a slip check to the buyer. After this, the cashier prints and keeps another slip receipt. These receipts are confirmation of the transaction or refusal of it. If the transaction does not require entering a password, the slip receipt must be signed by the buyer and the cashier. These slip checks must be kept for the entire period established by the acquiring agreement.

At the end of the working day, the enterprise contacts the acquiring bank and transmits to it an electronic report generated by the POS terminal and reflecting each completed transaction.

In addition, according to paragraph 2 of Art. 5 of Law No. 54-FZ, when making payments using electronic means of payment, the seller must enter information about the settlement amount into cash register equipment.

Find out about the use of online cash registers for acquiring here.

How should slip checks and cash documents be stored in the accounting department?

The procedure for storing receipts is not prescribed by law, so an enterprise can approve it independently, guided by the following considerations:

security of documents;
preventing unauthorized access by unauthorized persons;
impossibility of making corrections;
full readability of all information specified in the receipt after 6 months from the date of the transaction (Clause 8, Article 4.7 of Law No. 54-FZ).

We recommend that you make photocopies of receipts certified by your manager, since over time they fade and the information on them is extremely difficult to read.

According to paragraph 362 of section 4.1 of the order of the Ministry of Culture of Russia dated August 25, 2010 No. 558, cash documents must be stored in the accounting department for at least 5 years.

The storage period for documents drawn up under the acquiring agreement (in particular, slip checks) is determined in the agreement itself. It is usually equal to 5 years.

A complete list of types of accounting documents and their retention periods can be found here.

According to Art. 15.11 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, failure to comply with the rules for storing primary documents is recognized as a gross violation of the accounting rules and may result in a fine being imposed on the responsible person in the amount of 5,000 to 10,000 rubles.

You will learn what the procedure for eliminating documents whose storage period has already expired is from the article “Destruction of documents with expired storage periods (act).”

Results

The obligation to store primary documents, including cash register receipts, is assigned to the business entity by law. Accounting must ensure the safety and readability of receipts.

Transferring checks to the bank

Every day the bank receives information on all transactions made through the terminal. Based on the reports that are received by the bank after the close of the day, the results are reconciled. However, there are times when the bank has questions about specific transactions, then it requests paper checks for acquiring - slips. The bank complies with legal requirements, therefore it is obliged to check suspicious transactions and counteract fraudulent transactions.

Below in the table we will step by step consider the actions if your address from the acquiring bank has received a request for documents:

№	Procedure	What to pay attention to
1	The bank has sent you a request to provide slips	Pay attention to the deadlines for submitting documents
2	You are collecting a package of documents	It is better to attach a photocopy of the checks, even if they are slightly worn out
3	Make an inventory of the documents being transferred and put them in a folder	This is necessary in order to check during the return transfer whether everything was returned to you, and in order to prove that you submitted the documents on time
4	Submit documents to the bank	When transferring a package of documents, make sure that the bank puts a mark on the inventory on acceptance of the documents
5	If the bank has no more questions, after a while you receive the documents back	Check the package of documents with the inventory

Cashback

Some apps now offer cash back for purchasing certain items. For example, one of the most famous discount aggregators, Edadil, recently introduced its cashback program.

When you scan QR codes from receipts, you will be refunded a certain amount.

Of course, returns only occur when purchasing goods from sponsoring companies. However, the list is quite large and it may well turn out that it contains products from your check. The most convenient way is to simply scan each receipt after purchase. It doesn’t take much time, but it allows you to get at least some money back from everyday purchases.

Life hack for fans of rational budget allocation: use promotions and cashback programs. For example, you love a certain brand of yogurt and drink several packs of it every day. Now in the store, as a promotion, it costs 20 rubles per package, with an average retail price of 30. The cashback service offers a refund of 10 rubles for the purchase of 4 yogurts or 25 rubles for the purchase of 8 yogurts. The shelf life of the product allows it, so you take 8 yoghurts for 20 rubles and pay 160 rubles. The cashback service returns another 25 rubles to your account. It turns out that one yogurt costs you 16.8 rubles. Extremely profitable.

In the case of yoghurts and other inexpensive goods, the benefits are not very noticeable and purchasing goods at full price does not hurt your wallet. Cashback and promotions are best used when purchasing expensive everyday goods, such as household chemicals. Sometimes the benefits can be quite significant.

The reasons for the sharp drop in incomes of Russians are named

Where should you not store them?

Scientists advise not to store receipts in wallets, bags, pockets and other places where you may come into frequent contact with them. You shouldn’t put them in a grocery bag, especially next to meat and fish. Toxins can get into your food and from there into your body. If you have important receipts that shouldn't be thrown away, keep them in one place, preferably in a locked folder at home.

Unfortunately, many cashiers place receipts in shopping bags; it is good if the products have their own casing or packaging

When the primary faded

Just don't panic!

- I'm shocked! – my friend Irina Solnechnaya, chief accountant of one of the capital’s companies, immediately told me over the phone. Irina is not an alarmist, so I tried to calmly find out what, in fact, was the matter.

“We have a tax audit soon, we are on schedule,” Irina began her story. – On this occasion, I once again decided to look at the availability of primary documents and the correctness of the preparation of expense reports. And, oh horror! In many advance reports I found not just poorly readable cash receipts, but ordinary white pieces of paper.

The first thought was to make new checks in the image and likeness of the disappeared ones. I even read about special programs and found experts in this field.

- Forgery of documents is punishable...

“Yes, I know, I’m not little,” Irina shrugged it off. – Imprisonment for up to two years. And the use of a knowingly forged document is punishable by arrest for a period of three to six months. Criminal Code, Article 327. But the checks are real, although they are pretty faded!

– Draw up a reconciliation report with the supplier for amounts not visible on the receipt.

– I’ll probably do the same with wholesalers. Moreover, they usually also issue a receipt to the parishioner.

But I have no idea what to do with retail. It’s okay if sales receipts are handwritten or printed. There is at least some supporting document here. But what should you do if the sales receipt is printed on thermal paper, which is the problem with many supermarkets? Or is there no merchandise at all, as, for example, when buying gasoline?

– Well, for the future I can say that you can make photocopies of checks and then have them certified by a notary: from three to five rubles per check. Wholesale may be cheaper. Or directly from the supplier. You just need to calculate what will be less expensive - notary services or transportation costs.

- A photocopy is a good thing. Our secretary is now hard at work taking copies of all the checks. Only we decided to get off with little blood. We certify copies with our seal and signatures.

– Keep in mind that you also need to issue an order indicating the reason why you are redoing the primary. Well, then certify the copies.

Instead of a check -
blank paper
. “The problem is that not all checks can be photocopied,” my friend continued. – Some have faded so much that the original text cannot be easily deciphered. You can still guess the amount from the advance report. And the supplier and his details - alas!

- Don't be so upset. Maybe we can still come to an agreement with the tax authorities. They are people too! Moreover, if you are lucky, they will be satisfied with this and will not dig deeper.

“Everything would be fine,” Irina sighed, “but the amount turns out to be very decent for our company.” And it’s such a shame! It would be fine for your mistakes or negligence. And here…

– Maybe you didn’t comply with the conditions for storing checks?

- Yes, it looks like they weren’t soaked in alcohol, they weren’t put under ultraviolet light, all the checks were filed in folders along with expense reports. And who will now figure out who is right and who is wrong?

– You know, technologies that make it possible to restore almost any image have existed for quite a long time (see the reference “The Father of Forensic Photography”). And I think that science does not stand still. So you can simply restore the faded text.

– The director is unlikely to go broke on the examination, no matter how much it costs. Most likely he will want to wait for the final decision of the tax authorities. And then he will decide whether the game is worth the candle.

Expertise at the expense of tax authorities

“It’s interesting, if the tax authorities fine us for the lack of primary documents, and even recalculate taxes, and the company challenges their decision in court, then at whose expense will the examination be carried out?” – Irina asked.

With this question, we turned to the expert of the berator “A check has come to you” Anton Luzhnov. “The amount required for the examination is deposited into the deposit account by the party to the court case who will insist on it. If the initiative comes from both parties, then the costs will be divided equally.

The examination, appointed on the initiative of the arbitration court, is carried out at the expense of the federal budget. Therefore, practice shows that the courts are in no hurry to do this on their own initiative. Typically, in such a situation, judges indicate that the examination is appointed at the initiative of one party or at the request of both parties, and accordingly, they distribute the costs of paying for the services of experts.

However, I emphasize that in the end, the costs of conducting the examination will be reimbursed by the one whose results will not be in favor of them. If the claim is partially satisfied, legal costs are divided between the parties to the case in proportion to the size of the satisfied claims.

And since the examination will clearly confirm the authenticity of the cash receipt, the court will have to oblige the tax authorities to reimburse you for the costs of it,” assured Anton Luzhnov.

Secrets to Cash Receipt Longevity
To ensure that the image from a cash receipt printed on thermal paper (it is thinner and whiter than usual, slightly translucent) does not disappear for the next five years, experts advise storing this important document in special conditions.
First of all, this is a temperature of 18–24 ° C and a relative air humidity of no more than 68 percent. Even the heat from a radiator will be enough to lose information. Never allow direct sunlight to shine on the check. You cannot store checks in a pile, facing each other.
It is also necessary to avoid getting various chemicals, alcohols, and other solvents on the paper. Checks are “afraid” of liquid-based glue. When preparing expense reports, use a glue stick, or better yet, a stapler. And never keep checks under pressure.

The Father of Forensic Photography
The founder of the method of restoring extinct texts is the Russian scientist Evgeniy Burinsky. He first used this method to restore 13th-century inscriptions on pieces of leather found during excavations in the Moscow Kremlin.
Using photographic plates for his work, Burinsky produced several identical black-and-white negatives from each document. Then, by removing the emulsion layers from the negatives and stacking them together on top of each other, he produced a higher-contrast negative image. Next, I made a kind of slides from each negative and put them on top of each other. By consistently increasing the contrast of the negatives, Burinsky obtained photographs in which invisible and half-erased letters became legible. In 1898, the Russian Academy of Sciences awarded Burinsky the Lomonosov Prize “For a research method equal to the value of a microscope.”

Svetlana BLINOVA

Bank check

In this case, the user does not print a cash receipt or strict reporting form on paper.

The concept of “settlement moment”, which characterizes the moment at which a cash receipt should be sent to the buyer, causes great difficulties. So, in accordance with Part 2 of Art. 1.2. the entrepreneur is obliged to issue a cash receipt at the time of payment, but the moment of payment is not directly fixed by 54-FZ. Therefore, for each seller it will be determined differently, depending on the characteristics of the transactions being carried out: - for individual online stores, the moment of settlement is the moment of debiting funds from the buyer’s account; — for other online stores, this is the moment the buyer’s funds are credited to the seller’s account.

To clarify this issue, it is necessary to directly stipulate in your public offer, on the terms of which the contract is concluded with the buyer, at what exact moment the contract is recognized by the seller as concluded. From the interpretation of Art. 493 Civil Code of the Russian Federation. we can conclude that it is at this moment that the seller (owner of the online store) is obliged to send a cash receipt in electronic form. This rule gives the owner of an online store the opportunity to issue a cash receipt not at the time the buyer pays for the goods on the site, but, for example, on the next business day. However, information about this must be indicated in the public offer in a way that is obvious to the buyer: underlined, in font, etc. There is a lot of information circulating on the Internet that a cash receipt must be sent to the buyer within 5 minutes from the moment the buyer pays for the goods. This conclusion is based on an incorrect interpretation of the Letter of the Federal Tax Service of Russia dated July 10, 2013 No. AS-4-2/ [email protected] “On the use of cash register equipment,” written before the amendments to 54-FZ providing for the use of online cash registers, which were introduced 290 -FZ. Thus, this letter is based on a provision of law that has already been repealed.

However, we will still analyze the findings presented in this letter. The letter is based on the position of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, set out in Resolution No. 45-AD12-4 dated May 11, 2012, which addressed the issue of the discrepancy between the time on cash register equipment and real time. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in this resolution considered the very fact of a time discrepancy between real time and the time indicated in cash register equipment to be a violation by more than 5 minutes.

To summarize, we note that the requirement to issue a check within 5 minutes from the moment of payment does not apply to the current legal regulation - modern law does not contain such a requirement. In addition, the moment of issuing a cash receipt can be determined by the entrepreneur independently and contained in the public offer.

It is also worth remembering that the State Duma is currently considering a bill on amendments to 54-FZ. One of the changes is aimed precisely at stopping possible abuses of online stores establishing the moment of settlement of an offer. Thus, stores often set the moment of settlement almost a week after the actual receipt of funds from the buyer. The legislator proposes to establish a time frame within which an online store can independently determine the moment of settlement and, as the latest possible moment, indicate the next business day after the day of receipt of funds from the buyer to the online store’s current account.