Record Keeping - Need for physical sales receipts?

jon303

I track all of my sales with an online POS software (sumup). Currently I use a physical copy of sales receipts to back up my figures for income tax.

Can I use the online POS record instead of physical receipts as backup for Revenue? It would make my life a lot easier!

Thanks,
J

Tow

You can. Providing you can produce the records if/when Revenue request them. If you lose the data (or access to it) you are fubared. I would prefer to also hold some paper. Can it print of monthly sales reports etc, which would be less detailed/paper, but far better then nothing.

Stratvs

Tow wrote: »

Can it print of monthly sales reports etc, which would be less detailed/paper, but far better then nothing.

I use SumUp and you get a monthly transaction report which details all the items & fees similar to a regular Merchant Card statement.

jon303

Thanks for the help guys!

Calahonda52

jon303 wrote: »

Thanks for the help guys!

You need hard copy, kept for 6 years

Sleeper12

Calahonda52 wrote:

You need hard copy, kept for 6 years

I thought 7 years but my information could be decades out of date. Could be 6 years now

Calahonda52

Sleeper12 wrote: »

I thought 7 years but my information could be decades out of date. Could be 6 years now

Looks like 6, but no worries
The bit in blue might help the OP
https://www.revenue.ie/en/starting-a-business/starting-a-business/keeping-records.aspx

Keeping records
If you run a business, you must keep certain records for tax purposes. Your records can be used to confirm information contained in your tax returns and they should clearly show the accounting process.

If your accounts are prepared by an agent or accountant, they may keep your records on your behalf. However, you are ultimately responsible for your record keeping. If you are in a partnership, the precedent partner is responsible for keeping records. You must keep the original of these documents for six years.

What types of records are kept?
You must keep anything that is used to calculate your Income Tax, Corporation Tax (CT) or Capital Gains Tax (CGT). These records are known as ‘linking documents’ and can include:

receipts for expenses
receipts for purchases
sales invoices
nominal ledgers
accounting books.
You should keep your records continuously for all transactions. It is possible to store a digital copy of your receipts through Revenue Online Service (ROS) on Receipts Tracker.

Sleeper12

Calahonda52 wrote:

Looks like 6, but no worries The bit in blue might help the OP

I have a years for the shredder tomorrow!

Tow

Original does not mean paper. The bigger problem is the OP is using a 'cloud' 'Saas' system. As with all 'in the cloud' systems it can not be relied on to be available in the future.
The company can close, be taken over, lose interest in the product etc. You also need to find out their policy if you stop paying for the service. Many will just delete the customers data after a few months.
A current example is Adobe cutting off all cloud services to customers in Venezela: https://www.theverge.com/2019/10/7/20904030/adobe-venezuela-photoshop-behance-us-sanctions