Complete Business Records

Although sales slips are used for many purposes, such as a receipt for the customer, creating a contract with the customer, figuring the sales stats, etc., the basic purpose of sales slips is to keep track of money. They provide a record of the business transactions of the company. Many outside agencies, most notably the IRS, are interested in where the money of a business comes from and to where it goes. Sales slips create a record of money coming in and checks, credit card receipts and petty cash receipts create a record of where it went.

These records must be accurate and complete, because these interested parties will audit them from time to time. If the records are not complete or accurate, these parties will cause us grief that we don’t want!

Listed here are the procedures that MUST be used to create a complete and accurate business record of transactions:

1. Sales slips are numbered in sequence and turned in the day they are printed.
2. All money received including deposits and trade-ins must be invoiced on the day it is received.
3. All money deposited in the bank must have a corresponding sales slip.
4. All money from one day’s transactions must be deposited all together the following day (with the exception of cash kept out to replenish the petty cash drawer).
5. All cash not deposited must be accounted for daily with the cash reconciliation journal and receipts for all petty cash spent.
6. Each day’s sales slips must be in sequence and complete, with no missing slips and no slips out of sequence.
7. Each day’s sales slips must be filed in a 5” x 8” manila envelope marked on the outside with that day’s date and filed in a file box by date.
8. Whenever possible, everything is paid for by check, not cash.
9. All estate buys must be made by check, never cash.
10. All merchandise must be paid for by check, never cash.
11. We cannot cash checks that we have written to customers, sellers of estate jewelry, vendors or even employees. A cashed check is not considered proof of the transaction to the IRS and may not be accepted in court as proof of payment if it came to that.
12. All petty cash purchases must have an actual dated cash register-type receipt.

These are standard operating procedures and are not to be altered by anyone except in writing by the CFO.