Typical  type of Account/Finance Documents used in businesses & their purposes are as follows. All of these are internal documents where your Company is the one who has to issue them (except for Purchase Invoice):

Sales

1. Sales order – to take orders from Customers & to ensure the orders are correct
2. Sales invoices – A document to customer to state the details of their purchase & indirectly is an IOU. You can legally request for payments from the customer once they have acknowledge receipt of the goods (see Delivery Order below) or Invoice (for services)
3. Delivery Order / Note – in short it is also known as DO. Sent to customer’s warehouse & has info such as item description & quantity delivered. No price is stated in DO.
4. Official Receipts (OR)  – Upon receiving of payments by customers, need to issue an OR to customer as proof that you have received payments from them.

Purchase

• Purchase order – a legal document to supplier that state the items, quantity & price you wished to buy.
• Purcase Invoice & DO – Same as No. 2 & 3 above, but is issued from suppliers. This is the proof of purchases that needs to be kept.
• Payment Vouchers (PV) – Once payment is done for the purchase invoice, PV is issued & the receipient of the payments (usually cheque & cash payments) will need to sign the PV as proof that the payments were collected.
  • Will also be used for payments via cash but with no invoices such as commisions, salaries etc. PV is important as proof of payment & the receipient has collected the payment.

Other documents –

1. Quotation (Sales or Purchase) – a document that contains the T&C of a transaction, including delivery time, pricing & specifications
2. Pro-forma invoice – is a preliminary document sent in advance before delivery & usually used for customs declaration. They’re not a payment demand or request. Pro forma invoices are ‘good faith’ agreement so your customer knows what to expect
3. TaxInvoice / Commercial Invoice – is a legal documents for the sale/purchase transaction. Tax invoice is where tax (VAT/SST/GST) is charged whereas Commercial Invoice has no such tax imposed.