Receipt template for deposits and balances at NZ function venues

Small receipts can be the GST record

For supplies of NZ$200 or less, Inland Revenue's taxable supply information needs only the seller's name, the date, a description and the amount. A receipt for a NZ$150 bar tab top-up with your trading name, the date, 'bar tab, Smith wedding' and the amount already meets that. No GST number is required at that level, though including it does no harm.

Above NZ$200 the rules ask for more: your GST number and the GST shown either as exclusive, GST and inclusive amounts, or as an inclusive amount with a statement that GST is included. Most venues don't bother turning big receipts into GST documents. They issue a tax invoice for each payment and a receipt when it arrives.

What your receipt must show in New Zealand

What every function receipt should carry

Write receipts for the person reconciling them later, which might be your bookkeeper next month or an Inland Revenue auditor in five years. Records have to be kept for at least 7 years, so a receipt that can't be matched to a booking is a problem you are storing up.

Use one numbering series across all your rooms or sites. If a receipt is issued in error, mark it void and keep it rather than deleting it; a missing number is harder to explain than a voided one.

• Receipt number and the date the payment arrived
• Your trading name, and GST number if the amount is over NZ$200
• Booking reference, event date and room or site
• Payer's name, which may be a parent or employer rather than the client
• Amount, payment method and bank reference
• What it covers: deposit, instalment, balance, bar tab or bond
• GST included, or a note that a bond is held and refundable
• Total price, paid so far and balance still owing

Receipt RC-26-0519 (balance)

50th birthday for 55 guests in a function room at an Auckland bowling club, with a bar tab and bond

• NZ$500 bond receipted separately as refundable.
• Balance paid by bank transfer; reference copied onto receipt.
• Tax invoice INV-26-0801 issued for this balance.

Deposits and the time of supply

Time of supply is generally the earlier of issuing an invoice or receiving payment. Inland Revenue's IS 10/03 explains that where the supplier is entitled to a deposit from the moment it is paid, the time of supply is triggered. So when a couple pays a NZ$3,500 deposit in March for a February wedding, the GST in that deposit usually belongs in your March period.

Show the GST content on the deposit receipt. It keeps your records and your GST return aligned, and if the client later turns out to be a business, you can issue the taxable supply information quickly.

Bonds, damage and refunds

Venues hosting 21sts, school balls and large private parties often take a bond of NZ$500 to NZ$1,000 against damage and extra cleaning. Receipt it separately from the function price and label it refundable. IS 10/03 is the place to check how GST applies to a deposit you are not entitled to keep, so ask your accountant to read your bond clause against it.

After the event, send a bond statement: the amount held, each deduction with a reason and GST where it applies, and the refund with the date paid. Families accept deductions they can see; they fight deductions they can't. Aim to refund within the time your terms promise, 14 days is common, and keep the statement with the booking.

When several people pay for one function

Weddings and big birthdays are often shared: the couple pays the deposit, one set of parents the food, the other set the bar tab. Issue each receipt in the name of the person who paid, and show the running total paid by everyone so the family can see what is left without calling you.

Keep one contracting client for the booking, even if the money comes from several places. When a payment is late, you need to know who to call. Write that person's name on every receipt as the booking holder, alongside the payer's name.

For workplace functions paid partly by the company and partly by a staff social club, issue two receipts and, if both want GST documents, two tax invoices. Combining them looks simpler but makes both organisations' records harder to reconcile.

Payments on the night and card fees

Bar tab top-ups, extra hours and cash bars all create payments at the end of a long evening. Take the payment, issue the receipt immediately and record the booking reference. A pile of EFTPOS slips with no names on a Monday morning is the most common reconciliation headache venues have.

On card fees, the government introduced legislation to ban in-store merchant surcharges on EFTPOS, Visa and Mastercard payments. Check MBIE's current guidance before adding a surcharge line to a receipt. Hospitality businesses have long priced card costs into their menus instead, which avoids the question entirely.

Receipts when a booking is cancelled

Issue a cancellation statement that lists every receipt on the booking, the amount retained under your terms and anything refunded. Where the retained amount is a deposit you were entitled to on payment, GST was already accounted for when it arrived. Where you refund part of it, you may need a GST adjustment; your accountant can confirm the treatment.

Keep the cancellation statement with the original quote and receipts. If the date is rebooked by someone else, note that on the file too; it answers the question of whether the retained amount was a fair reflection of your loss.

Receipt questions from New Zealand