Nonreceipts

Nonreceipts is a descriptive term used in accounting, retail, and related business fields to refer to transactions that lack a corresponding issued receipt or where the receipt cannot be located. It is not a formal standard, but a label applied to identify documentation gaps that affect record reconciliation, auditing, or compliance.

In practice, nonreceipts can arise from a variety of causes. At the point of sale, a receipt may not be printed due to system malfunctions, user error, or deliberate bypass. In procurement and inventory processes, receipts may be missing after goods are delivered, or electronic confirmations may fail to generate. In expense management, employees may submit transactions without attaching required receipts. Regardless of cause, nonreceipts create gaps in the audit trail and can complicate tax reporting, refunds, and financial controls.

Organizations typically address nonreceipts with internal controls and procedures. These include mandatory digital receipt capture, reconciliation of sales and purchases against supporting documents, routine audits of exception records, and retention policies for backup logs and delivery confirmations. In many jurisdictions, regulatory or tax authorities require supporting documentation for deductible expenses or claimed revenue, making timely resolution of nonreceipts important.

Nonreceipts are therefore managed as exceptions within accounting systems, with investigation aimed at locating missing documents, validating transactions, or classifying the exception as unavoidable and documenting the rationale. See also receipt, audit trail, and expense management.