Missing Receipts for an Irish Company: What to Do Next

1. Record the payment and the evidence gap honestly

Do not delete a genuine bank transaction because you cannot find its receipt. Record the date, amount, payee or bank description, payment account and what you currently know. Mark uncertain details as uncertain. Ask the bookkeeper how to hold an unresolved item without presenting it as a fully supported business expense.

Section 282 of the Companies Act requires records that adequately explain company transactions, with timely, consistent entries and precautions against falsification. Revenue also expects the underlying records supporting returns. A tidy bank feed is not, by itself, a complete evidence file.

Build one missing-document list, not separate unanswered messages for every payment. Include a transaction reference, likely supplier, purchaser, business purpose, document sought, recovery owner and next action. Keep payment evidence and order emails with that entry. An internal missing-document log is not a supplier invoice or automatic permission to claim tax relief.

• Companies Act 2014, section 282: adequate accounting records
• Revenue: underlying business records

2. Recover a copy from the actual supplier

Search the purchasing mailbox, spam folder, supplier account, order portal and the person who placed the order. Look for the original order number before contacting accounts support. A bank description may show a payment processor rather than the shop's trading name, so cross-check the order confirmation rather than guessing the seller.

Ask the supplier to resend the document for the actual transaction. Supply the purchase date, amount, order reference and purchaser details through its verified support channel. Explain whether you need an invoice, payment receipt or credit note: these describe different events. Keep the supplier's reply and record when and where the copy was obtained.

Check that the recovered document belongs to the right purchase and customer. Revenue's VAT-invoice guidance identifies information including invoice date and number, supplier details, customer details and the goods or services supplied. If details are wrong, ask the supplier about a legitimate correction. Do not change the purchaser, date, tax number or amount yourself, paste in a supplier logo or use AI to create a supplier-looking replacement.

• Revenue: information required on VAT invoices

3. Separate bookkeeping from the expense deduction

There are three different questions: what happened to the money, how should it appear in the accounts, and what tax treatment follows? Paying a supplier is not enough to answer all three. An item might be stock, equipment, an advance, a private purchase, a loan repayment or a payment covering several bills.

Revenue's expenses guidance distinguishes business-related expenditure, private use and capital expenditure. Capital spending is not an ordinary expense deduction when calculating profit; capital allowances may be relevant to qualifying expenditure. A recovered receipt does not turn a private purchase into a company trading cost.

If no copy can be obtained, give the accountant everything genuinely available: the contract, order confirmation, delivery evidence, correspondence and payment trail. Explain the missing element and unsuccessful recovery steps. Do not assume either that every unsupported payment is deductible or that losing one slip automatically settles every accounting and Corporation Tax question against the company. The evidence and underlying transaction need assessment.

• Revenue: expense deductions, private use and capital expenditure

4. Check VAT evidence and entitlement separately

Revenue says a VAT claim needs supporting records including a valid VAT invoice or relevant Customs receipt. A card statement and your own explanation do not automatically satisfy that requirement. A payment-terminal slip may record payment without containing the information needed for the applicable invoice rules; have the actual document checked.

Do not reverse-engineer a VAT amount from a bank payment at a guessed rate. The supplier might not have charged Irish VAT, a different rate or special treatment might apply, or the amount might include several items. Ask for the correct underlying document and flag the VAT treatment as unresolved until reviewed.

Evidence is only one part of entitlement. Business use, taxable activity and restrictions also matter, and some VAT remains non-deductible despite a valid invoice. A correct invoice alone does not make every VAT amount reclaimable. Revenue's VAT-record guidance also expects a traceable, verifiable record of transactions; keep the document connected to the accounting entry rather than as an unexplained attachment.

• Revenue: VAT reclaim conditions and excluded costs
• Revenue: VAT records to be kept

5. Identify who paid and who was the purchaser

Where a director used a personal card, the payment may not appear in the company's bank feed at all. Identify who ordered the goods, who was invoiced, what the company received and whether a repayment has already been made. Keep the personal payment evidence with the expense claim, using a secure handover that avoids exposing unrelated private transactions.

For actual employee or director expense reimbursements, Revenue requires receipts to be retained. Travel and subsistence also have their own supporting-record requirements. Do not turn a missing receipt into a tax-free allowance or invent a mileage journey to make the figures balance. Ask the accountant how the actual facts should be handled.

For example, a fictional director buys parts personally, then sends an invoice copy after being reimbursed. Link the copy to the existing claim and repayment. Do not create a second expense and a second repayment just because the document arrived later. Purchaser identity and any tax treatment still need checking; the personal card payment is not a shortcut around those questions.

• Revenue: records and receipts for expense reimbursements

6. Reconcile recovered documents without counting them twice

Match a recovered invoice to the existing payment or purchase entry before importing it. Check invoice number, supplier, amount, currency, credits and any earlier upload. A document's arrival date is not necessarily the purchase date. Preserve the actual chronology and ask the bookkeeper to make any adjustment through the normal controlled process.

Suppose a fictional company paid a supplier EUR600 to settle three invoices. Two copies are missing. The bank line proves one payment, not a single new EUR600 purchase. Obtain the supplier statement and individual invoice copies, reconcile the three balances, and investigate any difference. This is an evidence-matching example, not a tax calculation or confirmation that the whole amount is deductible.

The table helps identify the next enquiry rather than decide the eventual accounting entry. Give each unresolved item a clear status: requested, received awaiting review, reconciled, or still missing. Do not mark an item resolved merely because somebody promised to search for the receipt.

7. Hand over the file and protect the audit trail

Give the accountant the open-items list alongside the bank reconciliation and document folder. Explain the periods affected, what has already been posted or claimed, and whether accounts or returns were filed. If a recovered invoice changes a previously filed period, tell the adviser. Do not silently rewrite old records, backdate evidence or assume a new upload corrects an earlier return.

Keep original records, supplier copies, correspondence, recovery notes and the link to the reconciled entry. Revenue's general guidance requires original business records to be kept for six years and leaves responsibility with the business even where an agent holds them. Section 285 separately requires accounting records for at least six years after the financial-year end containing the latest date to which they relate. These are not blanket instructions to destroy every document on a single anniversary.

Agree a secure transfer method and who retains access when the engagement ends. Do not put bank statements, identity documents, passwords or digital certificates into a public quote form. For the first enquiry, the period, approximate transaction count and nature of the missing evidence usually describe the problem without uploading private records.

• Revenue: record retention and business responsibility
• Companies Act 2014, section 285: preservation period

8. Missing-receipt recovery checklist

Use this before requesting a cleanup quote or handing over year-end records. The aim is an honest, usable file, not a folder that merely looks complete.

• List each missing document against a real payment or purchase reference.
• Identify the actual supplier, purchaser, payer and business purpose.
• Search the original purchasing account and request a genuine supplier copy.
• Retain the recovery correspondence and never fabricate or alter supplier evidence.
• Flag accounting classification, Corporation Tax and VAT questions separately.
• Match recovered copies once and check for previous claims or reimbursements.
• Tell the accountant about still-missing evidence and any earlier filed periods.
• Agree secure handover, responsibilities, service scope and total payable.

9. Request accounting support for the actual cleanup work

StartCompany.ie's accountant service matches businesses with accounting support and is quote-based. It is a useful starting point when missing purchase documents are holding up bookkeeping, financial statements or a tax review. Describe the problem before ordering work rather than assuming a general accounting enquiry includes unlimited reconstruction.

Ask the quote to identify the period, number of transactions and missing documents, bank and payment platforms, reconciliation work and who will contact suppliers. Confirm whether reviewing Corporation Tax or VAT treatment, correcting earlier returns and ongoing bookkeeping are included or separately scoped. Ask what happens if records cannot be recovered.

Agree the deliverables, your responsibilities and total payable before instruction. A service purchase cannot recreate evidence that never existed or guarantee a deduction, VAT repayment or acceptance by Revenue. The useful outcome is a reconciled set of records, documented unresolved points and a clear decision about the further professional work required.