Many artists do not see the importance in giving sales receipts to a customer when they purchase an artwork. The reasons for this vary, but three of the more common reasons are:

1. Its time consuming — Many artists are pushed for time due to other work commitments, family responsibilities or simply procrastination.

2. Paperwork is boring — Come-on, lets face it, many artists prefer to paint, draw or sculpt rather than complete paperwork. Unless payment is being withheld in exchange for a sales receipt, many artists would prefer to do something else.

3. Its not important — Many artists are only concerned about the creative side to their art and don’t appreciate the business side. However, purchase receipts are an important part of the selling process for both the seller and the buyer.

Those are three common reasons why many artists choose not to provide a sales receipt when selling artwork. So what are three reasons why they should give them to their customers?

1. It records the sale — Most artists sell artwork with the intention of making a profit. If this is the case you are liable to declare your income to the tax department. During an audit they will want to see evidence of your income which is easily done by showing your receipt book.

2. It records the customers purchase — A receipt will provide proof of ownership for the customer, give them details of the transaction, and confirm the value of the artwork at the time of purchase. It is often used for archival and/or insurance purposes.

3. It shows professionalism — This concept is very simple. If you conduct your art sales in a business like manner by providing adequate paperwork to support the sale, the customer will see you as a professional. There is no down-side to this. The more professional you are, the more integrity you will have as a successful artist.

We have covered three reasons why many artists don’t like to give sales receipts, and three reasons why they should. Here are three ways how to provide a sales receipt, along with some pros and cons for each method:

1. Use an accounting software package — If you have multiple sales and expenses you may want to consider purchasing some accounting software such as MYOB etc. Pros: It will calculate the tax and totals automatically. It will provide you with an accurate, easy way of tracking your income with unique receipt numbers and multiple reporting options. It looks professional and clean. Cons: It can be costly to set up. It takes initial training and some basic accounting knowledge to use the software adequately. It can be time consuming. Change any PC into a cash register with store manager point-of-sale for Windows and purchase an Epson receipt printer.

2. Print out a receipt on your computer — It is relatively easy to create a basic receipt in a word processing programme. Pros: They look clean and professional. You can save each receipt individually onto your hard-drive or onto disc. You can custom-make your receipt to suit your needs. Cons: You will need to give each receipt a unique number each time. If you want paper copies you need to print duplicate receipts and file them away. It takes longer to complete printed receipts than hand-written receipts.

3. Buy a receipt book — You can either buy a regular receipt book or one specially designed for artists. Pros: Each invoice is uniquely numbered. You will automatically get a duplicate copy which is retained inside the receipt book. They are pre-bounding making filing easy. They are extremely quick to complete. Buyers of original art value handwritten documents from the artists. Cons: Handwritten receipts cannot be stored electronically unless individually scanned into a computer. To complete accounting reports you need to manually key in the sales figures.

We have briefly discussed three reasons why artists choose not to provide sales receipts, provided three reasons why they should, and then gave three alternative ways of producing a receipt. As you can see, completing paperwork is an important part of the artistic process and with some careful choices you can make this relatively pain free. This allows you to get on with more exciting things - like creating artwork!