When is the receipt number assigned?
At the moment the receipt is issued, never when the draft is created.
A draft that is abandoned therefore leaves no gap in the series, and two people issuing at the same moment cannot be given the same number.
How it works
How to create and issue a donation receipt
Seven steps, from opening the form to handing the receipt over. Two of them — approval, and choosing a signatory — depend on how your trust has set the product up, and the page says which.
What are the steps?
- Open a new receipt.
- Choose the donor, or add them from the form.
- Enter the amount, date, donation head, donation type and payment method.
- Save it as a draft.
- Submit it for approval, if your trust requires approval before issuing.
- Issue it — this allocates the receipt number and closes the receipt.
- Send the PDF to the donor on WhatsApp or by email, or download and print it.
The steps in full
Open a new receipt
From the receipts screen. Creating one needs the receipt-create capability, which is granted separately from the ability to browse the register — so somebody can be given one without the other.
Choose the donor, or add them here
Search the register by name. A donor who is not on file yet can be added without leaving the form: name, donor type, mobile, and a PAN or Aadhaar where they have given one. Typing a PIN code fills the city and state.
Enter the donation
The amount, the date, the donation head it is towards, the donation type, and the payment method with its instrument reference where there is one — a cheque number, a transfer reference. Whether 80G is claimed follows from the donation head.
Save it as a draft
A draft holds no receipt number and appears in no report of issued receipts. It can be corrected or deleted as often as needed. Nothing has been committed yet.
Submit for approval, where your trust requires it
If approval is turned on, the draft is submitted and somebody holding the approval capability approves it or rejects it with a reason. A rejected receipt returns to draft so it can be corrected and submitted again. With approval off, this step does not exist.
Issue it
Issuing allocates the next number in your series and closes the receipt. Where your organisation holds signatures, the signatory is chosen here — preselected where you hold one grant or the default, and asked for where you hold several.
Give it to the donor
Send it on WhatsApp or by email with the PDF attached and a note, or download and print it. Each of those is recorded on the receipt’s own timeline.
What issuing actually does
Four things happen in the one action, and they are the reason issuing cannot be undone.
- A number is allocated
- The next in your organisation’s series, formed from your prefix, the counter and the financial year where you reset annually. It is never reused.
- The design is frozen
- The receipt records the exact published template version it printed from, so a redesign later cannot change it.
- The organisation is snapshotted
- The registration details that print on the receipt are those held at issuance, not those held today.
- The signatory is captured
- The signatory’s name, designation and signature image are copied onto the receipt, not merely referenced.
What has to be in place first
A newly registered organisation has all of this already, so the first receipt does not wait on setup.
- A published receipt design. A receipt cannot be issued without one — the application refuses rather than guessing which design to use.
- At least one donation head, donation type and payment method. These are what a receipt is recorded against.
- Your organisation’s details, including the registration numbers the receipt design prints.
- A signature, if you want one printed. Receipts can be issued without any signature at all, and always could be.
Frequently asked questions
What if I make a mistake after issuing?
Void the receipt with a reason, and issue a corrected one.
An issued receipt cannot be edited or deleted. The voided receipt keeps its number and is reported as voided rather than as money received, so the correction is visible in the record instead of hidden by it.
Can I record a donation received last month?
Yes, unless your organisation has set a limit on back-dating.
Back-dating can be left open or restricted to a number of days, and future-dated receipts are refused unless explicitly allowed. Both are settings on the receipt settings screen.
What if the same donor gives twice in one day?
You get a warning, not a refusal.
The duplicate check looks for the same donor and amount on the same day and is on by default. It warns because the same donor genuinely can give twice in a day, and a rule that blocked it would be wrong more often than it was right.
Who can issue a receipt?
Anybody holding the issue capability, which is granted separately from creating and correcting receipts.
Where your organisation holds signatures, they also need a grant for at least one of them; somebody with no signature grant is refused and told which administrator to ask.
Try it with your own trust
Register your organisation and issue a receipt on a design that is already published and ready to print.