Do You Give a Receipt ?

When you do a free pick up at a business do you write them a receipt ? How do you write it ? Would you include serial numbers ? Would you enter a value ? I have a small book of sales receipts, carbon copy type, would that be sufficient ?

Yes. You can give them a receipt even if the items are free.

thanks George, what about serial numbers and value, do you note those ?

To be more thorough, you can.

Actually, I would regardless. Write them all down, and have the client sign each copy that has the serial numbers listed. So if they ever try and pull any shady stuff, you have proof that they were given to you...free or other wise.

As a business owner the reason I would want a receipt would be to prove the object was disposed of so the accountant can fully depreciate it and take it off my business property list. I would prefer the receipt to list the item as; "zero value...scrapped".

I give reciepts for items picked up. If the customer needs model and serial numbers for their records then they have to have them on a sheet of paper when I pick the items up. A lot of the stuff I pick up already has a hazardous waste manifest filled out so all I have to do is sign off on it.

I certainly appreciate yalls help. Reckon it would be best to request that "they" make a list of any serial numbers needed for tax depreciation, so I can sign off on it ?

Yeah I think the customer should do the serial number thing and you can just double check......Could you imagine going to pick up 50 or 100 units of something and having to write each individual serial number down......Me personally I hate paper work and would charge an accounting fee for that kind of paper trail......I usually do a simple description of the item and have them sign off on it...............Anyways keep up the good work Bear

I've just designed a receipt that i plan on using with a school district that is giving me all their electronics for free. On my receipts I have a section where the seller has to note wether or not the storage devices(hard drives) have been erased by themselves or if I will destroy them. Also have a section at the bottom where they have to sign that they are the owner or authorised by the owner to sell the items. Hope this helps out.

I also have my receipt titled as "receipt for disposal". Accountants can tell quickly that the items are junked

I use a standard receipt book and give a very simple receipt because it helps me keep track of the items and I use it to total it all up. People seem to like/want it.

We do. We give them the count sheet for parts or things we buy. I just take a digital copy of it with a smart phone and download them as pdf files when I get in. Then print them off for book keeping. The sheet we use records everything we purchase from car parts to scrap. Plus if you get pulled over you have proof of origin and owner ship.

Interesting this thread came up, I had a situation come up that demands from this point on all major buys of computers will get a recipt. 2 copies one for the seller and one for me. that receipt will include every thing the customer claims to be true. I have been remiss and just plain stupid for not doing this with every one up to this point. Only common sense argument on my part saved my bacon on this one.

got email from "IT" guy at a banking firm 200 computers. only hard drives missing, understandable, its a bank.

went to look at the computers wed. tore down 6, as the customer stated only hard drives missing (he had them in his garage). thursday morning rented a truck to pick them up. loaded them and took the to the yard.

friday morning , son started the tear down and sorting, five minits wife comes in to the office and tells me the computers have been stripped. went to look, the computers had only one or two finger cards some had none, each computer had one small ram. mother boaqrds and chips were intact.

did some quick research and found the computers didn't come from the bank at all. but tracked them down to a local hospital. Hospitals have desk tops and work stations, but they also have dedicated purpose computers, wt. ich most ot these were. they generaly have few finger cards but are loaded with ram.

A phone call to the local scrap yard and my competitor in Pensicola quickly verifyed my suspicions.

he tried to sell the ram to each, the scrap yard offered him pennies. Bless my competitor in Pensicola, he knew we were up against each other in this deal, and knew I got the computers and refused to buy the ram and told the guy to give then to the man who paid for them.

got ahold of the seller yeaterday and after some unpleasent discussion and pointing out the error of his ways. plus the fact he couldnt sell them to any one elseI picked up the 23 lbs of ram this morning.

dont only get a receipt but get a bill of sale listing every thing that is supposed to be there. In these hard times desperate people and those who tend to be dishonest will do most any thing.