Receipts are your physical proof that funds were used for a ministry expense. It is your responsibility to ensure that they provide that proof.
Every receipt must have four components:
- Date of transaction
- Amount of transaction
- Name of recipient
- Purpose for expenditure
It is always better to have too much information than not enough; i.e., rather than just writing “Food,” it would be better to write, “Groceries purchased for the Christmas dinner on our Big Day.”
A receipt can literally be written on a napkin as long as it has all four of the above-mentioned items, but the more professionally you handle these matters, the better it will be for you should you ever be questioned.
It may be helpful to buy a standard receipt book and carry some receipts with you. It may even be a good idea to have receipts preprinted to fit your particular situation.