If a vendor only gives me an official receipt, is that still fine?

For proof of payment, yes. For claiming a deduction or input tax on a business expense, ask whether they can also provide a sales invoice — that's now the primary document the BIR looks for on the expense side.

Do I still need to reprint my invoice booklets?

If you registered before the reforms and haven't transitioned your invoicing yet, check with your RDO or accountant — the conversion windows have largely closed by now, so most registered businesses should already be issuing invoices as the primary document.

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Official receipt vs. sales invoice: what's the actual difference now?

September 3, 20263 min read

Ezra Anglo · builds Resiboo

This is general information, not tax advice — confirm your specific obligations with a CPA and the BIR website, since transition details can vary by registration date and business type.

Short answer: before 2024, an Official Receipt (OR) documented a sale of services and a Sales Invoice (SI) documented a sale of goods — two different documents for two different transaction types. Since the Ease of Paying Taxes Act (RA 11976), the sales invoice is the primary proof of sale for both goods and services, and the official receipt is now a supplementary document for proof of payment or collection. If you're only going to keep one thing from a transaction, keep the invoice.

Before the reforms

The old rule split cleanly by what was being sold:

Sales Invoice — issued for the sale, barter, or exchange of goods or properties.
Official Receipt — issued for the sale of services, or for the collection of payment.

A freelancer or professional (selling a service) issued ORs. A retailer or online seller (selling goods) issued sales invoices. Getting the wrong one from the wrong type of business was a common paperwork headache.

What changed

The Ease of Paying Taxes Act collapsed that split. The sales invoice is now the primary document for both goods and services — it's what proves the sale happened and what a buyer needs to support an expense deduction or input VAT claim. The official receipt still exists, but its role narrowed to documenting payment or collection — useful, but no longer the primary evidence of the underlying sale for a service transaction.

Practically, this means:

If you're a service provider (freelancer, consultant, professional), you should now be issuing invoices, not just receipts, as your primary document.
If you're the one paying and want to deduct the expense, the invoice is what your accountant will ask for first — an OR alone may not be enough to support the deduction on its own.
Registered CAS (computerized accounting systems) and e-invoicing setups were updated to reflect the same shift.

What to actually ask a vendor for

When you pay for something you plan to deduct as a business expense:

Ask for the sales invoice, not just a receipt or a payment acknowledgment.
Check that it shows the seller's registered name, address, and TIN — an invoice missing these doesn't hold up as support for a deduction.
If a vendor only has old OR booklets left, keep it, but don't assume it alone is sufficient going forward — ask your accountant if it needs to be paired with anything else for that particular claim.

This matters most for the expenses you're planning to write off. See tracking business expenses as a freelancer or online seller for the broader habit of collecting the right document, not just any document, every time you spend.

Does this change how long you keep them?

No — the retention rules didn't change with this reform. Whatever you collect, invoice or receipt, still falls under the same ten-year retention window, and the same question of whether a photo of it is good enough applies equally to both document types.

Resiboo doesn't care whether what you scan is technically an invoice or a receipt — it reads the merchant, date, category, and total off either one, so the habit of capturing everything the day you get it doesn't depend on getting the terminology right first.

Frequently asked questions

If a vendor only gives me an official receipt, is that still fine?: For proof of payment, yes. For claiming a deduction or input tax on a business expense, ask whether they can also provide a sales invoice — that's now the primary document the BIR looks for on the expense side.
Do I still need to reprint my invoice booklets?: If you registered before the reforms and haven't transitioned your invoicing yet, check with your RDO or accountant — the conversion windows have largely closed by now, so most registered businesses should already be issuing invoices as the primary document.