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Record Keeping -- Saving Signed CC Receipts

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mandyspizza

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OK…bought a new shredder AND a digital receipt scanner

2011 Resolution – GET RID OF PAPERWORK AND FILING AND SAVE IT ELECTRONICALLY

But…I have thousands of customer signed cc receipts. Does anyone know how long we have to keep these annoying small pcs of paper?
 
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Realistically, you only need to keep them until you are sure there will be no “fuss” about the charge. I never get “chargebacks”, so I keep them for only one month. Dispose of them carefully!!! Many times they have the CC number, name and signature of customer on them - a dangerous combination.
 
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mandyspizza:
Does anyone know how long we have to keep these annoying small pcs of paper?
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On a swiped transaction, I keep mine about 3 seconds. Maybe longer if someone has moved the trash can somewhere…

On a keyed transaction - maybe a day. Depends on if I think a driver is doing something “fishy” or not.

Yeah, I know - I need a copy to dispute any chargeback. Has never helped in the past, so I just don’t put forth any effort or time trying to keep track of the paper.
 
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The last charge back I had was 5 months old. The letter said they could go back as far as 3 years (the statue of limitations…??). Oh yeah, the last one was “swiped.”
 
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damn. i have been saving these for three years 3 months 15 days and 12 hours. Thanks to you guys I have just filled up a brute with slips. For some reason I hoarded them thinking I’d need them some day.
 
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Pakula's Pizza:
For some reason I hoarded them thinking I’d need them some day.
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You might need them someday, when your oven takes a crap and you need something to cook your pizzas with. :lol:
 
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As a recent audit survivor I would save every last one of them for at least 5 years. I am a paperwork hoarder but that is what happens after an audit! :shock:
 
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I have never once needed one.

I am curious though, what could an auditor possibly want with credit card slips?
 
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smeagol8:
Many times they have the CC number, name and signature of customer on them - a dangerous combination.
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PCI compliance forbids any paper having CC number on it.

I have also kept my receipts for years. Luckily I have a 53’ storage trailer for things like that.
 
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30 days for me, but reconsidering it because I had my first charge back in 4 years sent my receipt in and they still found in favor and this was a swiped transaction. whats the use…
 
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Rockstar pizza:
30 days for me, but reconsidering it because I had my first charge back in 4 years sent my receipt in and they still found in favor and this was a swiped transaction. whats the use…
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Exactly.
 
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Rockstar pizza:
30 days for me, but reconsidering it because I had my first charge back in 4 years sent my receipt in and they still found in favor and this was a swiped transaction. whats the use…
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Agreed, I’ve not had a single charge back in the 2+ years we’ve had our store. But, I got them all the time (10-15 a year) when I owned a bar and they never once sided with me.
 
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During the audit (which by the way was a no change order) we reviewed our tip mileage records. We now have all the initials of who received the tip off the card. Unless you want to be responsible in the RARE instant you were tip audited you would have to justify the cc tips were claimed. Someone has to be responsible for all the taxes to be paid on that tip. The audit was kinda like when the health dept comes in. They ultimately are there to help. In my case they were very helpful in general. Just by the questions they ask during the discovery period you can get an idea of what they are deeming as important. Tips and all things related were important. Since we reimburse our drivers 1.50 per run they asked about how we keep track of their mileage. It also has been one of those things over the years I have been lax about. Both tips and mileage. In the begining an employee would be trying to get a house or apt and they hadn’t been reporting all their tips. I would say well hello…duh. Having been a waitress years ago I also understand the idea of tips being even more valuable cuz back in the day it was 8% of your sales. The rest was unspoken tax free.

Anyway through my own quest to find a form which we could just have the employees fill out daily for tip and mileage I found a couple at irs.gov and created my own form which was easy for employees to do.

The IRS is having a better way of tracking if your cc records show actual tips and your employees are not reporting all tips you will be the one to get in trouble. It is our job as business owners to make sure tips get reported.

I have wondered for years why I was keeping all the info I do…cuz I keep everything…after getting audited it was nice to have any and everything I or they could possibley need. It was organized and made sense 3 years after the tax year was gone. It was nice to hear the compliments of my organized record keeping. In the end would things have changed if I had not had my cc slips? NO but ya just never know. I keep it all together and then as a new year rolls in another one is rolled out.
 
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I agree with the post the ‘most’ charge-backs are uniformly against the business owner. However, I did win the 4 month old ‘swiped’ CB, although, it took 2 extra RE-SENDS because of ‘poor quality’ <- (they were picture perfect??). I do wish we had a national insurance program to sue the processors and banks for this on-going theft, which is only getting bigger and bigger chunks of our profit.

Kris, thanks for a very thoughtful, experienced reply. 🙂
 
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Thanks Kris.

Since our CC clearing runs through our POS, all of that data is in our POS records right down to the run and the tip amount paid to each driver on each shift. CC tips are recorded as part of the check out for each driver, each shift in the POS and shown on the wage report generated every two weeks.

Fortunatly for most Delcos, tip reporting requirements are also tied to number of seats in a restaurant and we are not required to do the kind of reporting that sit down places have to do.

I still don’t think I would ever need the slips but I can see how you might if your POS did not include all the features ours does.
 
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