Record book: the orderly photograph of your invoices
It is not the accounts: it is their compulsory antechamber. And it is the first thing asked for in any formal request, before the invoices themselves.
The compulsory record, in date order, of the invoices issued and received, which underpins the self-assessments and the annual summaries.
The VAT ones
Articles 62 and following of the VAT Regulations require four:
- Record book of invoices issued
- Record book of invoices received
- Record book of capital goods
- Record book of certain intra-Community transactions
The IRPF ones
Article 68 of the IRPF Regulations requires business activities on estimación directa simplificada to keep books of sales and income, purchases and expenses and capital goods. For professional activities, under either form of estimación directa, it requires one more: the record book of provisiones de fondos and suplidos. Their content and format are set out in Orden HAC/773/2019. On estimación directa normal with a commercial business activity the books are not enough: you have to keep accounts under the Código de Comercio.
What each entry carries
The number and, where applicable, the series; the issue date; the transaction date where it differs; the NIF and name of the customer or supplier; the taxable base; the rate applied and the VAT. All in date order and with no gaps.
An example of the basis
An invoice issued on 28 March and paid on 15 May is entered in March, with that date and that number. The payment is not entered in the record book: it is entered in the accounts and in the due date tracking. They are three different things.
The mistake that comes up most
Keeping the book as if it were the bank statement, entering things by the date they were paid. The record book follows the accruals basis, and the boxes of the 303 and the 390 come straight out of it. Built on the bank, neither of the two reconciles.
Where this carries on in Cairos: The record books, with examples.
Terms that go with this one
Almost no tax concept makes sense on its own. These three are the ones that most often turn up beside it.
Journal entry
The entry that records an economic event in the journal, split between debit and credit accounts for the same amount.
InvoicingSequential numbering
The obligation to number invoices consecutively within each series, with no gaps and no repeats.
VATInput VAT
The VAT you pay your suppliers on purchases and expenses, deductible only if the goods or the service are used in your activity and you have the full invoice.
This, handled without thinking about it
Cairos keeps the invoices, the record books and Hacienda's forms from the same data, so the theory on this page turns into boxes that are already filled in.
No card and no minimum term.