Buying without an invoice: expense voucher, producer receipt and freelancer receipt explained

An expense voucher (gider pusulası) is the paper a hotel writes when it buys from a seller who issues no invoice. A producer receipt covers purchases from farmers not taxed under the actual method (gerçek usul), such as those under the simplified method (basit usul) or exempt, and a freelancer receipt is written by the freelancer. All three come from the Tax Procedure Law, Articles 234 to 236.

The eggs arrive at six in the morning, the grower wants cash, and no invoice will ever come. The purchase is real, the cost is real, and the hotel still has to put a paper behind it. After reading this you will know which of the three documents each purchase needs, who writes it, what it must contain, and how the seven-day limit works, so your purchasing office can act at the delivery door instead of months later.

Why does a purchase without an invoice still need a paper?#

Because a cost that no document supports is a cost the hotel cannot easily defend. The paper is what turns a cash payment at the back door into a recorded expense.

The Tax Procedure Law (Vergi Usul Kanunu, the law that sets which documents a business must issue and keep) splits the job in two: sometimes the seller writes the paper, sometimes the buyer does. Three articles cover the everyday cases: Article 234 for the expense voucher, Article 235 for the producer receipt, Article 236 for the freelancer receipt.

The document follows the seller's tax position, not the amount. For example, a small purchase from a company needs an invoice; a larger purchase from a grower may need a paper the hotel writes itself. None of the three is a VAT document. They record what was bought, from whom and for how much; how VAT is treated is a separate question.

The risk sits with the hotel, not the seller. An undocumented purchase stays in the books without support, and the purchasing office usually notices months later, when the seller is long gone. A workable rule for the purchasing office: no document, no payment release, except where the hotel itself is the one that must write the document.

Gider pusulası: when does the hotel write the expense voucher itself?#

When it buys goods or services from someone who is not required to issue the documents the Tax Procedure Law lists, such as an invoice or a freelancer receipt. The hotel issues the voucher and the seller signs it (Article 234).

The law names who issues it: a merchant, a simple-method taxpayer, a freelancer who keeps books, or a farmer who keeps books. For a hotel purchase, that means the hotel company. The seller's signature is what makes the paper work: a voucher the hotel wrote and nobody signed proves very little.

The clock is seven days from delivery of the goods or the service. A voucher written after that counts as not issued, so the date on the paper matters as much as the paper. The voucher records the cost and the seller; how VAT is treated on that purchase is a separate question for your accountant.

Someone at the hotel has to be authorized to issue it. Who may sign for the company is a separate question with its own paper trail, covered in who may sign for the hotel company.

Müstahsil makbuzu: what changes when the seller is a farmer?#

The buyer writes it. When a hotel pays a farmer who is not taxed under the actual method for goods, the hotel issues a producer receipt in two copies, gives one signed copy to the farmer and keeps the other, signed by the farmer (Article 235).

The actual method (gerçek usul) means the farmer is taxed on real books and real income rather than a simplified arrangement. A farmer under the actual method is outside this route, and the ordinary invoice applies. The buyer must be a merchant, a simple-method taxpayer or a farmer who keeps books; a hotel company buying for its kitchen is the buyer here.

The hotel's copy stands in place of an invoice. That makes it the cost document for the purchase, not a note attached to one.

For example, a grower two villages away delivers eggs, tomatoes and a few crates of peppers to the kitchen door and is paid in cash. The hotel writes the receipt, the grower signs, and the storeroom record and the receipt have to agree on quantity and price. The same logic applies to any farmer selling to the hotel directly, not only produce: the test is how the seller is taxed, not what is in the crate.

Serbest meslek makbuzu: who writes the freelancer receipt?#

The freelancer does, for every collection arising from the profession, in two copies. One copy goes to the hotel, and the hotel must ask for it and take it (Article 236).

The seller is someone working on their own account in a profession treated as freelance work. For example a photographer shooting the hotel's seasonal images, an animator running the children's program, or a consultant advising on a project. Every collection, not a monthly summary: the receipt follows the payment, so a deposit and a balance are two collections.

The duty on the hotel is active, not passive. The law says the client must ask for the receipt and take it, so paying and hoping is not enough. A hotel that never received its copy has nothing to file.

If the freelancer says the receipt will come later, record the payment as awaiting a document and follow up. The file is incomplete until the copy is in it. Where the service bought is one that carries VAT withholding, that is a separate calculation on top of the receipt, covered in VAT withholding on services a hotel buys, and it is not something the receipt itself settles.

Which document for which seller?#

Match the paper to how the seller is taxed and whether the seller is required to issue a document. The table below is an illustrative example, not a classification of your own suppliers.

Read the table from the seller's side first: is this person required to issue an invoice or a freelancer receipt, or not? Then ask who writes the paper. In two of the three cases the writer is the hotel, which is why the purchasing office cannot wait for the seller to act.

The fourth row matters as much as the first three: a company or a merchant issues an invoice, and a voucher written by the hotel does not replace it. A seller can move rows: a grower who starts keeping books under the actual method leaves the producer receipt route. Pin the table where purchases are received, not where they are filed, because the paper has to be written at the moment of delivery.

What are the common mix-ups?#

The expensive one is treating every small seller as an expense-voucher case, when the seller may be a freelancer who must issue their own receipt, or a company that must issue an invoice.

Writing an expense voucher for a purchase from a company is the first mix-up: the company must issue the invoice, and a voucher does not stand in its place. The second is writing a producer receipt for a farmer who is taxed under the actual method, where the ordinary invoice route applies.

Writing the voucher late is its own failure. After seven days it counts as not issued, so a correct paper with the wrong date is still a problem. Treating the voucher as a VAT document, or expecting it to show VAT the way an invoice does, is a fourth.

Two more close the list. Letting the signed copy leave the building without keeping one: for the producer receipt and the freelancer receipt, the hotel has to end up holding a signed copy. And assuming the seller will sort it out: for the expense voucher and the producer receipt, the hotel is the writer, so nobody else is coming.

What should the purchase file hold, and what should you ask your accountant?#

One folder per purchase: the right document, the receiving record, the payment proof, and a date that shows the paper came in time.

The signed copy of whichever document applies belongs in the file before the payment is released where the hotel is the writer. The receiving record from the storeroom matters because quantity and price on the document must match what actually arrived, a procedure covered in hotel purchasing and receiving, from order to storeroom. The payment proof, matched to the document, ensures the cash leaving the safe and the paper in the folder tell the same story.

How the cost is booked, and which account it lands in, should be decided once with the accountant rather than purchase by purchase; the ledger side is covered in hotel bookkeeping from the guest folio to the ledger.

Questions worth asking your accountant: which of our regular suppliers are not required to issue a document; how our vouchers are numbered and stored; how the cost and any VAT are treated; and what to do about past purchases that have no paper. Which category a particular seller falls into, and how a past purchase without a paper should be corrected, is a question for your accountant.

What to do next#

This week, list the ten suppliers you pay without an invoice, write next to each one who is supposed to produce the paper, and take that list to your accountant. The three documents are not variations of one rule: each names a different writer, and in two of the three the writer is the hotel.