Free Cash Receipt Template (PDF, Word & Excel)
A cash receipt records a payment made in cash, at the moment it happens. Unlike an invoice — which asks for money — or a card payment — which leaves a bank trail — cash leaves no record of its own. The receipt _is_ the record, which is why it's written on the spot, in front of the payer, with a copy for each side. Pick a format below — PDF, Word or Excel — and note that it prints two to a page, so both copies get written in one go. No sign-up, no watermark.
Download the cash receipt template
Cash receipt template
A two-copy cash receipt with amounts in figures and words.
Every download is free — no email, no sign-up, no watermark.
The Word file also opens in Google Docs. Amounts are written by hand or typed by you — nothing on the template calculates anything.
What goes on a cash receipt
A cash receipt earns its keep on exactly the day someone remembers the payment differently. These are the fields that make it hold up, with the two that cash makes special in bold.
- Receipt number — one sequence, in order. With cash, gaps get noticed: the numbers are the only thing standing in for a bank statement.
- Date — and time, if it matters — cash disputes are often about _which_ payment, not whether one happened. On same-day repeat payments, the time separates them.
- Received from — the person who physically handed over the money.
- Amount in figures — `$740.00`, written immediately, before the money goes anywhere.
- Amount in words — `Seven hundred forty dollars`. This is the field that makes a cash receipt different from every other receipt: a figure can gain a digit or lose a decimal point; the words can't. If words and figures ever disagree, that's a dispute the receipt caused instead of settled — write both at the same sitting.
- For — what the cash paid for, specific enough to stand alone: "August rent, Unit 2" beats "payment".
- Change given — if the payer handed over more than the amount due, record what came back. The amount received on the receipt is the net amount kept.
- Received by, with signature — whoever took the cash signs. For larger amounts, some people have the payer initial their copy too — both sides then hold a paper the other one signed.
Frequently asked questions
Why write the amount twice, in words and figures?
Because figures fail quietly — a smudged 7, a missing decimal, a 0 added later — and words don't. Checks use the same trick for the same reason. Write both at the same moment; if they ever disagree, the receipt has created the argument it existed to prevent.
Who keeps which copy?
The payer takes the top copy; whoever received the cash keeps the duplicate. The template prints two to a page so both are written in one sitting — writing the second copy later, from memory, is how the two copies end up different.
I write receipts by hand all day. Is there a better format for that?
Yes — the receipt book template puts three numbered receipts on each page with a running sequence, made for exactly that. This page's template is the one-off version.