Receipts

[Lyss]

I have a (silly) question about receipts.

Do you write the receipts to the family regardless of who gives it to you or the individual whose name is on the check (if its a check not from both DCPs I mean)?

One DCF recently asked me for a copy of their recent receipt but they wanted the "from" section changed. I always put whatever name is on the check as the received from, for this DCF it is always DCD's girlfriend (I've never met mom and my contract is between DCD & GF), but recently they wanted me to change it (for just one past receipt) from GF to DCD. I did it but asked they return the original one to me in exchange, so there wasn't 2 receipts for one month floating around out there.

I know it's not a big deal to me, but its ingrained in my head from my real estate days I guess and it really bothers me. Or maybe I just don't trust DCD and want GF to have the paper trail that she's the one actually paying (also not my business I know!).

I have a DC provider friend who always makes the receipt to "DCF" regardless if it's from DCM, DCD (they have separate accounts), or even grandma's account.

Anyway how do you write receipts?

[nanglgrl]

If I did that I would put a note with the check number and name on the check on the receipt. I could see a possible problem arising during tax time. You give a receipt that says DCF or whatever else on it and dad claims it on his taxes and then his girlfriend has all of the canceled checks and could claim it also (she could get tax ID # from dad). They would have to be some nasty people to do this but you never know. Then if the IRS wanted to audit it could be hard for you because one person has receipts with their name on them saying the amount they paid while another has canceled checks with their name on them and both could "prove" that they paid these amounts even though only one did. KWIM?

[Nickel]

What I do personally is print out a spreadsheet that has both dcm and dcd (or whoever my contract is with) in the bill to section. Then on the account number, I put the child's name. Then I give them an invoice every month with the amount paid and the amount owed on their next scheduled pay date (this saves paper). At the end of the year I use a DIFFERENT sheet that has the family name, child's name, my name and EIN, and the totol of tuition, the total for credits received (for vacation or sick days) the total amount due, total paid, and total for child care expenses in 2012.

This way if I ever get audited, I can show that these parents paid this much for this child. I also keep a ledger of each child with their tuition each week due and paid. So I have a line by line record of each child's account. Not sure if that helped. And I also give my parents a record the Friday or Monday after they paid. Not that specific day because I rarely have time to sit down and type it up with children here. I've had no problems doing it this way.

[Patches]

I put the name of whoever physically hands me the money in the from section

[Blackcat31]

I write out receipts to the primary caregiver or custodial parent. Basically the person who enrolled the child. If the parents are together I write the receipt out to John and Jane Doe.

If I had a DCD with a girlfriend who handed me a check out of her account, I would still write the receipt to DCD. It isn't my issue as to who pays/claims expenses and from what account. They can figure that out between themselves.

I do it this way because I only give out one year end receipt and that is to the primary parent.

[countrymom]

I write it out in the childs last name. This way I don't care who claims it. We had this discussion before and the problem we found was that some of parents weren't married, so different last names, or child had different last name. So because its child care I write it out in the childs name. So if I ever get audited, no one can say that the reciept is in another parents name but someone else is claiming it.