UK Is a screenshot of a invoice open on a Computer monitor a valid invoice?

[toralero]

Hi all

Working as a finance assistant at a tech company and have to deal with all the staff expense claims etc, some staff have attached with their expense claims photographs (pretty meh quality ones at that) of the invoice pdf file open on their computer screen (you know what I mean instead of attaching the PDF itself they snap a pick of the open invoice on their monitor).
Is this a valid invoice for HMRC or will audit be on my ass lax book keeping?

Thanks in advance guys
Rodrigo R

 

[Fidget]

I'm not following you here. Usually when staff submit expenses claims they're backed up by receipts for those expenses rather than invoices. Invoices are requests for payments due, receipts are proof of payments made.

 

[Steve-LevelUp]

I believe what you are saying is sufficient. The receipt/invoice would be sufficient for audit purposes. Just be sure that they are legitimate expenses and that they employee actually paid them.

 

[toralero]

I'm not following you here. Usually when staff submit expenses claims they're backed up by receipts for those expenses rather than invoices. Invoices are requests for payments due, receipts are proof of payments made.

I'm sorry i guess I wasn't clear enough.
What I mean is imagine we need to raise a bill on your accounting software for, lets say a monthly subscription, In my case our employees got the subscription of their company card and we need to account for it.
When presenting the PDF invoice to they took a photograph of the invoice open in PDF format on their computer screen, instead of attaching the pdf file along with the expense claim

 

[Steve-LevelUp]

Sending the PDF direct to you would be preferable. However, whether they send you the PDF or take a picture of the PDF and send that to you, so long as all of the information is still present, then this would a valid invoice. It comes down to what you consider a valid receipt as a part of your expense policy. Governments only require tha tyou have a copy of the receipt available. A picture, a scan, a print out all count as a copy of the invoice. in many cases, the PDF is the 'original' as invoices are generally no longer mailed.

 

[Fidget]

In the UK, it generally works like this:

* suppliers send invoices to organisations for payment - not employees.
* employees submit receipts as proof of purchase for reimbursement of an expense they've incurred out of their own pocket as a result of work purposes.

The odd thing with this is that if an employee has renewed, or bought, a subscription (or anything else) using a company card, why is the employee submitting an expense claim for it when it is the company that will be paying the card bill?

Maybe I'm completely missing something here.