VOUCHER SYSTEM OF ACCOUNTING
1. Voucher. A document which vouches the truth of accounts.
Receipt. An acknowledgment of money paid.
The voucher system is sometimes referred to as a modern system of accounting, but a study of the above standard definitions indicates that it is modern only in respect to forms of records and routine.
In the nomenclature of accounting the term voucher is quite commonly used in the same sense as the term receipt. The only distinction appears to be that a voucher is usually understood to be an acknowledgment of the payment of a particular item on account, while a receipt may be an acknowledgment of the payment of money without reference to the item or items covered.
Since the transaction of business began receipts or vouchers in some form have undoubtedly been used. Some form of acknowledgment of money paid has always occupied a place in business. But at first, receipts were not required—they were incidental; given as a matter of courtesy; a "thank you" in written form.
When the first man, after paying his grocery bill, was forced to pay it a second time because the merchant had failed to mark his account "paid," he demanded a receipt. He learned then and there that accounts, and those who keep them, are not infallible. He told his neighbors, and the custom of demanding receipts for money paid, came into being.
The receipt was demanded as a matter of self-protection, to prevent the possibility of payment of an amount being successfully demanded a second time. But the receipt was not an integral part of the accounting records of a business; it might or might not be demanded without affecting the records. So long as business was conducted by single proprietors or small partnerships, this was satisfactory, since the receipt was not required as a record between partners.
With the advent of joint-stock companies and corporations, came ownership by a large number of investors. Having their capital invested, these owners had a right to know what was being done with their property, and there came a demand for a more strict accounting of money and property entrusted to the care of the managers of the business.