Source Documents
A source document is an original record containing financial information recorded against an organisation.
Depending on the type of document the information recorded it should include the document date, total amount, and a description of what the document was used for. You will have more details on the documents such as on an invoice for example, which may or may not be relevant for accounting purposes but will be relevant for auditing purposes.
Examples of source documents include:
Invoices to Customers, that show income.
Invoices from Suppliers, that show expenses.
Payment receipts and cheque stubs that show items were purchased.
Petty cash receipts
Timecards from Employees
Source documents should be retained as 'proof' of the accounting transaction for tax and auditing purposes.
Most countries define a different time-span to keep these documents on hand. Personally I recommend source documents be available for immediate retrieval within the current financial year (12 months). The previous 6 years should be archived however accessible within a couple of days, and anything prior would be purged from archives should this be applicable from legal standpoint (e.g. government requires 7 years history, physical documents are then scanned and physical copies are recycled.)
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