Online Store: When and Which Receipts to Issue

Payment on the website went through at 3 AM, the goods will be shipped only a week later, and half the amount was accepted by a payment aggregator — in e-commerce, the moment of receipt issuance coincides with the payment time far less obviously than at a physical counter. We break down which receipt is required and when for an online store.

1. Receipt for online payment: why it is needed "immediately", even though formally there is a deadline#

As a general rule, for transactions made without the physical presence of the buyer, the law gives the seller a deadline to issue a receipt — no later than the next business day after receiving payment. In practice, almost no one uses this grace period: online stores connect a cloud cash register (KKT like ATOL Online and similar services), which fiscalizes the transaction automatically at the moment of payment — taking seconds, not days. This eliminates both the risk of forgetting and the risk of accumulating dozens of unsent receipts by the deadline. How such a scheme works without a physical device on site is explained in the article "Cloud Cash Register".

2. Immediate or Deferred Fulfillment — Different Settlement Method Attributes#

If fulfillment does not coincide with payment, the law specifically requires a pair of receipts — a common mistake among online stores is issuing a single "Full Settlement" receipt right at the time of payment, even though the customer does not have the goods yet. A detailed breakdown of settlement method attributes and offset mechanics can be found in the article "Advances, Installments, and Credit in Receipts".

3. Partial Order Fulfillment#

Если заказ из нескольких позиций отгружается несколькими партиями (часть товара есть на складе сразу, часть — довозится позже), зачёт аванса делается пропорционально каждой отгрузке:

1. Upon payment — a "100% prepayment" receipt for the total order amount.
2. Upon the first fulfillment — an "advance offset" receipt for the exact amount of the items fulfilled now (not the entire order).
3. Upon each subsequent fulfillment — a new "advance offset" receipt for the amount of that specific batch, until the total offset amount matches the original prepayment.

The sum of all offset receipts for the order ultimately always equals the initial prepayment amount — if an item in the order was canceled and not delivered, a refund is issued for the unfulfilled balance, rather than leaving it "hanging" without a receipt.

4. Payment aggregator "issues receipts itself"#

Some payment providers and aggregators indeed handle fiscalization themselves—acting as payment agents, they generate their own receipts for every processed payment. You can rely on this, but only if it is explicitly stated in your contract with the specific provider—and it is worth checking three things:

1. Who exactly handles fiscalization—whether it is the provider itself as an agent, or if the responsibility formally remains with you while the provider merely passes data technically to your POS.
2. What types of receipts are generated—only "income"/"full payment", or can the provider also handle a pair of "advance + settlement" for deferred fulfillment.
3. Where your copies are—access to the receipt archive is required to reconcile revenue with accounting and in case of a customer dispute; check in the provider's dashboard where to find the history of actual fiscal documents, not just payments.

5. Recurring subscriptions#

Each automatic charge under a subscription is a separate transaction with the buyer, and each one requires a separate receipt generated automatically at the time of charge, without requiring buyer participation every time. Typically, this is implemented through the integration of a payment gateway with a cloud POS: the subscription charges money from a saved card, and the same API call that processes the payment triggers fiscalization.

6. Customer Refusal upon Delivery#

If the customer paid for the order in advance ("prepayment" receipt) and upon delivery refused the items and is being refunded, a "return of income" receipt (advance payment refund) is issued for the prepayment amount using the same payment method used for the original payment. If by the time of refusal a partial settlement had already taken place (part of the order had been dispatched and covered by a settlement receipt), the refund is issued only for the undispatched balance.

7. Purchasing goods from an individual (trade-in, buyback)#

When a store does not sell, but buys — accepting goods from an individual for money (equipment trade-in, jewelry buyback, accepting used items) — this is also a settlement under 54-FZ, just in reverse: the store pays rather than receives. Such a settlement is documented with a receipt marked with the "Expense" attribute rather than "Income", and is just as mandatory as a regular sale — a common mistake made by small stores is believing that a receipt is required only when money comes in.

8. Online sales abroad to foreigners#

If a Russian seller sells goods or a digital service to an individual abroad through their website, as a general rule, this remains a transaction requiring the use of a cash register by the Russian seller — the buyer's citizenship and location alone do not exempt from issuing receipts. At the same time, foreign currency transactions, working through foreign payment agents, and the question of the place of supply for tax purposes are nuanced areas that heavily depend on the specific payment scheme; for such transactions, it is worth consulting an accountant separately on how to issue the receipt and in what currency / at what exchange rate.

9. Example#

Online electronics store: an order for ₽54,000 is paid by card on the website at 2:15 AM; the item is available on order, with shipment in 4 days. The cloud POS automatically fiscalizes a "100% prepayment" receipt at the moment of payment, and the customer receives a link to the receipt via email within seconds. 4 days later, upon courier delivery, a "prepayment settlement" receipt is issued for the same ₽54,000 with the full product itemization — the pair of receipts completes the transaction.

10. How to do this in Cenaly#

• Accepting online payments records the order and amount at the moment of payment — this is the trigger point that should launch fiscalization on the side of your cloud cash register or provider; for details on the scheme itself, see the article "Cloud Cash Register".
• Payment and shipment statuses are visible for each order — it is easy to determine which orders are already fully settled with a receipt and which are still listed as an advance payment prior to shipment.
• For locations with physical fiscal registers (pickup, showroom), fiscalization goes through Cenaly Hardware Bridge; the history of all receipts, including "advance + offset" pairs, is available in POS → Receipts, see receipts and refunds.
• Marketplace sales behave differently — the platform often acts as the seller or payment agent according to its own rules; this is detailed separately in the article "Marketplaces: who issues the receipt".

11. Frequently Asked Questions#

The payment went through at night, and the accountant checks receipts only in the morning — is this a problem? No, if fiscalization is automatic (cloud cash register) — the receipt has already been generated and sent at the moment of payment, regardless of when the accountant sees it; a problem would arise only with manual generation of receipts once a day.

Is it possible not to issue an "advance + offset" pair if delivery and payment are separated by only a couple of hours? Formally, no — the rule applies regardless of how short the gap between payment and delivery is; in practice, with a gap of a few minutes, the delivery sometimes manages to fall into the same calculation, but you should not rely on this — it is safer to issue a pair of receipts.

The aggregator sent us a sales report, but did not send copies of receipts — what should we do? Request access specifically to the archive of fiscal documents, not just to the payment report — these are different sections of the dashboard for most providers; without copies of receipts, you will not be able to confirm fiscalization during an audit.

A service subscription debits money once a month — do we need to notify the buyer about each receipt? No, the law does not require special notification — the receipt is generated and sent to the contact specified during the first payment, automatically with each debit.

Related articles: cloud cash register · advances, installments, and credit · marketplaces: who issues the receipt · correction receipt for online payments

How to connect fiscalization technically: if you already have a cash register, the receipts for your website can be registered on it over an HTTP API — see Cash Server and the API reference with ready-made online store scenarios.

The content is for informational purposes only and does not replace professional accounting advice. Primary sources: Federal Law No. 54-FZ "On the Use of Cash Register Equipment", guidelines of the Federal Tax Service (kkt-online.nalog.ru), Article 14.5 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.