Three documents, three different jobs
Most small businesses in Cambodia lose money on paperwork, not on pricing. The loss comes from issuing the wrong document at the wrong moment: sending an invoice when the client has not agreed to anything yet, or handing over a receipt that the customer then treats as an invoice.
The three documents are not variations of one form. They mark three different points in the same sale:
| Document | What it does | The question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| Quotation (សម្រង់តម្លៃ) | A commercial offer | "What would this cost, and on what terms?" |
| Invoice (វិក្កយបត្រ) | A request for payment | "This is what you owe me, and by when" |
| Receipt (បង្កាន់ដៃ) | Proof that payment was received | "You paid this, and here is the record" |
A quotation is not a tax document. An invoice is. A receipt proves payment but does not prove tax was paid.
1. The quotation — before anything is agreed
A quotation is an offer, and it is governed by commercial practice rather than by the invoice rules.
What a quotation needs to be useful:
- Scope, itemised — what exactly you will deliver, in what quantity.
- Price, with the currency stated.
- Validity period — the date until which the price stands. Without it, a client can accept a price from two years ago.
- Terms — payment terms, delivery, what is excluded.
- An acceptance block — a place for the client to sign or countersign, if you want the offer to be accepted in writing.
- Optional indicative tax — showing the tax that would apply lets the client see the real landed price instead of a surprise later.
What a quotation does not need: a buyer TIN, VAT-invoice numbering, or an itemised tax breakdown. Those belong to the invoice. A quotation is not filed as a tax document, and treating it as one is a category error.
One practical note: in Cambodia a quotation is commonly quoted in USD while the final invoice must state its total in riel, because of the riel-total rule that applies to registered self-assessment taxpayers. If you quote in dollars, say so on the quotation and be ready to show the riel figure on the invoice. (See Why your invoice total must be in riel.)
2. The invoice — the request for payment
The invoice is the document with legal obligations attached. In Cambodia it comes in two types — the tax invoice and the commercial invoice — and which one you may issue depends on your taxpayer class and your customer, under Prakas No. 723 MEF.Prk of 14 August 2019 and Instruction 3033 / Notification 3218 of 6 February 2020.
The short version of the decision:
- Small taxpayer → commercial invoice to everyone.
- Medium or large taxpayer → tax invoice to registered taxpayers; commercial invoice to end users.
- Buyer TIN appears on the tax invoice only.
- Taxes are itemised on the tax invoice only; the commercial invoice total is inclusive of all taxes.
- Khmer is required, with any other language below it, per label.
- Registered self-assessment taxpayers show the total payable in riel, including VAT, per Notification 4908 of 18 March 2019.
The full field list is in What has to be on a Cambodian invoice: the Prakas 723 field checklist, and the type decision is in Tax invoice or commercial invoice?.
An invoice is not a receipt. Issuing an invoice and calling it a receipt — or the reverse — creates a document that proves the wrong thing.
3. The receipt — proof that payment happened
A receipt (បង្កាន់ដៃ) evidences payment received. In a cash-heavy, dual-currency retail economy it is the highest-volume document most Cambodian businesses issue: a shop or a market vendor issues receipts all day and tax invoices rarely.
A receipt should carry:
- Who paid and who received.
- The amount received, in the currency it was received in — and, in a dual-currency transaction, the riel or dollar equivalent.
- The payment method — cash, bank transfer, or KHQR.
- Change given, where relevant.
- What it was for, with a reference to an invoice number if there is one.
- A date.
Three things a receipt does not do:
- It is not a tax invoice. A receipt does not carry the buyer TIN and does not itemise taxes. If your customer needs to claim input VAT, they need the invoice, not the receipt.
- It does not prove tax was paid. This is widely misunderstood. A receipt proves money moved between two parties. It says nothing about whether tax was declared on the transaction.
- It does not replace the invoice. If a sale required an invoice under Prakas 723, issuing a receipt instead does not satisfy that requirement.
For a shop that prints to a thermal till roll, 80 mm is the natural geometry; A5 is the practical size for a receipt that will be filed.
How the three connect
They are one workflow, and the data should flow through it:
- Quote the work — scope, price, validity.
- The client accepts. The quotation's lines become the invoice's lines.
- The client pays. The invoice's details become the receipt's details.
If you retype the same lines three times, you will eventually retype one of them wrong — and an error that starts in the quotation ends up on the document with legal consequences.
What to issue, in one line each
- Before agreement: quotation. Not a tax document; scope, price, validity, terms.
- After delivery, before payment: invoice. Tax invoice or commercial invoice, depending on your class and your customer; Khmer required; riel total required for registered self-assessment taxpayers.
- After payment: receipt. Proof of payment, with the method and any invoice reference — and no claim that tax was paid.
Producing them
The Cambodia Invoice Generator produces the invoice — tax or commercial, chosen from your taxpayer profile and customer type, with Khmer above English per label, VAT at 10% and the other taxes only where they actually apply, and the riel total stamped at the National Bank of Cambodia daily rate with the rate and its date on the document. It is free, needs no account, and stores nothing after the PDF is returned.
The riel figure the invoice carries comes from the official rate. You can check it on the Cambodia Exchange Rates tool, which shows the National Bank of Cambodia daily rate with its source and date. If you want the customer to be able to pay you by scan, the KHQR Generator builds the Bakong KHQR code you can put on the invoice.
If you issue these documents continuously — numbering sequences, a customer list, VAT returns and GDT reporting — that is a different job from producing one correct document, and khmerinvoice.com is the product built for it.
This article explains the documents; it is not tax advice. Confirm your own position with the General Department of Taxation or a qualified adviser.