Cash sales and cash registers
If you sell goods or services and the customer pays immediately using cash, cash card or various payment applications (for example Vipps) this is called a cash sale.
Cash register
You must have a cash register which satisfies the requirement for the documentation of cash sales in the bookkeeping rules.
The Bookkeeping Regulations on the documentation of cash sales (in Norwegian only)
Anyone subject to the bookkeeping obligation using that is using aa cash register system must ensure that the system comes with a product declaration. A product declaration entails that the supplier of the cash register system has submitted a form to the Norwegian Tax Administration (product declaration) and has thereby confirmed that the cash register system satisfies the requirements in the Cash Register Systems Act and Regulations. The product declaration must accompany the cash register system when this is sold, rented or borrowed. The Norwegian Tax Administration has an overview at all times of the cash register systems with product declaration.
The Norwegian Tax Administration – Overview of cash register systems with product declaration
If you use a cash register system without a valid product declaration, you risk having to pay a non-compliance penalty amounting to ten times the court fee (currently this amounts to NOK 12,770). Repeated violations within a year may lead to twice this amount in penalty fees.
Provisions in the Tax Adminstration Act relating to non-compliance penalties (in Norwegian only)
Registration and receipt
You must register all cash sales in the cash register at the time of the sale. If your cash register has a display, this must be clearly visible for the customer.
After each sale, you need to print a receipt for the customer. This requirement does not apply if you use an integrated payment solution (a solution in which information about the sale is sent from the cash register system to the payment solution and the payment is automatically registered in the cash register system), and the customer does not want the receipt.
The Bookkeeping Regulations on the documentation of cash sales (in Norwegian only)
Daily takings sheet
At the close of business, you need to print or save a report of the entries to the cash register for the day (a Z-report). The cash-on-hand and the report from each cash register should be balanced against the information from the Z-report.
You need to account for any discrepancies, and it should be stated who counted the money and did the balancing.
The Bookkeeping Regulations on daily takings sheets (in Norwegian only)
Bank terminals and payment solutions on mobile phones
A bank terminal is not in itself a cash register. However, many suppliers offer solutions where the bank terminal and cash register are integrated. Similarly, payment applications on mobile phones (for example Vipps) in themselves, cannot meet the requirements of a cash register.
Exceptions from the cash register requirements
If your cash sales are less than NOK 50,000 excluding VAT per year, you do not need to have a cash register system. The same applies if you run an itinerant enterprise or make sporadic cash sales amounting to less than three times the National Insurance basic amount (NOK 355,860). In this case, you need to document the cash sales in one of these ways:
- Enter the sales as they are made in a bound ledger in which the pages are pre-numbered.
- Through copies of dated, pre-numbered sales vouchers.
- Through a dated and signed report where inventory and cash-on-hand is recorded at the start and close of business.
If you have an invoicing program/system that allow you to issue cash invoices in accordance with the statutory requirements of ordinary invoices, you can, in some cases, choose to use this instead of a cash register system. In such a situation, you need to do a daily count of cash-on-hand and balance this against the cash invoices issued.
The Norwegian Tax Administration on exemptions from cash register requirements (in Norwegian only)
Specific rules for certain sectors
In some sectors, even more specific requirements apply concerning documentation of cash sales. This applies for example to hairdressers, the taxi sector and licensed restaurants and cafés. You will find these special rules in the Bookkeeping Regulation.
The Bookkeeping Regulations on cash sales - taxi sector (in Norwegian only)
The Bookkeeping Regulations on cash sales - licensed restaurants and cafés (in Norwegian only)
Online sales and Cash on Delivery
Online sales and cash on delivery sales are not considered cash sales as defined by the Bookkeeping Regulations. This applies even if payment is made on delivery. Online sales and cash on delivery sales generally follow normal regulations concerning documentation of credit sales (invoice).
