Updated 2026-07-12 · 3 min read
Who this is for. These are the Spanish invoicing rules, so this applies to salons in Spain, including the many run by owners who don't read Spanish. Elsewhere it does not apply: your receipts follow your own country's rules.
The receipt looks like the humblest piece of paper in the salon — and it is, at the same time, your most frequent tax document: you issue hundreds a month, and each one is a miniature declaration to the tax office. Getting it right isn't about looks: it's the difference between a defensible till and a chain of problems the day somebody looks closely. Let's go over what it must contain, when it isn't enough, and what's coming for it in 2027.
What your receipt must contain, no exceptions
The «receipt» has a technical name: simplified invoice (governed by the invoicing regulation). Its minimum content:
- A consecutive number and series: no gaps and no repeats. Consecutiveness is one of the first things checked.
- Date of issue.
- Your tax number and your name or company name (the trading name «Ana's Salon» on its own isn't enough: the tax detail is missing).
- Identification of what was sold: «Cut and blow-dry», «Root colour», «Shampoo X» — a generic «Various services» on every receipt is bad practice that undermines the credibility of the whole set.
- The VAT rate applied, or the wording «VAT included»: in hairdressing, 21%. If you break it out, base + amount; if not, «VAT included (21%)».
- The total amount.
When a receipt isn't enough: the full invoice
Two situations oblige you to issue a full invoice (the one that adds the client's name, tax number and address): when she asks for one — typical of somebody who can deduct the expense, and it's her right — and when the amount exceeds €400 including VAT (with the threshold raised to €3,000 in retail; for a salon's services-plus-products mix, the prudent reference is €400 — think brides, big packages or premium extensions). Practical tip: have the process ready to produce a full invoice in two minutes without getting flustered, because you'll be asked rarely but always in a hurry.
The three deadly sins of the salon receipt
1. Not giving one («do you want a receipt?» hoping for a no): every transaction has to be documented, and a pattern of not issuing them is the number-one indicator of cash off the books in any inspection. 2. Creative numbering: gaps, arbitrary restarts, parallel series — numerical disorder turns a routine review into an audit. 3. The generic pad from the corner shop: those pre-printed receipts with no tax number and no consecutive numbering aren't simplified invoices: they're props.
What's coming in 2027: the receipt with a QR code
VeriFactu doesn't change *what* your receipt contains, but *how it's produced*: from 2027 (January for companies, July for the self-employed), the software you issue with must generate a tamper-proof record of every receipt and stamp on a QR code verifiable with the tax agency. The content of this article will still be valid — the QR will be added to it, plus the guarantee that nobody can delete or retouch a receipt after the fact. If you're choosing a till or a cash system this year, make sure it's adapted: buying something today that isn't is paying twice.
The moral, on thermal paper: the perfect receipt costs the same as the botched one — configuring it properly once. And in a trade historically singled out for informal cash, an impeccable till isn't just compliance: it's the peace of mind that, whoever looks, your salon shows its books with its head high.