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Swedish to English translations [PRO] Bus/Financial - Accounting
Swedish term or phrase:verifikationer
Konsults ansvar för att arbetet blir klart i tid förutsätter att kunden lämnar in materialet inom av Konsult efterfrågad tidpunkt samt att verifikationer och grundmaterial är korrekta.
I assume that verifikationer are "receipts" and not vouchers or anything else?
Explanation: "verifikation" is the word used by Skatteverket to mean the checks done to receipts before they are used as the basis of tax declarations. For example, in the case of simple bookkeeping, that all the required information is indicated on the receipt, that a number has been written on it to tie in with the entry in the accounts ledger, and that it has been allocated to an income or expense account.
Source document is not a bad idea, Paul. In real terms it must be some document issued by a third party - the "revisor" will simply not accept it if the business owners themselves issue a "verfikation".
For a small or medium sized Swedish business, the "revisor" (auditor), would not accept a "verifikation", unless it was a real receipt, i.e. even for financial (banking) transactions, you need to have a piece of paper (these days a computer printout or slip). I think your suggestion is brilliant with "receipt voucher", David. It is really how it works in Sweden for small and medium sized businesses.
Oh sure, and I do exactly the same thing. But I think it is important to note that one word does not mean the other. Sort of like how all apples are fruits but not all fruits are apples. "Verifikationer" described both "kvitto" and "bokföringsorder".
Just as Janed points out, Paul, small and medium sized businesses in Sweden use the actual receipts as the physical item "verifikation", simply by adding a number, like Janed points out. Believe me, Paul, I have seen reams and reams of the typical Swedish loose leaf note books marked "Verifikationer". They contain nothing but receipts, properly numbered.
Receipts are the actual source documents proving a given transaction took place. "Verifikationer" are the vouchers you need to write up showing debits/credits and the account numbers that will be entered into the general journal. This is especially important when withdrawing/depositing money into the business or anything else where you might not have a receipt. It is NOT the same as receipt.
Yes, receipts. When I grew up in Sweden, my mother was an accountant, so I learned that word from early on. For a small or medium sized company it simply means receipts. The FAR entry of voucher (and nothing else) is puzzling to me. Even Gullberg has verification and voucher ahead of receipt. Very, very puzzling.
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verifications
Explanation: "verifikation" is the word used by Skatteverket to mean the checks done to receipts before they are used as the basis of tax declarations. For example, in the case of simple bookkeeping, that all the required information is indicated on the receipt, that a number has been written on it to tie in with the entry in the accounts ledger, and that it has been allocated to an income or expense account.
Reference information: I am sure you have all seen most or all of this material before, but maybe something maybe new and perhaps helpful.
From Wikpedia:
Title:
Voucher
Text:
A voucher is a bond which is worth a certain monetary value and which may be spent only for specific reasons or on specific goods. Examples include (but are not limited to) housing, travel, and food vouchers.
The term voucher is also a synonym for receipt and is often used to refer to receipts used as evidence of, for example, the declaration that a service has been performed or that an expenditure has been made.
...
Accounts payable
A voucher is an accounting document representing an internal intent to make a payment to an external entity, such as a vendor or service provider. A voucher is produced usually after receiving a vendor invoice, after the invoice is successfully matched to a purchase order. A voucher will contain detailed information regarding the payee, the monetary amount of the payment, a description of the transaction, and more. In Accounts Payable systems, a process called a "payment run" is executed to generate payments corresponding to the unpaid vouchers. These payments can then be released or held at the discretion of an Accounts Payable supervisor or the company Controller.
3. voucher = internal accounting document to produce a payment to an external entity
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The Swedish word "verifikation" is definitely not, in general, 1 or 3.
Option 2 would work, perhaps, but that would just mean that "verifikation" = "voucher" = "receipt". Then at least FAR and Gullberg would make sense to me.
The problem is just that "voucher" has at least 2 distinct meanings within accounting (2 and 3), so it seems difficult to use it.
I guess one way of avoiding mixing up 2 and 3 would be to call:
3: payment voucher (I believe this is how it is used)
2: receipt
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Another problem with using voucher (meaning receipt) is that in the U.S. sometimes a separate voucher is made out, which is not necessarily a "source document", but for businesses in Sweden, a "verifikation" is a "source document".
I guess "verifikation" translated as "receipt" or "receipt voucher" would perhaps handle it in the small/medium business case, but may not be general enough.
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From Swedish Wikipedia:
Verifikation
Verifikation är inom bokföring ett underlag för en post i bokföringen. Det kan till exempel vara en faktura som kommit in. När verifikationen kommit in till den som bokför så numreras den och minst två konton belastas (vid dubbel bokföring), minst en krediteras och en debiteras.
supporting documents
supporting information
documentation
basis
Gullberg also supports "supporting documents".
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If we now look at English usage and Paul's comments above (source document was mentioned twice), "source document" starts to look pretty good.
English reference:
The source document is the original record of a transaction. During an audit, source documents are used as evidence that a particular business transaction occurred.
This reference do mention many examples of "source documents" and they do potentially seem to be valid examples of "verikfikation" and "underlag".
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The above definition of "source document" is exactly how "verifikationer" are used in Sweden (when presenting material to a "revisor" (auditor)).
I think
Swedish
verifikationer
English
source documents
is a good and more generally applicable translation than receipts or vouchers.
Great job, Paul!!
Thanks for the disussion, Paul and David.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 5 hrs (2010-06-16 23:51:14 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
Just a little more extensive definition of verifikation:
Enligt bokföringslagen måste det för varje affärshändelse finnas ett bokföringsunderlag i form av en verifikation. Verifikationen är ett skriftligt bevis på att affärshändelsen har inträffat. Exempel på verifikationer är kvitton, fakturor, insättnings- och uttagsbekräftelser från bank-/postgiro, räntebesked, lönelistor osv.