The lack of delivery confirmation signature baffles me.. When a product is delivered, there needs to be someone accountable! Is there some reason this is difficult?

[Solivety]

We currently support enabling this for invoices OR quotes.

Originally posted by @hillelcoren in https://github.com/invoiceninja/invoiceninja/issues/1166#issuecomment-266952723

[Solivety]

InvoiceASAP has had this since its inception... Quickbooks has it in their mobile app.. There needs to be a space for signature of receiving party to ensure that the product is accepted and that the invoice is correct. I went through a number of threads and this feature has been requested but it seems to be brushed off as unimportant with a reference to the signature on client portal.. This is a completely different issue.. When product is delivered to someone, there needs to be a trail of agreement and acceptance. If this is not available in digital form it means the ONLY option is triplicate carbons, asking for multiple signatures (for copy for customer+copy for our accounting) or some other ridiculous workaround.

[chrisdicarlo]

How exactly are you tracking the delivery confirmation in InvoiceNinja now (other than the actual signature)? I am not aware of any concept of "delivery" for actual products/services other than a standard invoice. Typically the delivery doesn't include the invoice but rather a packing slip; the invoice is generated separately - at least with almost all of my distributors and vendors. That being said, I don't think a packing slip can be generated, either.

[chrisdicarlo]

I just found the Delivery Note feature which appears to be sort of like a packing list - though it doesn't give any option to generate it for a subset of the invoice, e.g. some items delivered while others are still back-ordered.

I think to implement the feature as you have described is a bit bigger than just the signature:

• Need to account for partial deliveries;
• Document discrepancies in the delivery;
• Accept a signature confirming receipt;

Also, the workflow is going to be different depending on if the delivery is through a third-party, e.g. UPS, versus being delivered by yourself. You will get a signature with a shipping company but that doesn't say anything other than the box arrived - the contents are not validated in any way, whereas if it is delivered by yourself, you could pull up the InvoiceNinja app on a mobile device and have them sign confirming receipt. Again, without being able to indicate a partial fulfillment of invoice versus complete fulfillment, it still lends itself to ambiguity in the event of a disagreement.

Perhaps I'm not clearly understanding your use case.

[Solivety]

Ok so first a specific use-case: Health drink probiotic we wholesale to retailers. Let's say we deliver 12 each of 4 flavors. Let's then say that they had one return due to customer thinking it was going to be a sugary drink and returning it. So we would be able to adjust that invoice on-site to reflect that -1 and then get a signature from the person receiving it and the person delivering it.(this creates a specific accountability chain!) Often that is just a clerk, a manager etc. but we need to have that signature or we can't get paid!.. And yes, this can be just a delivery note but in general it is an Invoice which the store then delivers to their accounting department.. Now this is Bali, Indonesia... so there is definitely some unique challenges of accountability that this addresses...but it seems that being able to have a signature on ANY page as an option shouldn't be that difficult. I mean it's just an optional field, which once entered is immutably bonded to the form/document. I mean lets go general for a moment... am I missing something about this that makes this seem really simple as an option which could be toggled on ANY document form? I'm not meaning to be sarcastic at all, I'm new to coding so if there is something in the backend or the way that the document chains propagate then I'd love to learn about that.. But I can't really imagine why this wouldn't be both relatively simple and extremely useful in multiple scenarios. Definitely not a difficult coding task to add signature drawing... and having an optional field on the forms such as Invoice is already implemented.. What am I missing?

btw, doing a quick google or duck duck go search for "Invoice Signature" clearly indicates that this is a big deal for many delivery and confirmation use cases..

Thanks!!

[chrisdicarlo]

To me that's a delivery receipt, not an invoice - I don't have my employees sign an invoice but I do have them sign delivery receipts so as to maintain a chain of custody. Invoices go to myself or someone in accounts payable.

The key piece is the immutability - once it is signed, the invoice is irrevocably locked to further edits; otherwise, the signature becomes null as the terms of the agreement the signature was based on have now been unilaterally changed.

That being said, would your described workflow work if you did the following:

• Toggle the setting to require a signature on quote approval
• Create a quote for the 12 cases
• Deliver to location
• Person receiving indicates they want to return 1 case. Update the quote with the new quantity. Have the person sign off approving the new quote and sign it.
• Then you convert it into an actual invoice.

The signature would not be attached to the invoice itself but the invoice is linked to the quote and the quote has the signature attached to it. Would that work?

[Solivety]

That would absolutely work!! Basically allowing the quote to function as a delivery receipt..It's all about having that Signature of delivery for us.

[Solivety]

Ideally it would have Signature spots for Delivery Boy and Receiving party..

[chrisdicarlo]

I guess you could have both people sign in the same spot. Not ideal but at least it would be there...

[Solivety]

So why not simply have the OPTION to add one or more signature fields to ANY form (Quote, Delivery Note, Invoice) and ability to LABEL them. They would then simply become an immutable part of THAT SPECIFIC FORM. From the app-flow design and coding that I am working with this seems simple ...and as an option would be unobtrusive and not confusing to those who do not need it. It seems like overthinking the "use-case" is unnecessary if it's just an option that bonds to the document. I wonder if we will hear from the developers on this..

[hillelcoren]

Sounds good to me, we'll keep it in mind for v2.

[KGTee]

Basically, a packing slip is the same as an invoice without the price and tax fields. When printing an invoice, optionally a copy of the packing slip can be printed along with the invoice.

[hillelcoren]

The app supports generating a "Delivery Note" from an invoice which uses the shipping address and remove the pricing details.