Signing example
Statement of account confirmation e-signature
A balance confirmation is only worth something to an auditor if it comes straight from the customer, says plainly whether the balance agrees, and names anything in dispute. Here a grocer's accounts payable lead confirms the $24,106.85 August closing balance on a packaging supplier's statement, notes the one queried invoice, and signs, with the certificate as the audit evidence.
The document itself is written out in full on its own page: read the wording there. This page is only about signing it.
Who signs what
- Priya Natarajan, accounts payable, Bayside Grocer Co
- An X in the Agreed box beside the closing balance · Disputed items typed on the line below, here INV-39420 · Signature, stamped date, name and company on page 2 · Email link
The signing journey
Step 1
Six fields on the last page
A checkbox in the Agreed column, a text line for disputed items, then a signature, a date, a name and a company under the confirmation paragraph.
Step 2
Sent to the accounts payable address
The invitation goes to the customer's accounts payable inbox, which is the address the auditor would expect a confirmation to come from.
Step 3
She checks the ledger and types an X
The box prints an X for any value she types. On the line below she types the one item she disputes, the $1,860.40 invoice on hold since July.
Step 4
Name and company complete the record
Her name fills from the recipient record and she types the company name, so the signature is tied to Bayside Grocer Co Pty Ltd, not only to a person.
Every field, and who fills it
The whole statement is reproduced from the linked example: Harbourline Packaging Supplies, account HBL-2210, opening balance $18,442.30, ten movements, closing balance $24,106.85, the ageing of $17,664.55 current, $4,581.90 at 30 days and $1,860.40 at 60 days, and the note on INV-39420. The envelope adds a balance confirmation section at the foot of page 2. Priya Natarajan types an X in the Agreed box, types the disputed item on the line below, draws her signature, and types the company name; her name fills itself and the date is stamped.
How to adapt this envelope
An auditor running confirmations for many customers sends one envelope per customer, each with that customer's statement, so every certificate stands alone. A positive confirmation that asks the customer to state their own balance swaps the checkbox for a text field labelled Balance per your ledger. Where the customer is a large company, add a title field so the confirmation shows the signer's role as well as the company.
What makes this valid in Australia
The Electronic Transactions Act 1999 recognises an electronic signature that identifies the person and shows their intention by a reliable method, which a confirmation signed through a link to the customer's own accounts payable inbox satisfies. Auditing standards, set in Australia by the Auditing and Assurance Standards Board, deal with how an auditor obtains and relies on external confirmations; the statement itself is not a tax invoice, as page 2 says.
What makes this signing flow work
Agreed, subject to what she types
The checkbox statement says the balance agrees subject only to any item typed below. That lets a customer confirm a balance that is right except for one known dispute, which is the usual real world answer, instead of refusing to sign at all.
The disputed item is in her words
The sender cannot pre fill a field, so INV-39420, $1,860.40, short delivery queried 3 July is typed by the customer. A long entry shrinks to fit its line rather than running off it, which happened here.
Evidence the auditor can rely on
Auditors want confirmations to come directly from the third party. The certificate shows who signed, from which email address and IP, at what time, and the document hash, without the supplier being able to change anything after completion.
Questions people ask
Will an auditor accept a balance confirmation signed electronically?
Auditors judge the reliability of each confirmation, including how it was sent and returned. A confirmation signed through a link sent to the customer's own address, with a certificate showing the signer's email, IP address and time and a hash of the document, is generally stronger than a scanned reply.
Why is there a checkbox and a disputed items line?
The checkbox records agreement with the closing balance, and the line records the exceptions. Together they let the customer confirm $24,106.85 while noting the $1,860.40 invoice still under query, which is exactly what a reconciliation looks like in practice, and what an auditor wants to see written down.
What does the X in the box actually mean?
A checkbox field prints a capital X whenever the signer typed any value into it. It is not a box the signer clicks. The meaning comes from the statement beside it, which here says the closing balance agrees with the customer's ledger subject to the items typed below.
Can the customer sign without an account?
Yes. The signer never creates an account. The invitation email carries a personal link, and an email link recipient goes straight to the document. She reads both pages, completes the six fields, accepts the electronic signing consent and finishes, and receives the certified copy by email.
Can the supplier change the balance after the customer signs?
No. The completed PDF is certified with DocMDP P=1, so any later edit breaks the certification, and the certificate records the hash of the document she signed. A corrected statement would have to go out as a new envelope and be confirmed again.
What if the customer declines to confirm?
The envelope moves to declined and the supplier is emailed any reason typed. For an audit, a declined or unanswered confirmation is itself a finding, and the auditor turns to other evidence, such as cash received from the customer after year end.
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Want the steps in the builder? Read Send a PDF for e-signature, then Send a document for signature. For everything this generator can do, see the signing flow maker.
Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked .