Invoice date

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Good evening,

I raise invoice dates based on the delivery notes date. Sometimes these goods may not be physically delivered to the customer for a few days and waiting in stores for dispatch.

Should I always make sure the invoice date is raised as the same date as the delivery note raised by stores?

Thank you. 

Replies (7)

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By VATs-enough
04th May 2021 22:32

Are you paid in full prior to shipping?

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Replying to VATs-enough:
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By Accountsman123
04th May 2021 22:45

No not usually, what it is is that they book the goods into stores and then delivery them off ready for shipment. The goods either go out same day or a few days after.
Once the goods were delivered to the customer and we receive our signed copy of the delivery note back in the office we used to then date the invoice the day we got that signed copy back.
After doing a bit of searching and looking through how our customers invoice us I always notice that the invoice is the same as the delivery note date. I so changed it to make sure they always match.
But now I'm questioning myself!

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Replying to Accountsman123:
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By VATs-enough
05th May 2021 11:59

Looking at this purely from a VAT perspective, which may or may not be the driver behind the OP question -

If payment is generally received after the event, then you are looking at the time of supply/tax point as being either the shipping of the goods (basic tax point) or the invoice date (actual tax point).

If you decide to use the same date for both, that's fine. It is a commercial decision, as stated by other posters. So long as the invoice is physically issued when the goods are dispatched, you have your tax point for VAT purposes.

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By Hugo Fair
05th May 2021 00:23

Depends on the context in which you're raising your question.
If it's from a VAT perspective (and you actually mean the 'tax point' date which is usually but not necessarily the same as the invoice date), then have a read of https://www.gov.uk/vat-record-keeping/time-of-supply-or-tax-point

However, strictly speaking the answer to your OP is that you can put any date you like on the invoice - so long as it is line with your sales T&Cs and commensurate with what your clients will be expecting to see ... i.e. a consistent policy.
The consequences of the date you use may, however, have various timing impacts on many other factors - such as treatment of VAT , recognition of revenues, and so on ... but that's not what you asked.

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RLI
By lionofludesch
05th May 2021 07:06

Love the expression "what it is is......"

You don't often see it written.

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Replying to lionofludesch:
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By Hugo Fair
05th May 2021 11:48

As opposed to "what it is isn't clear"?

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Routemaster image
By tom123
05th May 2021 08:31

In pre laser printed days, invoices were produced on multi part paper. The top copy was the invoice, and the lower copies the delivery note and file.

Hence all documents had the same date.

My motto is

"Invoice early, invoice often"

You may get the odd person being picky about month end goods receipts, but, generally I would produce invoices and delivery notes at the same time. These days, of course, one is tending to email the invoices out.

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