Do invoices have to be signed?

Learn why it might be a good idea to require signatures on invoices and how to make the process easy.

Officially, invoices don’t need to be signed. However, there are a few good reasons why you might want to require signatures on invoices to protect yourself and your customers from misunderstandings.

Invoices as legal documents.

Without a signature, invoices aren’t legal documents; they’re just a list of products and services sent to a customer to request payment. And in most cases, customers will pay unsigned invoices without any issues.

So, if you want them to be legal documents, do invoices have to be signed? Yes, all legal documents must have a signature to be official. It’s the only way to prove that both parties understood the invoice and agreed to abide by its terms.

Why it’s a good idea to require signatures.

A signature shows that someone read, understood, and agreed to the document’s terms. In the world of invoicing, having definitive proof of a customer’s acknowledgement and agreement makes the payment process much simpler.

If something goes wrong, it’s easier to collect payment from a signed invoice. Since the customer already agreed to the terms, there won’t be any dispute — they're legally bound to pay the invoice, no questions asked.

Signatures can also help if you provide products or services before getting paid. A signed invoice not only makes it the customer’s legal obligation to pay once the transaction is complete, but it also reduces the risk of non-payment overall.

The easy way to sign invoices.

While there are certainly benefits to requiring signatures on invoices, it can disrupt your workflow by adding steps to the sales process, with both parties having to deal with scanners, printers, originals, and copies.

You can simplify the process with online signatures. With an e-signature software like Acrobat Sign, both the customer and vendor can legally sign invoices remotely with just the click of a button. Explore what more you can do with Acrobat Sign to make collecting signatures a breeze.