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Documenting the Date and Time In Which 

Documents Are Received

Having the correct date and time on documents is important in ensuring that the University's transactions have a verifiable audit trail.  Such an audit trail will aid in strengthening the University's overall internal control structure.  This can be accomplished by recording the date/time on documents upon receipt, whether by a digital date/time stamp machine, rotary date stamp, or handwritten notation. 

 

Documents are received by regular mail, fax, or hand delivery.  Review the document handling practices within your office.  Consider the following:     

• Is the date/time recorded on the documents upon receipt in your office?

• When was the last time you checked the date and/or time on your fax machine?  

  • Is the date correct?

  • Is the time correct?

• Do you contact other university offices when it is apparent that their fax machine has the wrong date and/or time?

The ability to substantiate document processing can be very important in a variety of arenas, including the following:

• Compliance issues

  • Cut-off dates 

  • Determination of initial receipt date 

• Legal issues

  • Who knew what when?

  • Timely filing of documents

• Proper supervision

  • Are documents processed in a timely manner?

  • Calculation of performance ratios (e.g. average days to process)

Care should be taken to ensure that the date/time stamp does not obscure the information contained on documents.  If a same document is received more than once in your office, it should be date/time stamped for a second time.

 

 

Audit Trail - Provides a sequential order of events that sets forth the who, the what, and the when of document and/or transaction processing.  Back to Top