Filing signed PODs and sending them with invoices
How a transporter files signed proofs of delivery by shipper and load, shares them by expiring link with the freight invoice, and uses ageing to chase.
By Achekam · · 5 min read · For Logistics businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
"Send us the POD and we'll release payment." Every transporter has heard it, usually weeks after the load was delivered and the invoice was sent. The signed delivery note is somewhere: in the driver's door pocket, on a phone, in a scan folder named after whoever scanned it, or in a shoebox at the depot. Finding it takes longer than delivering the load did, and the shipper's payables team is in no hurry while it is missing.
A proof of delivery is the document that turns a delivered load into an invoice the shipper will pay. This article covers how to file PODs so they can be found in seconds, show they have not been altered, travel with the invoice, and stop being the reason money is late.
Why missing PODs delay payment
For many shippers, the POD is a condition of payment written into their own procedures. Their accounts-payable clerk cannot approve your invoice until the receiving site's signature is on file. DP World's glossary entry on the proof of delivery explains what a POD records, such as the recipient, the time and the condition of the goods, and why it matters for billing and disputes.
That makes the POD as much a finance document as an operations one. A load without a POD on file is, for practical purposes, a load you cannot collect for. Treat "POD received and filed" as the step that completes a delivery, not something to sort out when the shipper asks.
Folders and tags per shipper and load
Achekam's Document Centre is a folder-based store. A business can upload single files or whole folders, preview, download, rename, move, tag, archive and search them, and uploading a new version keeps the earlier ones. Uploads go in batches of up to 25 files, with a limit of 100 MB per file by default, which comfortably fits a day's scanned delivery notes.
A structure that works for most transporters:
- One folder per shipper, named as the shipper appears on your invoices.
- Inside it, one folder per month, so the folder for an invoice period holds that period's loads.
- File names that carry the load reference, for example the waybill or load number and the delivery date.
- Tags for status, such as "clean", "short delivery" or "damage noted", so exceptions can be found across all shippers at once.
Agree the naming rule once and put it on the depot wall. The value of a filing system lies in everyone using the same one.
When the POD is marked up
A POD with a note such as "two cartons damaged" or "received short" is not a clean POD, and the shipper will query the invoice. Tag it, tell the shipper before the invoice goes, and decide whether a credit is due. Filing it quietly and hoping nobody notices is how small claims turn into withheld payments.
Fingerprints that show a file is unchanged
Every file stored in Achekam gets a SHA-256 fingerprint. A fingerprint is a short code worked out from the file's exact contents; change one pixel of the scan and the fingerprint changes. If a shipper ever disputes whether the POD you sent is the one you received, the stored fingerprint lets you show the file has not been altered since it was filed.
Uploads are also screened. Executable files are refused by default, and every upload passes a malware check: a dedicated scanner where the server is configured for one, and a built-in heuristic check otherwise. That matters when PODs arrive by e-mail from drivers' phones and subcontractors' offices.
Sending the invoice and sharing the POD by link
Achekam lets you download an issued invoice as a PDF on your letterhead and e-mail it straight from the invoice, with or without a pay link. If the e-mail fails, it is reported as not sent, so you know to try again rather than waiting for a payment that will never come.
For the POD itself, share it from Document Centre. A document can be shared by e-mailing a personal link with an expiry date, an optional one-time code, and a choice of whether downloading is allowed; and the share can be revoked. For a shipper's payables clerk, a link with an expiry that allows download is usually right. For a disputed load where you would rather the document were viewed than circulated, switch downloads off and add a code.
A simple routine for each invoice:
- Confirm the POD for every load on the invoice is filed.
- Issue and e-mail the invoice.
- Share the POD folder or files for that invoice with the shipper's payables contact by personal link.
- Note the share on your shipper file, and revoke it once the invoice is paid.
Whether that is one invoice and one POD per load, or one monthly invoice with a folder of PODs, depends on your billing method; invoice each load or one monthly invoice? compares the two.
Ageing as the check on unpaid loads
The ageing report is where missing PODs show up as money. Achekam ages receivables into 0-30, 31-60, 61-90, 91-120 and over 120 days, with overdue totals.
Each week, take every invoice that has moved into an older column and ask one question first: is the POD filed and has it been shared? You will often find that the overdue invoices are the ones with a POD problem behind them: a load where the delivery note was never collected, or a marked-up POD nobody followed up. Fix those first, and the ageing improves faster than any amount of chasing calls. For the wider discipline of chasing late shippers, see shipper accounts that drift past their terms.
Making it routine
Decide who uploads PODs and by when after delivery, write down the folder and naming rule, and make the POD check part of issuing every invoice. After a month, run the ageing and see how many overdue invoices still lack a filed POD; that number should fall towards none.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
