The form was filed in March. The clerk whose signature appeared at the bottom had died in January. A customer accused the warehouse of forging his approval, and the new manager asked Dev to compare the paper with the dispatch register.
The form's printed revision number belonged to the previous year. A penciled note on its reverse recorded a collection postponed because the customer's vehicle broke down. The clerk had signed the release in December, while the goods stayed in storage until March. Filing date and authorization date had been treated as the same thing.
Dev found the December entry and attached a copy rather than rewriting the old form. The customer's suspicion eased, but he asked why the delay was not clear on the face of the document. The manager had no good answer.
They changed the new forms to show approval and collection separately. The dead clerk's signature remained exactly where he had put it. What changed was the space around it: two labeled dates that might spare the next person from turning an ordinary delay into an accusation.