Reusable Templates
Create multiple standardized invoice templates for different project types or sponsors, enabling teams to select the appropriate format quickly and maintain consistent documentation across grants, contracts, and internal orders.
Standardized blank invoices reduce errors, speed approvals, and simplify audit reviews by keeping research charges consistent and clearly documented for grants, contracts, and internal sponsors.
Manages internal billing for a research group, prepares invoices for shared equipment time and third-party services, ensures line items map to grant budgets, and coordinates signatures from investigators and departmental approvers for timely processing.
Provides consulting or experimental work to a university or company, issues regular invoices listing tasks, hours, and expenses, and requires reliable electronic signing and delivery to speed payment cycles and satisfy sponsor documentation needs.
A range of research finance and operations roles use simple blank invoices to capture billable activities consistently across projects and sponsors.
Consistent templates streamline approvals, reduce rework, and make it easier to produce compliant documentation for audits and sponsor reviews.
Create multiple standardized invoice templates for different project types or sponsors, enabling teams to select the appropriate format quickly and maintain consistent documentation across grants, contracts, and internal orders.
Send identical invoices or collection requests to many recipients at once, useful for recurring charges or monthly facility billing that requires the same template populated with recipient-specific details.
Support sequential or parallel signatures from investigators, department approvers, and external contractors, ensuring each required party signs in the correct order with preserved approval metadata for auditability.
Connect invoicing templates to finance systems and CRMs via API to auto-populate fields, push completed documents to storage, and trigger downstream accounting or payment workflows without manual data entry.
Define document retention rules and automated archiving so completed invoices are stored according to institutional and sponsor requirements, simplifying retrieval for audits and grant closeouts.
Restrict access to sensitive fields such as bank account details or cost allocations so only authorized users can view or edit those elements during invoice preparation and approval.
Reusable form fields let you predefine payer details, grant codes, line-item descriptions, and calculation logic so staff can generate consistent invoices quickly without retyping repeated information while preserving a standard structure for audits and sponsor review.
Built-in formulas compute hours times rates, apply tax or overhead percentages, and sum totals automatically, reducing arithmetic errors and ensuring invoice totals consistently match supporting details required by grant administrators and finance teams for reconciliation.
Conditional fields show or hide expense rows based on cost type or project eligibility, streamlining forms for different sponsor rules and preventing ineligible charges from appearing on the final invoice during submission and review.
A tamper-evident record captures signer identity, timestamps, and IP for each action to provide a clear chain of custody for invoices used in audits, supporting compliance with institutional policies and sponsor requirements.
| Setting Name | Configuration |
|---|---|
| Reminder Frequency | 48 hours |
| Signature Order | Sequential |
| Retention Period | 7 years |
| Approval Required | Yes |
| Notification Recipients | Finance, PI |
Simple blank invoices for R&D should be usable across desktop, tablet, and mobile platforms with a modern browser or native app.
For consistent behavior, use a current browser version or the provider's official app; ensure device security policies such as screen locks and OS updates are enabled to protect invoice data and signing credentials.
A lab prepares a monthly invoice using the blank template to list instrument time and consumables with grant codes
Resulting in clearer reconciliation during audits and faster sponsor reimbursements through consistent documentation and preserved audit trails.
An independent consultant uses the blank invoice to detail consulting hours and travel costs
Leading to reduced payment cycles, fewer queries, and a documented audit trail for contract compliance and payment verification.
| Feature | signNow (Recommended) | DocuSign | Adobe Sign |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mobile Signing | |||
| Bulk Send | |||
| Audit Trail | |||
| API Access | REST API | REST API | REST API |
End of month or agreed cycle
30 days after billing
Quarter-end documentation
Keep supporting records readily available
Retain for seven years
| Plan | signNow (Recommended) | DocuSign | Adobe Sign | Dropbox Sign | PandaDoc |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Tier | Free trial only | Free trial only | Free trial only | Free limited plan | Free trial only |
| Entry Price (Monthly) | Starts at $8/user/month | Starts at $10/user/month | Starts at $14.99/user/month | Starts at $15/user/month | Starts at $19/user/month |
| Advanced Plan Price | Business plans available | Standard and Business tiers | Acrobat-based plans | Professional tiers | Business and Enterprise tiers |
| Max Users Included | Single-user starting plans | Single-user personal plans | Single-user business seats | Single-user starter | Single-user entry |
| Signature Types Supported | Electronic and digital certificates | Electronic signatures and advanced options | Electronic and certified signatures | Electronic signatures | Electronic signatures and templates |