---
id: KB-DI-020
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/documents-and-ai/documents-that-carry-no-date
idioma: en
categoria: documentos-ia
subcategoria: lectura
audiencia: usuario
nivel: intermedio
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-DI-016, KB-DI-009, KB-DI-021]
citadoPor: [KB-DI-015]
---

# Documents that carry no date

_They arrive with no date, or with three different ones. What gets recorded there drives every expiry that follows._

**Responde a:** the document has no date · what date to record if the certificate has none · issue date or received date · the document has several dates

A certificate with no date, a signed sheet with the date in small print, a document carrying three different dates on one page. It is more common than it sounds, and the decision made at that moment does not stay there: it drags along every alert that depends on it.

## The dates you may find, and which is which

| Date | What it means | When it is the right one |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Issue | When the signatory produced it | Nearly always: it is what the period counts from |
| Validity or expiry | How long it holds good | If present, it overrides the rest |
| Signature | When someone signed it | It can be later than issue |
| Received | When it reached you | It never replaces the others |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> The last row is the shortcut that wrecks the arithmetic: **recording the date you received it as if it were the document's shifts every expiry forward**. A certificate issued in January arriving in April will warn you three months late for the rest of its life — with nothing to give it away, because the record is consistent with itself. If the document carries no date, the answer is not today's date: it is to ask.

## What to do when it is missing

1. **Read the whole document before deciding** — It is usually in the footer, the stamp or beside the signature.
2. **If it genuinely is not there, ask the issuer** — An email from them stating the date works, and it gets filed.
3. **And if it cannot be obtained, record that** — «No date on the document» is information; an invented date is not.
4. **With a cautious expiry meanwhile** — Short: better to review too often than to trust a date that does not exist.

> [!WARNING]
> Watch out for documents carrying two dates months apart: **issue and signature do not always match, and sometimes the gap is deliberate**. A report dated March and signed in June may be perfectly correct — drafted then, validated later — or may show someone signed late. Either way, keep both and know which one you count the period from, because whoever reviews it will ask about exactly that gap.

## When what is missing is the expiry

**En corto**

- Many documents do not expire themselves: what they certify does.
- If the period comes from your policy, record it as yours, not as the document's.
- And if the issuer has its own frequency, that overrides whatever you decide.

> [!NOTE]
> How long a document without an explicit expiry stays valid depends on the document type and on whoever requires it from you. **Your adviser or the client settles that**; here it is about not inventing a date nobody can later trace.

**Can I use the date of the email it came with?**

As a reference yes, recorded as such. As the document's date, no.

**What if the date is in another format or language?**

Check it the first time: that is where day and month get swapped most.

**Is it worth rejecting a document with no date?**

If the deadline matters, yes: asking properly is cheaper than dragging it.

## Ejemplos

**A company records the received date as the date of a certificate issued three months earlier.**

- Asks the issuer for the real date and records it, noting that it was missing

→ The renewal alert lands when it should instead of three months late forever.

**The document carries no date and the warning does not work.**

- Records the known date when filing it

→ The warning works again.

**The upload date is assumed to be the document's date.**

- Distinguishes the two and notes which is which

→ The history is true.

**Nobody knows from when an undated document is valid.**

- Asks the issuer to include it

→ The problem is solved at source.

**The date is estimated and nobody knows it is an estimate.**

- Flags the figure as estimated

→ The estimated is told from the certain.

**A client asks about validity and there is no figure.**

- Checks what was recorded and explains it

→ The answer is honest and useful.