Confirmation receipt with action record
A confirmation screen that issues a saveable receipt naming the agent, the delegation authority, the data sources, and a unique reference.
As agents file actions on a citizen's behalf at growing scale, each one settles into an official record the moment it is submitted. The citizen needs a durable, human-readable account of what was filed, when, by whom (or by what), and on what basis, so that proof of lodgement and the anchor for any later dispute survive the transaction.
A durable, human-readable receipt records what was filed, when, by whom (or by what agent), under what delegation, and on what data. It serves as proof of lodgement and the anchor point for any later dispute.
Layered disclosure: a citizen-summary receipt by default, expandable detail, and the full action record on request. Plain-language statement of what was filed, with the receipt downloadable and dispute affordances pre-populated from the action record so citizens need not re-narrate history.
The policy rule 'every agent action produces a durable attributable record' becomes a confirmation page with agent attribution, delegation reference, data-source list, and a downloadable receipt ID.
No surface has been built yet; the approach above is the brief for one.
- Established Headline
The confirmation receipt is a settled pattern across government and commercial services.
- Emerging
Agent-attribution on receipts — recording which agent acted, under what delegation — is still taking shape.
- Frontier
Cryptographic receipt integrity for government agent actions remains undesigned.
GOV.UK confirmation page pattern. Confirmation pages must include a reference number (if applicable), what happens next and when, service contact details, links to related services, a feedback link, and a way to save a record (e.g. as a PDF). See GOV.UK Design System — Confirmation pages and ONS Design System — Confirmation page.
ATO lodgement receipt. On lodging through myTax, the ATO issues a lodgement receipt by email with a unique receipt ID; business lodgement confirmation screens can be printed or saved as PDF. See ATO — Lodgments in Online Services for Business.
Financial transaction receipts. PSD2 mandates detailed transaction information to consumers, making legitimate charges easier to identify, and Strong Customer Authentication creates an evidence trail that serves both as receipt and dispute defense. See Signifyd — What is PSD2 and Chargebee — PSD2 Explained.
Blockchain transaction receipts. Smart contracts create periodic cryptographic receipts including a hash of the transaction data, providing tamper-evident proof; the immutability guarantee is the strongest form of receipt integrity. See FasterCapital — Blockchain Transparency.
The GOV.UK and ATO patterns transfer directly as structural templates. For agent-mediated actions, the receipt must additionally record: (a) that an agent acted (not the citizen directly), (b) the identity or class of the agent, (c) the delegation authority under which it acted, and (d) the data sources it relied upon.
Blockchain-style cryptographic hashing of receipts is worth considering for high-stakes filings where receipt integrity may later be disputed: the citizen and the government each hold a hash that proves the receipt has not been altered.
Where this goes wrong is a citizen receiving a determination with no transparent record of how it was calculated, leaving errors undetectable. A receipt showing the data used and the calculation method makes those errors immediately identifiable.
The worst case