In a world where most documents are signed electronically, there are seemingly endless methods to sign contracts, legal documents, and more. There are also seemingly endless ways to get electronic signatures wrong.
In this guide, we’ll highlight electronic signature best practices, leveraging electronic signature software, and why Signaturely is a great choice for you and your business.
Electronic Signature Best Practices: 8 Aspects to Remember
While digitally signing a document may seem straightforward, there are a few things to remember when sending, signing, and executing digital documents.
The following best practices will help you and your business remain consistent in your processes, enhance internal compliance and governance, and improve document turnaround times. Let’s dive into eight electronic signature best practices.
1. Signer Verification & Authentication
A digital signature is only as good as its authentication. Unlike wet signatures, handwritten digital signatures are not automatically verified and authenticated. Simply drawing a signature with Microsoft Paint doesn’t have the same weight as a wet signature.
Digital signatures should have verification and authentication backing. Not all digital signature platforms are created equal, and if you prefer the look and feel of a handwritten signature, Signaturely has you covered.
Simply hand draw your signature within the platform for a legally binding, authenticated signature.
If you prefer the ease of typing your signature, you can also use Siganturely to quickly authenticate your signature, which you can leverage with just a few clicks. Save your digital signature to use on all future digital documents.
As a best practice, leverage platforms that provide verification and authentication as part of the digital signing process.
2. Compliance Certificates & Documentation
A digital signature platform that focuses on compliance, governance, and thorough documentation is just as important as verified and authorized signatures. Signaturely ensures that your signatures are compliant and legally-binding.
With authentication and validation behind every signature, you’re getting the right level of easy, security, and peace of mind.
Using Signaturely also allows you to provide compliance documentation to your clients and customers signing your documents. They want to know that their documents, agreements, and signatures are protected.
As a best practice, make sure you can view, access, and share any relevant compliance certificates and documentation.
3. Legal Standards
Digital signature platforms need to comply with legal standards. Whether your business only deals locally or you’re part of an international enterprise, it’s important to understand local, regional, and international legal requirements related to digital signatures.
Signaturely complies with all data protection laws. You can rest assured that your data and your customer’s data are safe and secure, that your electronic signature practices are compliant, and that all signatures created on the platform will hold up in the eyes of the law.
As a best practice, use a platform that ensures you’re meeting local legal standards to prevent issues with your digital signature process.
4. Robust Security Features
Uploading documents for digital signatures requires robust security features. Legal documents, employment contracts, business dealings, and more are all stored in digital signature platforms when they are uploaded. Those documents may be at risk without the right security features in place.
Signaturely leverages ISO 27001 and FISMA-certified data centers, meaning your data and documents are always secure.
Not all digital signature companies have the same level of data security, so it’s important to understand how each platform keeps your data safe.
Signaturely not only focuses on platform data security but also safeguards its data centers.
Visitors are required to sign in and show identification, visitor logs are audited, and access is restricted to only those who need to be there.
As a best practice, look for platforms that truly focus on enhanced security measures for your data and sensitive documents.
5. Create a Strong Implementation System
Like any business software, implementation is key. No matter what you use digital signature software for, it’s important to have a consistent implementation approach. Here are some ways you can strengthen the implementation process:
- Train Your Team: There is always going to be a learning curve when introducing a new piece of software to your team, no matter how simple and straightforward the platform is.
Dedicate some time for training to help your team hit the ground running with your new digital signature platform.
- Integrations: Thin through your current suite of technology and identify ways to integrate.
For example, you may want to integrate an electronic signature platform with your CMS to allow your team to close sales and send contracts all from one platform.
- Document Preparation: Document preparation is key, and while it may take a bit of work up front, it’s worth it in the long run.
Spend time creating templates that you can use over and over to save time in the future. Once uploaded to the system, documents can be imported and customized in just a few minutes before sending out for signature.
- Create an Internal Policy: Creating an internal policy for electronic signature usage keeps your teams compliant and reduces risk. Create policy and procedure documents that are easily accessible for all team members.
As a best practice, focus on solid implementation strategies to create long-term success.
6. Consider Mobile Access
More and more is done directly from our phones, and the same is true for signing digital documents. Your customers and clients shouldn’t have to sign their documents on a computer, and with Signaturely, they don’t have to. Mobile access makes it easy to sign on the go.
Simply set up your document, identify who should sign, and Signaturely will automatically send the document to the intended recipients to sign. They click the link right on their phone, tap to sign, and the document is sent back to you.
As a best practice, consider a platform that allows for mobile access to make electronically signing documents easier than ever.
7. Review the Audit Trail
Even with just one or two signatures required, it’s important to have a clear audit of all activity on a document.
Creating and managing physical documents doesn’t allow you to have a clear audit trail. Not only should you be able to see when documents have been sent and signed, but detailed audit trails should also include when parties tried to access the document if that access was successful or unsuccessful, and how long they interacted with the document.
For example, if you send a document and the audit trail shows that the recipient opened the document and did not sign, they may be actively reviewing it.
However, if it’s been a few days since they opened the document, you may want to discuss with them directly to see if there are any concerns with the document.
Signaturely provides a robust legal audit log for all of your documents so you can clearly view and monitor the process of your digital documents.
As a best practice, always review audits of your documents to make sure they’re on the right track.
8. Use a Reputable and Trusted Signature Platform
Last but certainly not least, on our list of electronic signature best practices, we recommend using a reputable and trusted signature platform.
Signaturely is an easy-to-use, secure, and reliable platform that allows you to get started with secure digital signing in minutes.
With global customers and countless documents signed, Signaturely has the right security measures, signature authentication, and workflows to streamline and standardize your electronic signature processes.
As a best practice, sign up for Signaturely to get started on an electronic signature platform designed with you and your business in mind.
Electronic Signature Use Cases
With these digital signature best practices in mind, let’s take a look at some of the top use cases for electronic signatures.
- Sales contracts and purchase agreements: Electronic signatures can easily be leveraged for sales contracts and purchase agreements. Whether it’s a simple sales contract with one customer or stakeholder or a complex agreement with many signers, Signaturely allows you to easily set up contacts, add signature lines, and automate your signature workflow. With easy digital signature capabilities, you’re focusing less on managing contracts and more on closing sales.
- Employment offers: Sending and receiving employment offers is a common use case for digital signatures. Gone are the days of printing offers, physically signing them, scanning them, and emailing them back. In just a few clicks, you can send a secure offer to your new hire and start the onboarding process.
- Invoicing customers: Nobody likes chasing invoices. By simplifying signing and verifying invoices, you’re reducing friction in the sales process and creating a better experience for everyone involved. A digital signature platform allows you to upload an invoice, securely send it for review, and have your customer sign for processing.
- Legal documents: Digital signatures are authenticated and validated (on high-quality digital signature platforms), making digital signatures a great choice for legal documents. Whether signing something from your attorney, a real estate contract, or even voter registration, digital signatures are an easy and secure way to sign legal documents.
Choosing an Electronic Signature Platform
As you can see, there are tons of practical, valuable use cases for implementing and leveraging an electronic signature solution within your business.
There are a lot of options on the market today, and some platforms are much better than others. Let’s break down what to look for when choosing an electronic signature platform and how to determine which platform is right for you.
- Ease of Use: Creating documents and sending them off to be signed shouldn’t be complicated, but even some of the largest digital signature platforms seem to overcomplicate the whole process. Consider it a major red flag if it’s easier to print, mail, and wait to receive a physically signed document than uploading it onto a digital platform. Getting your documents created, signed, and stored, should ideally take just a few clicks.
- Automated Workflows: One of the major benefits of an electronic signature platform is automation. The platform should automatically move the document on to the next party without you having to manually intervene and send. Set your recipients, their role in the process, and the platform will take care of the rest. If you’re looking at a platform that doesn’t have automated workflows, it may be best to look elsewhere.
- Data Security: No matter what you’re sending and signing, you want your documents and your data to be secure. Document leaks, corrupted data, and unsecured platforms can lead to disaster for you and your business. Focus on platforms that put heavy focus on security.
- Templates: Another great feature to look for is the ability to create and maintain templates right within the platform. Templates are a fantastic time saver, letting you generate and personalize a document in just a few minutes.
- Document Retention: Finally, consider a platform that allows you to securely retain your documents within the platform. While it’s always best to also have a local copy of the document, centralized retention allows you to quickly access all of your documents when needed.
These are just a few of the key considerations when choosing an electronic signature platform. If you’re looking for a platform that has all of these and more, look no more than Signaturely.
What You Need to Remember About Electronic Signature Best Practices
Electronic signatures are just as legally-binding as wet signatures, so it’s important to leverage a signature platform that’s reliable, secure, and easy to use.
Remember, electronic signatures need to be authenticated and validated, meaning you should use designated digital signature software for all of your electronic signature needs.
FAQs About Best Practices for Electronic Signatures
Here are some of the top questions we receive about best practices for electronic signatures.
An electronic signature is valid in similar ways to a wet signature. There needs to be an intent to sign the document and it has to be signed by the correct intended party. When leveraging a digital signature platform, signatures are authenticated and validated, meaning identity is verified.
The best way to create an electronic signature is through a dedicated electronic signature platform like Signaturely. With authentication, security, and ease of use in mind, Signaturely allows you to securely sign any digital document in just a few clicks. You can type an authenticated signature or hand-draw a signature right on the platform.
A proper electronic signature is one that is created with a platform that provides validation and authentication. The signature should also be your legal name.
While the phrase electronic signature and digital signature are often used interchangeably, they technically mean slightly different things. A digital signature is created digitally and often has an encrypted verification behind it. An electronic signature can also be created physically (such as signing a piece of paper and scanning the signature to use electronically).
