Using Online Digital Signatures for Contract Management
Digital signatures are a secure, efficient, and convenient way to create, manage, and store your legally binding contracts. Using digital signatures you can sign documents electronically while ensuring they are authentic.
How to Use Digital Signatures for Contract Management
We’ve created a general process for using online digital signature solutions for your contract management process.
First, you will need to choose a reliable platform designed for contract management. This software should comply with the relevant industry standards and regulations as well as seamlessly integrate with your database. Once your software has been chosen, it’s time to create your document templates or upload an existing document in a compatible format. Make sure your chosen tool supports a variety of formats to make this step easy.
Add signers to your document, this will include adding their email addresses so the platform can notify them. Next up is to place digital signature fields where each signer needs to add their signature. It should include details like date and initial fields if they are required. Determine whether this document needs to be signed in parallel or in a specific sequential order.
To ensure your documents are secure and only signed by the correct people, implement the security features that your platform should offer. Here, common methods include two-factor authentication using either email or SMS verification.
Once your document is out, each signer will receive a notification that contains a link to the document. They can review and add their digital signature to the document. Their signature can be stylized or typed depending on what features the platform offers. A common crucial aspect of digital signatures is the ability to create an audit trail through the signing process. This includes where the signature occurred, the signer’s IP address, and other relevant information.
After the signing process is complete, your document should be stored in a safe and secure manner that you can search for easily.
These general steps will change depending on your specific needs. Ensure you choose a trusted digital signature platform to streamline the contract management process. Also, reduce paperwork and improve security.
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How to Create an Electronic Signature?
Creating your own electronic signature is a simple and efficient process that will allow you to add your signature to documents digitally.
There are several methods you can use to create an electronic signature. These methods will depend on the signature platform you have chosen. The four common methods are drawing your signature using a stylus, mouse, or your finger; typing your signature using a stylized font to resemble a signature; using a digital signature pad to capture your signature directly; and using signature software that allows you to create and save your electronic signature. Once you have created and saved your signature, you can start adding it to documents.
It’s important to remember that your electronic signature is legally binding in many jurisdictions to be sure to read through documents thoroughly and follow best practices when using electronic signatures for documents.
Creating an Electronic Signature Process
If your business is looking to create an electronic signature process, you should define the procedures and steps to ensure your documents are signed in a secure and consistent manner.
You will need to determine the need for electronic signatures, for example, do you have HR documents or digitally signed financial paperwork signed digitally? The next step is to choose your platform, we have listed a few popular choices below.
Make sure you get stakeholder input when choosing a solution to confirm that the platform aligns with legal requirements and your business goals.
Once you have chosen your platform, you will need to create a clear and comprehensive policy and guide that outlines the purpose, scope, purpose, and legal policies.
Decide the electronic signature for your business. The method must comply with legal requirements.
Develop and select your authentication procedures that will be used to verify and identify signers. This can be two-factor or multi-factor authentication.
Train employees on how to use the electronic document solution, how to create compliant signatures, and what procedures they should follow. Make sure you spend adequate time on what the legal implications are and how to comply with requirements.
Create your document workflow, this can include creating templates, choosing signature fields, and configuring the automatic notifications. Before taking this workflow live, make sure you conduct a testing program so you can iron out any issues.
Next step is to ensure your created signing process complies with rules and regulations, if your documents will need to be signed in other jurisdictions the document must comply with those regulations too. After testing and legal approval, you can roll out your process to the entire organization. Once the process is live, you should monitor and audit the process to ensure it doesn’t need any further tweaking.
By following the above steps, you can create a compliant and easy-to-follow signature process in your business.
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Electronic Signature Software
Choosing the right software is the key step to ensure your success when creating a successful online signature process. We’ve listed a few popular choices below:
DocuSign platform offers document preparation, signature requests, and automated workflow features.
Adobe Sign is part of the cloud suite and integrates seamlessly with other Adobe products.
HelloSign is user-friendly and offers document template features.
Titan Sign provides seamless and secure e-signatures for all your Salesforce contract management needs and requirements. This tool can help you simplify the complex signing process. While it also offers security features to ensure your document is safe from forgery.
When choosing your tool, it is important that you consider your business needs as well as how easily the software integrates with your other software.
The Takeaway
Taking your signing process online means less time and money spent on creating hard copies of your document and sending it to each signer. It’s vital that you choose the right tool that is easy to use and offers a variety of automation and security features. It ensures the document creation process is seamless as well as secure. Our top recommendation for a signing tool is Titan as it is easy to use and implements in a variety of use cases.
