Send a document for electronic signature

You can send a document to one or more people to sign electronically. They do not need an account: each person gets a private link by email, reads the document in the page, types their name and agrees. You see who has opened it and who has signed, and when everyone has signed you get a certificate of completion kept with the signed copy.

Where to find it

Open Signatures in the Projects menu to see everything sent by or visible to you, or open a project's Signatures tab to see just that project's. Choose Send a document.

What you need

• Permission to send documents for signature (project managers and above, and HR).
• For a project file or change order, the right to edit that project.
• For a proposal, permission to manage proposals. For a firm document, HR or signature-manager permission.

What you can send

• A project file or a PDF. Pick a file already in the project, or upload a PDF (it is kept in the project's Signing folder). The version of the file as it is when you send it is the one that is signed.
• A change order. Only an issued change order that is not already out for signature. The change order is turned into a PDF to sign.
• A proposal. Only a proposal that has been sent to the client and is still open (not expired).
• A firm document. A PDF that belongs to the firm rather than a project, such as a handbook or policy to be acknowledged.

Send it

1. Choose what you are sending and, for a file or change order, the project.
2. Give it a title. For a change order or proposal the title is filled in for you.
3. Add the people. For each one enter their full name and email, and whether they sign or only get a copy. You can add an access code for someone (see below).
4. Choose whether people sign one after another in the order listed, or all at once. Add a message if you like.
5. Choose how long the links work: 7, 14, 30, 60 or 90 days.
6. Choose Send for signature, or Save as a draft to send later from the document's page.

The first people to sign get an email with their private link. When someone signs, the next person in the order is emailed.

Change orders

A change order is signed by the architect, then the owner, then the contractor. If you do not add an architect, you are added as the architect and get a link too. Add the owner and the contractor with their names and emails. When all three have signed, the signatures are recorded on the change order and it becomes executed, exactly as if the three had signed it by hand. If someone declines, the change order stays issued and you can send it again.

Proposals

The client signs first. If you want the firm to countersign, add a person as the firm. When the client has signed (and the firm, if added), the proposal is accepted exactly as when a client accepts on the proposal page: the project is opened with the proposal's scope as its baseline. The signed proposal and its certificate are filed in the new project's Signed folder. If the client declines, the proposal is declined with their reason.

Firm documents

Upload the PDF and add the people. It is kept with the signing record, not in a project, and is visible only to you and to people who manage signatures.

Signature areas, initials, dates and text (fields)

By default each person signs by typing their name. For a file or a firm document you can also place fields on the pages, so people sign in the right place and fill in what you need.

1. Choose Save and place fields on the Send screen, or Place fields on any draft.
2. Pick a person (each has a colour) and a kind of field: Signature, Initials, Date, Text or Tick box.
3. Click the page to place a field, or drag to draw one the size you want. Click a field to change who it belongs to, give it a name the signer sees, or make it optional. Drag it to move it, drag its corner to resize it, press Delete to remove it. A tall text field lets the person write several lines.
4. Choose Save fields, then send as usual.

• Every person who signs needs at least one signature field (or take all the fields off).
• Fields can only be placed before it is sent. To change them after, cancel it and send a new one.
• A person only fills in their own fields. The date is filled in for them on the day they sign.
• Fields are for files and firm documents. Change orders and proposals are laid out by the portal.
• Some PDFs cannot be written on, for example ones saved in a newer compressed form by some tools. The editor says so and asks you to print the file to a new PDF and upload that copy. You can still send the original without fields.

Follow it up

• The Signatures list shows each document as Draft, Waiting for signatures (with how many have signed), Signed by everyone, Declined, Cancelled or Expired. Use the filters at the top.
• Open a document to see each person's progress: when they opened it, signed, were reminded, or why they declined.
• Send a reminder emails the people whose turn it is. Each person gets at most one reminder a day, and a reminder comes with a fresh link: the old one stops working.
• Cancel takes the document back. Every link to it stops working at once.
• The record of what happened is shown with a check that it is unchanged since it was written.

Access codes

If you give someone an access code, they must enter it before the document is shown, as well as to sign. Tell them the code by another route (a call or message), not in the same email. After five wrong tries the link waits 15 minutes.

When everyone has signed

• Everyone on the document, including people who were only copied, gets an email with a private link to read the signed document and download the certificate of completion. These links work for 90 days.
• The certificate lists who signed, the name they typed, the time, the address they signed from and the document's SHA-256 fingerprint, with the full record of events.
• For a project document, the certificate and a copy of the document as it was signed (with the fields filled in on its pages) are filed in the project's Signed folder. The original is never changed.