How to request the electronic signature of a document

What is it for?

When you need an employee to sign a PDF (a declaration of receipt of equipment, for example), you create a template with the PDF and the place of the signature, send the request and follow it until you have the signed PDF and the evidence of what was signed.

When to use it?

• You want an employee's signature on a document of your own, and not just the confirmation of a document that fiscaldoo generates (for that, see How to ask the employee to confirm a document).
• You want to reuse the same document with several people: the template is kept and each request is a copy.

Where to find it?

Signatures › Templates (the PDF and the fields) and Signatures › Requests (the sendings and their state). The Roles (who signs: Signer, Worker, Employer, Witness) and the History are in Signatures › Configure.

Before you start

• Your profile is HR manager; the system administrator also creates templates and requests.
• Management and the Auditor have the Signatures app (To sign, Requests, Templates; the Auditor also has Configure) to follow up, but they do not create or change templates and requests: the lists have no New. Management, when it is a signer, signs in To sign.
• The Worker, the Payroll Processor and the Accountant do not have the Signatures app: the Payroll Processor and the Accountant only have My signatures, and the Worker signs in My space › My signatures (see How to confirm or sign a document the company sent me).
• Have the PDF to hand and the signer's contact with the email filled in (an employee has it on their file).

How to use it

1. Open Signatures › Templates and click New. Write the Name, choose the PDF with Choose a file and click Save. The screen fills in the Pages and the SHA-256 of the PDF.
2. Click Place the fields. On the left, choose the Type (Signature, Name, Date, Text or Check box) and the Role (for example Worker) and click on the page, or drag to draw the size.
3. With the field selected, under Selected field, confirm the Role, write the Label and leave Required ticked (it comes ticked). Left, Top, Width and Height fine-tune the position as a percentage of the page; Delete the field removes it.
4. The editor saves each change by itself (it has no Save button). Click Back to the template: the Fields tab lists the Page, the Type, the Role, the Label and whether it is Required.
5. On the template, click New request: the Template is already chosen and the Document (the request's name) has the template's name; add the signer's name, for example “Receção do portátil - Eva Rocha”. You can also open Signatures › Requests and click New: the Document is empty and, when you choose the Template, it takes the template's name; add the signer's name. Without a Document, the request is not saved. If you wish, fill in the Due date, Sign in order, Remind every (days), the Language of the certificate and the Message to the signers.
6. On the Signers tab, click Add a line and choose the Role (Worker) and the Signer (the employee's contact; the Email appears by itself). Click Save.
7. Click Send. The state goes from Draft to Sent and the signer is To sign.
8. Follow it up in Signatures › Requests: the list shows Signed (how many have signed) and Number of signers, and the State.
9. When the employee signs, the request becomes Signed: click Download signed PDF. The Evidence tab keeps the dates, the fingerprints (SHA-256) of the PDF sent and of the signed one, and whether it is Intact.

Expected result

In the example, the request with a single signer (Worker role) became Signed with 1 of 1 signatures. The signed PDF is named “Document - assinado.pdf” and has the signature in the marked place. The request's History button records, with the IP address and the time, when it was created, sent, signed and completed.

Important notes

• The template is copied to the request. Changing the template's fields after sending does not change requests already sent.
• Each role that signs needs a signature field, and each role with fields needs a signer (see “Common problems”).
• Sign in order first invites whoever is on the first line of the Signers tab and only invites the next ones when the previous ones have signed; the order is that of the lines (drag them by the handle on the left). In the example, with the Worker on the 1st line and the Employer on the 2nd, after Send the 1st was To sign and the 2nd Waiting for his turn. When the employee signed, they saw “Your signature was recorded. The document is waiting for the other signers.”, the 2nd line became To sign and the History recorded the invitation to the Employer.
• Send reminder invites again those who have not yet signed and Resend (on the signer's line) resends only to that person. Remind every (days) does the same by itself, at the interval you set (0 = no reminders).
• Sign in person (on the signer's line) opens the PDF with the warning “You are registering a signature given in person. What happens: it is kept as signed in person, with your name as the person who registered it.” Use it only with the person in front of you and with their consent.
• Cancel asks for confirmation (“Cancel this request? The signers will no longer be able to sign it.”). A signed request can no longer be cancelled.
• A sent request cannot be edited, except for the Due date, Remind every (days) and the message. To change more, cancel it and create another.
• The signature is a simple electronic signature and the signed PDF records who signed, when and from which address; it is not a qualified digital signature. Pending validation by a certified accountant: the legal value of this signature for each type of document.
• Pending on-screen validation: the email invitation. The demonstration has no mail server and outgoing communication is blocked; the history says “NOT SENT, resend” and the employee sees the request in My signatures all the same. Send reminder and Resend show no message on screen; they are kept in the request's log.

Common problems

“Some required fields are empty”

• Symptom: Save on the request shows “Some required fields are empty. Fill in the fields marked in red to be able to save.”
• Cause: the Document (the request's name) is missing or, on the signer's line, the Role.
• What to do: write the Document, choose the Role (and the Signer) and save.

“The deadline is in the past”

• Symptom: Send opens “Invalid Operation: The deadline is in the past. How to fix it: choose today or a later day.”
• What to do: correct the Due date and send again.

“Add at least one signer”

• Symptom: Send opens “Add at least one signer. How to fix it: add the people who must sign, one per role.”
• What to do: add the line from step 6.

“… has no email”

• Symptom: Send says “Name has no email. What happened: the invitation could not be sent. How to fix it: fill in the email of the contact.”
• What to do: fill in the contact's email and send.

“The role … has no signature field”

• Symptom: Send says “The role “Employer” has no signature field. What happened: Name would have nothing to sign. How to fix it: place a signature field for this role in the template.”
• Cause: you added a signer for a role that has no signature field in the template.
• What to do: remove that line, or go back to the template, place the signature field for that role and create another request (a sent or draft request keeps the copy of the fields the template had).

“The role … has fields but no signer”

• Symptom: Send says “The role “Witness” has fields but no signer. How to fix it: add a signer for this role.”
• Cause: the template has fields for a role that is not in the request's Signers list.
• What to do: on the Signers tab, add a line with that role and the person who signs it, and send.