How to digitally sign contracts with your customers and suppliers

Kevin - Oct 25 - - Dev Community

Have a digital signature? Here’s why you should read this

If you already have a digital signature, let’s show you how to make it a core asset for your business’s digital transformation.

What does digital transformation really mean?

Digitization was once seen as a passive process, driven mainly by regulatory demands. But that perspective is changing fast. Since the pandemic pushed us to re-evaluate our processes, more SMEs and professionals recognize the benefits digitization brings. Simplification, automation, flexibility—all mean time savings and competitive advantages. Today, digital transformation is about proactively driving efficiency within your business.

Start with your signature processes

In a digital world, signature processes must be manageable remotely. Businesses of all sizes looking to manage relationships with clients, employees, and suppliers digitally should consider a digital signature platform to streamline workflows.

If you’re familiar with digital signatures, you may already know OpenSign, a versatile platform available on web and mobile that supports document signing, timestamping and verification.

With OpenSign, you can go further: request document signatures and set up structured workflows across your company. Here’s how.

Signing online contracts with OpenSign

Think of OpenSign as a digital signature hub where you can create, send, and monitor entire signature workflows, whether internal or external to your business.

Recipients don’t need an OpenSign license or even a pre-existing digital signature to access documents. OpenSign enables them to obtain a digital signature (including a Qualified Electronic Signature) in just a few clicks, making it easy to sign and manage documents.

Manage compliance levels with OpenSign
Approval of invoices, quotes, contract signatures, and employee authorizations become streamlined with OpenSign’s various compliance options, including:

Simple electronic signature for daily use

Advanced Electronic Signature
Qualified Electronic Signature for full eIDAS compliance.
Let’s see how straightforward it is to create a digital signature process using OpenSign. We’ll walk you through signing an online purchase contract.

Create an online signature process in three steps
Imagine your company needs new digital signature tokens for employees.
After receiving a quote, the process requires Legal Department approval and Purchasing Department signatures. On paper, this process might take hours or days. But with OpenSign, it can be done in minutes.

Visit the OpenSign Website: Navigate to the OpenSign homepage.
Register by filling in the required details and signing up to create your account.

Step 1: Start new document creation
After creating your account, log in and select Request Signatures from the main menu to start setting up a document for signing.
Upload your document: Choose File On the "Request Signature" page, click here to select and upload a document from your computer.
Title (Required): Enter a title for your document. This identifier will be visible to signers and in document management.
Signers: Choose existing signers from the dropdown or add a new signer by entering details such as name, email, and phone number.
You can include yourself, customers and suppliers as signers.
For instance, if you’ve set the signing order to Yes in this document, and added the customer as the first signer, the supplier as the second, and yourself as the third:

Complete all required details, then click Next to proceed to the document creation panel.

Step 2: Add signature and other widgets
Add Signature Widget: Load the document in the creation panel, then add a signature widget for each signer. Use the right-side panel to select a signer and position the widget. You can add multiple signature widgets if necessary.

Add Other Widgets: Add additional widgets as needed, such as stamps, initials, name, job title, company, date, text, text input, checkbox, dropdown, radio button, image, and email. Each widget has options like Settings, Add/Change Signer, and Copy.

Proceed to Final Steps: Click Next once all widgets are in place to create the document. and click send mail to send signature request email.

This video demonstrates how to send a document for a signature request and guide the signer through the signing process.

Step 3: Signer verification and signing
Email OTP Verification: Since the signing order is set to Yes in this document, the first signer—i.e., the customer—will receive the signature request email first. The customer will receive an email with a Sign Here button, which, when clicked, sends a one-time password (OTP) to their email. The customer then enters the OTP to proceed.

Finalize signing
After verification, the signer accesses the document and clicks the signature widget to sign by drawing, uploading a signature, or typing it in. Upon completing assigned widgets, the signer clicks Finish.

Once the first signer, i.e., the customer, has successfully signed the document, it is then sent to the supplier for their signature. The supplier receives a signature request email and can sign the document just as the customer did. After the supplier completes their part, the document moves to the next signer. When all signers have completed their signatures, each will receive a copy of the signed document via email

The signed document and completion certificate become available for download and printing for the final signer.

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