E-signatures
Download the signed document
Three different files come out of one envelope, and knowing which is which matters when somebody asks you for the contract six months later. Two of them exist only after everyone has signed.
Document as sent
Available while the envelope is still out for signature, this is the file exactly as you uploaded it, with no marks on it. It is the copy the signers were shown, and it is useful for checking what you actually sent when a signer queries a clause. Once the envelope completes, this button gives way to the signed version so that the obvious download is the finished one.
Signed document
The completed file, with every signature and every typed value stamped into place and the PAdES certification applied over the whole thing. It is written under a key derived from its own hash, so the filename in storage is a fingerprint of the contents rather than a name that could be reused. If you ticked the option to include the certificate, its pages are inside this file too, and a line under the buttons tells you so.
Certificate of completion
Its own PDF, always written whether or not you asked for it to be appended, and always offered as its own button. That is the file to hand to a lawyer, a lender or an auditor when they want to know how the signing happened rather than what was agreed. It is short, and it is the same content that would appear inside the signed PDF under the include option.
The original is never overwritten
Three separate keys exist under an envelope: the source you uploaded, a series of working copies produced as each person signs, and the completed file. The source is treated as evidence and is never written to again. Each stamp creates a new working copy rather than replacing the last, so the state of the document after the first of three signatures is still retrievable. The storage itself is versioned as a further backstop.
Links live for an hour
Every download button is a signed link with a one hour life, generated when you open the envelope page. That is long enough to download the file and short enough that a link pasted into a chat message stops working before it becomes a problem. Reload the page to get fresh ones. The files themselves are permanent; only the links expire.
How it works, in three steps
Step 1
Open the envelope from the list
The download row sits under the signers. Which buttons appear depends on whether the envelope has completed.
Step 2
Take the signed document
This is the certified file. Name it after the counterparty when you file it, since the download is named after the envelope title.
Step 3
Take the certificate as well
File it beside the contract. It is the part that answers questions about the signing rather than the terms.
Limits worth knowing
- Download links expire after an hour. Reload the envelope page for new ones.
- Downloads are not recorded. There is no audit event for who fetched a file.
- There is no bulk download across envelopes, and no zip of the two files together.
- The signed document and the certificate only exist once every signer has finished.
Questions people ask
Why is there no signed copy on a declined envelope?
Because not everybody signed. The signatures collected are in the record and in the working copies, but no completed and certified file is produced from a partial set.
Can I get the version after only the first person signed?
Not through the interface. Those intermediate copies are kept in storage rather than being exposed as downloads.
Does the signed file include the certificate?
Only if you ticked that option before sending. Otherwise it stays a clean contract and the certificate is a separate file.
What is the emailed copy named?
After the envelope title, with anything unusual replaced by underscores, which is why a clear title is worth a moment when you create it. The download from the status page arrives with its storage name instead, so rename it when you file it.
Make your own signing flow
The button opens the generator with this use case already described. Change the wording to match yours, generate, then edit anything you like.
Send a document for signingRelated pages
Draw or type a signature
The pad has two buttons in its corner: a pen and a letter. They produce the same kind of thing in the end, an image, but they suit very different people and the record notes which one you used.
How secure is e signing
Most of the security in a signing product is invisible, which makes it easy to claim and hard to check. Here is what is actually enforced, in the order a request meets it, and then what it does not cover.
E signature for schools
The document is trivial. The volume is not. A permission slip is half a page and takes ninety seconds to prepare, and then you need one hundred and forty of them signed by Friday, which is a completely different problem.
More finished work of this kind is on the e-signature examples hub.