What is in-person signing?

What actually happens when a session starts

The host opens the envelope, chooses the recipient in front of them and starts a hosted session. The system checks that the envelope has been sent and is still outstanding, that this recipient has not already signed, declined or expired, and that it is genuinely their turn under the signing order. It then records that a hosted session began and who started it, and issues the signing session directly to the browser rather than through the address bar, so the token never appears in the URL where it could be copied or logged. The emailed identity check is waived for that session, because the host is standing there.

The evidence trade

Remote signing collects evidence the software can see: which mailbox received the invitation, which code was entered, which address opened the page. Hosted signing replaces most of that with something the software cannot see, namely a person watching another person sign. The record notes that the session was hosted and by whom, which is meaningful, but it cannot capture the identity check the host performed by looking at a licence. Where identity might be disputed later, the host should record what they checked in the way the business normally does, because the signing record will not do it for them.

When it is the right choice

Three situations recur. Service counters, where the customer is present and the document is short. Field work, where a technician needs an acceptance signed before leaving the site. And appointments with people who do not use email comfortably, which is a real constraint in healthcare, aged care and parts of the trades. In each case the alternative is not remote signing, it is paper, and hosted signing beats paper on legibility, storage and the finished record.

When to avoid it

Anything where the signer should read at their own pace, which includes most agreements longer than a page or two. Handing somebody a tablet in a showroom produces signatures on documents nobody read, and that is an argument waiting to happen. Also avoid it where the identity of the signer is the crux, unless the host keeps their own record of what they verified. And avoid using one host session for several people in a row without switching recipients, since attributing the right signature to the right person is the entire point of the recipient list.

Practical arrangements at the counter

Prepare the envelope before the appointment so nothing is being placed while somebody waits. Use a device with a touchscreen if the signature will be drawn, since a mouse produces marks nobody recognises as their own. Below the narrow screen threshold the portal switches to a compact layout that moves typed fields into a panel above the document, which is worth rehearsing once so the host is not discovering it in front of a customer. Finish the session before starting the next signer, and let the completed document email arrive rather than promising to send it later. Treat the device as you would a counter terminal. Do not leave it unlocked and unattended between customers, close the session once the signature is submitted, and avoid holding several envelopes open in tabs, since the fastest way to attribute a signature to the wrong person is to have two of them on screen at once.

How it appears in the record afterwards

The status page labels the event as signing in person hosted by the sender, and the host's identity is attached to it. The event is also carried into the certificate of completion's event log, where it currently prints as the raw event name rather than a friendly label, so a reader sees the underscore form. Everything else about the signature behaves normally: the mark is stored, the document is stamped, and completion produces the same certified PDF and certificate as any remote signing.

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