Send Documents for Signature: Request and Collect Electronic Signatures Online

Upload the document to an e-signature tool, add each signer's name and email address, and send. The signer receives an email with a link, signs in their browser, and the completed file returns to you automatically. No software is installed on either side.

The step most people skip is checking the document itself before sending. SignSend stamps a separate signature block for each signer at the end of the last page, so two parties never end up on the same line, but the PDF you upload is the PDF they sign: editing it afterwards means voiding the request and reissuing it. Spending twenty extra seconds on the final version removes almost every reason a signature request has to be redone.

The best way is a browser based e-signature tool that emails each signer a private link and returns a completed file with an audit trail. It beats printing and scanning on speed and on evidence, and it beats an unsecured emailed attachment because the tool records who opened the document, who signed it, and at what time.

Choosing between tools comes down to two questions that have nothing to do with features, because every serious platform does fields, routing, and reminders. The first is whether you are billed per person who sends, which matters if signing is spread across a team. The second is whether there is a cap on how many documents each sender may send per year, because that cap is what turns a cheap plan into an expensive one halfway through the year.

Add every signer's name and email address before sending, and each one gets their own signature block. Everyone gets the document at the same time, each with their own private link, so nobody is waiting on someone else to sign first.

For a document that needs a countersignature, such as an offer letter or a vendor agreement, add yourself or your representative as one of the signers alongside the other party. Since everyone signs on their own schedule, track the status on the dashboard so you know when the other side has signed and when it is your turn to countersign and close it out.

Not as several files: SignSend takes one PDF per send. To get a package signed in one sitting, combine the documents into a single PDF first and upload that. You can, however, send the same document to many different recipients at once, where each person gets their own private link to sign.

The first is what you want for a package: a master service agreement with its statement of work and an NDA merged into one file and travelling together. The second is a bulk send, which is the right tool for a policy acknowledgment or a seasonal waiver going to a whole roster. If that is the job, our guide to sending documents in bulk for signature covers how the per recipient copies and tracking work.

Yes. In the United States a document signed electronically is legally binding under the federal Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, in force since 2000, and under the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, which nearly every state has adopted. Both say a signature or contract cannot be denied legal effect solely because it is in electronic form.

ESIGN carves out categories where an electronic signature is not sufficient on its own. Wills, codicils, and testamentary trusts are excluded. So are most family law matters such as adoption and divorce, certain notices affecting a person's home including foreclosure and eviction, court documents, and the cancellation of utility or health insurance benefits. Most Uniform Commercial Code articles are also excluded, with the notable exception of Article 2 on the sale of goods. For ordinary business paper, none of that applies.

For consumer transactions there is one extra requirement worth knowing. ESIGN section 7001(c) requires that a consumer affirmatively consent to receiving records electronically and be told what happens if they later withdraw that consent. Business to business agreements do not carry that disclosure duty.

Check the document's status first, then send a short follow up with the same signing link rather than starting a new email thread. Most requests that go unsigned were opened once and set aside, not refused.

Before chasing, check whether the document was ever opened. An unopened request is usually a deliverability problem: it went to spam, or the address has a typo. That is fixed by resending to a corrected address, not by a firmer follow up. An opened but unsigned request is a decision problem, and a short call resolves it faster than a fourth email.

If nobody has signed yet, cancel the request, fix the file, and send it again. If somebody has already signed, the signed version is a completed record and you cannot quietly swap the file underneath it. You void the request, which invalidates it, and issue a corrected document for everyone to sign again.

This is the practical argument for sending the final version rather than a near final one. Voiding and reissuing is not difficult, but on a platform that meters your sends, every reissue consumes another document from your allowance. On DocuSign an envelope cannot be corrected once it is completed or voided, and a voided envelope cannot be reactivated.

Entry plans cluster around ten to twelve dollars per user per month, and the number that actually determines your bill is the send limit, not the sticker price. Prices below are per user per month on annual billing, with the date each was last confirmed.

Two things fall out of that table. The entry plans are close enough that price is not what should decide between them, and the per user model means the bill scales with headcount whether or not the extra people send anything. A full breakdown of where every vendor sits is on our e-signature pricing comparison.

The pattern across United States businesses is consistent: the documents that move money or define an obligation are the ones that get sent for signature first. Here is what that looks like in practice, with the pages that cover each in detail.

The bill of sale row is worth a second look. Notarization is a separate requirement from signature, and a handful of states expect a notary on vehicle transfers or on the title assignment. Our guide on whether a bill of sale needs to be notarized goes through it state by state.

Four things, and they are the same for every platform. Intent to sign, which the signing flow establishes by requiring a deliberate action. Consent to do business electronically, which for consumer transactions ESIGN section 7001(c) makes an explicit disclosure requirement. Attribution, meaning evidence connecting the signature to a specific person, which is what the email address and audit trail provide. And retention, meaning the signed record can be accurately reproduced later.

Anything that produces all four is defensible. A signature typed into a word processor file and emailed back produces the first and, on a good day, the fourth. That gap is not usually a problem until it is, and when it becomes a problem it is at the point where somebody is denying they agreed to something.