What are electronic signature workflows?

Learn how e-signature workflows can help your business with its recurring document collation and signature-collecting tasks.

For businesses that want to tailor and automate their document-signing processes, building e-signature workflows is your new best friend.

First, what are e-signature workflows?

Before you can implement a new process, you need to answer the question, “What is an electronic signature workflow?” An e-signature workflow customizes how you collect e-signatures for your documents, from who receives specific forms to what documents should be included in certain batches.

For example, think of the paperwork involved when someone buys a house. Documents have to be sent, reviewed, and signed in a particular order by the buyer, the seller, the real estate agents, the lending company, and the title company. An e-signature workflow ensures the right documents are reviewed and signed by the right people at the right time.

Benefits of electronic signature workflows.

There are many benefits to electronic signature workflows that make them superior to workflows that require physical signatures:

• Develop templates. Get documents out for signature faster by creating templates for common forms.
• Distribute documents in bulk. Send a single document to multiple people for signature at the same time.
• Stay on deadline. See the status of your document and track who has signed and who hasn’t in real time.
• Save paper. Get rid of the hassle of printing and storing paper documents.
• Access documents no matter where you are. Be able to get a signed copy of your document anytime, anywhere.
• Keep documents secure. Protect private information and restrict who has access to individual documents.

Example of an e-signature workflow.

E-signature workflows don’t have to be complicated. In fact, keeping your process simple for users is one of the key benefits of e-signatures. The process may look something like this:

1. Create. Use a template to generate your document, or make a PDF from scratch.
2. Share. Invite others to view and sign the document. This typically happens via an automated email from your e-signature software.
3. Access. Reviewers click a link to view a document. They may be asked to identify themselves using a login or password.
4. Review. Those who have access to the document leave comments and suggestions as needed.
5. Sign. When they are ready, reviewers accept and approve the document with their electronic signatures.
6. Store. The complete, signed document is stored in the cloud and shared with signers as required for their records.

Ways you can customize your e-signature workflow.

E-signature workflows help you eliminate common mistakes in document collation and signing, such as important pages left out of a document stack. An e-signature workflow can also save your business considerable time, usually spent on tedious tasks like collating documents for signing and sending them to the correct recipients.

See below for some specific examples of how you can customize your e-signature workflow to serve your business:

• Create document packages for a variety of common, recurring business functions, including new hires, new clients, contract renewals, and so on.
• Assign different roles to different recipients (signer, approver, and so on) and route documents to the right recipients in the right order.
• Set up reminders and alerts to let different recipients know it’s time for them to sign their specific documents.

By customizing and automating your e-signature workflow, you can get documents signed, verified, and approved faster than ever.

Streamline your business process with e-signature workflows.

By using e-signatures and customized e-signature workflows, you can save countless hours that you’d otherwise spend setting up document signings and chasing down reviews and approvals. Find out how you can do more for your business with Adobe Acrobat.