Why public sector teams use e-signatures
Public bodies carry more signatures per decision than almost any other organisation. A supplier contract may need a procurement officer, a budget holder and a director. A grant to a community group needs the group’s officers and the funding department. A permit application needs the applicant, and later the officer who approves it. Each signature on paper means printing, internal post, a desk where the file sits until someone is back from leave, and a scan at the end.
SignPe takes the paper and the internal post out of that chain. You upload the document — PDF, Word (DOC or DOCX) or a photo of a paper form — place the fields each person must complete, add the signers in the order they need to sign, and send. Each person receives an email with a Review & Sign Document button and signs in their browser or on the SignPe app; the next signer is emailed automatically. When the last signature is in, everyone receives the signed PDF and you can download a complete audit trail.
What this page is — and isn’t
This page describes SignPe features and good workflow practice. It is not legal advice and does not mean SignPe is approved for any particular government process. Public bodies often have their own rules on signatures, records and data location, so decide with your legal and information-governance teams which documents to send through SignPe.
Procurement and vendor contracts: approvals without the internal post
Supplier agreements, service contracts, purchase orders and contract variations usually need a supplier signature and one or more internal approvals. The order often matters: the supplier signs, the budget holder approves, the authorised signatory executes. SignPe enforces that sequence for you.
- Signers in the order your policy requires. Use Set signer order and arrange the list so the first signer is at the top. Anyone who opens the contract out of turn sees “Waiting for <name> to sign”.
- Suppliers need no account. The supplier signs as a guest after accepting an electronic-records consent screen.
- Department details and the official stamp. Add Company and Designation fields for each signatory, and apply your department’s stamp from your saved library where your contracts carry one.
- Observers for finance or audit. Copy finance, legal or internal audit as observers so they follow the contract without being asked to sign.
Contracts drafted in Word or stored in the cloud can be uploaded as they are or imported from Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive or Box. Our guide to signing vendor agreements online walks through the supplier side.
Citizen applications and permits: let residents sign from home
Licence and permit applications, grant applications from community groups, consent forms, tenancy agreements for public housing and declarations that need a resident’s signature all share a problem: asking someone to print, sign and post a form, or to visit an office in working hours, adds days and drops people out of the process. With SignPe the form reaches the applicant by email and they sign it on the phone or computer they already have.
- Guided to every field. Place Full Name, Email, Text and Date fields for the details you need, and Checkmark fields beside each declaration the applicant must confirm.
- Initials on the conditions. Put Initials fields on pages carrying conditions or terms, so it is clear each was seen.
- Dates the way your forms write them. Date fields support DD/MM/YYYY, MM/DD/YYYY, YYYY-MM-DD, DD-MM-YYYY and “MMMM DD, YYYY”.
- Joint applicants. Add every applicant as a signer — there is no limit on signers per document.
Not every resident is comfortable online. When someone comes to a service counter, In person Signing lets them sign on a staff tablet there and then, and the signature is recorded in the same audit trail as a remote one.
Inter-agency agreements and memoranda of understanding
Data-sharing agreements, memoranda of understanding, service-level agreements between departments and partnership agreements with other public bodies need senior signatories from each organisation — people whose diaries make a signing meeting hard to arrange. In SignPe every party signs the same document, so there is one final version carrying every signature.
| Situation | What SignPe offers |
|---|---|
| Each agency must sign in turn | Set signer order, with each next signer emailed automatically |
| A signatory is away | Delegation to a colleague in the same organisation |
| Legal teams need visibility | Observers receive updates without signing |
| The text changes after sending | Void the document and send the revised version |
| Someone disagrees with the terms | Decline to sign? notifies you straight away |
When a senior officer signs a stack of agreements, choosing Apply to all fields of the same type fills every signature box assigned to them in one go from a saved signature.
Field inspections and site sign-offs
Building inspectors, environmental health officers, highways engineers and social workers spend much of their day away from a desk. The paperwork they collect — inspection reports, site visit acknowledgements, notices received by a property owner — traditionally comes back to the office on paper to be scanned in.
- Scan a paper form on site. The SignPe app’s Scan option captures up to 20 pages with automatic edge detection, ready to send for signature.
- Sign on the officer’s device. In person Signing on the web or In-Person Signing in the app lets the owner or contractor sign on the officer’s phone or tablet.
- Photos into one PDF. Several photos of a handwritten report are combined into a single PDF automatically.
- A natural signature on glass. The drawing pad is speed-sensitive, so a finger signature looks like ink rather than a jagged line.
Officers use the same account on the web, iPhone, iPad and Android, so a report started on a tablet in the field can be tracked from a desk later — see iOS, Android and web.
A typical public sector signing workflow
Prepare the document
Upload the contract, application or report, or scan a paper form with the SignPe app. Save it as a draft while it is reviewed — drafts do not use a document credit.
Place and assign fields
Drag Signature, Initials, Date, Full Name, Designation and Checkmark fields onto the page and assign each to the right signer.
Set the approval order
Choose Set signer order and arrange signers to match your approval policy. Add finance, legal or audit as observers.
Send and track
Follow each signer through Sent, Received, Opened and Signed in the Activity timeline, and use Remind for anyone holding things up.
Keep the record
When everyone has signed, all parties receive the signed copy. Download it with the audit trail PDF and file both in your records system.
Compliance considerations for public sector documents
Electronic signatures are recognised for most commercial documents under laws including the US ESIGN Act and UETA, the EU’s eIDAS regulation and India’s Information Technology Act 2000. The public sector adds its own requirements: some documents must still be signed in ink, witnessed or sealed; records-management and freedom-of-information rules govern how signed copies are kept; and many bodies have policies on where data may be stored. Confirm with your legal adviser and information-governance team which documents can be signed electronically. The legality guide covers India in detail.
- An audit trail per document. The downloadable audit trail shows the document ID, sent and completed dates, and when each signer was emailed, viewed and signed.
- Access limited to participants. Only the sender, signers and observers on a document can open it.
- Encryption in transit and at rest. Documents travel over HTTPS/TLS and are stored in encrypted cloud storage — see eSignature security.
- Aadhaar eSign in India. Aadhaar eSign adds OTP verification through eMudhra and a PKI-signed PDF with a SHA-256 document hash and an evidence certificate.
Signed copies and audit trails are yours to download, so apply your organisation’s own retention schedules and records policies to them.
How to route a supplier contract for approval
Upload the contract
Upload the contract as a PDF or Word file, or import it from Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive or Box.
Add signers in order
Choose Set signer order and add the supplier, the budget holder and the authorised signatory in that order.
Place the fields
Add a Signature, Date and Designation field for each signer, and Initials on pages with key terms.
Send and follow progress
The supplier is emailed first and each next signer is emailed automatically. Use Remind if the contract stalls.
File the signed contract
Once everyone has signed, all parties receive the signed PDF and the audit trail is ready to download.
