Where the time actually goes on paper
Signing a document takes seconds. Getting it signed takes days, and almost none of that time is spent signing. It’s spent in the gaps between people: waiting for a print, waiting for the post, waiting for someone to get back from a site visit, waiting for a scan that arrives sideways and has to be redone.
- Printing and posting. The document has to physically reach the signer before anything can happen.
- Being at a desk. A signer who is travelling or out on a job can’t sign a piece of paper on someone else’s desk.
- Passing it along. With several signers, each one has to hand the document to the next — and every handover is a chance for it to sit in a tray.
- Not knowing where it is. Without a status, you only find out a contract stalled when you go looking for it.
- Scanning it back. A signed page is no use to your accounts team until someone scans it, names it and files it.
E-signatures don’t make anyone sign faster. They remove the gaps. That’s what the homepage means by documents that took days being executed in minutes: the signing itself was always quick, and SignPe stops everything around it from slowing it down.
A link signers can open anywhere
When you send a document, each signer receives an email with a Review & Sign Document button. It opens the signing page in their browser — on a phone in a taxi, a tablet on a building site or a laptop at home. There’s no app to download and nothing to print.
Recipients who don’t have a SignPe account sign as guests. They accept a short electronic-records consent screen, review the document, sign the fields assigned to them and they’re done. People who already have an account sign in first. Either way, the step most likely to cause a delay — “I’ll do it when I’m back at the office” — disappears. More on the guest flow on sign without an account.
Fewer questions, fewer delays
Place every field your signer needs — Signature, Initials, Date, Full Name, Company — before you send. A signer who can see exactly where to sign finishes in one sitting instead of replying to ask.
Multiple signers without the hand-offs
Most slow agreements are slow because they need more than one signature. SignPe lets you add every signer to the same document and choose how it moves between them.
- Any order. Everyone receives the document at once and signs whenever suits them. This is the fastest option when the order doesn’t matter.
- Set signer order. Signers sign in the order you choose. Anyone who opens the document early sees “Waiting for <name> to sign”, and after each signature the next person gets an “it’s your turn” email automatically. You never have to forward anything.
- Observers. Add a manager, an accountant or a colleague as an observer (CC). They receive updates as the document progresses but don’t sign, so they stop asking you for progress reports.
- Delegation. If someone in your organisation is away, they can delegate their signing to a colleague in the same organisation, who signs on their behalf. The delegate is notified, and the document keeps moving.
The detail on roles and order is on multiple signers. The short version: once you press send, the routing is SignPe’s job, not yours.
Knowing where a document is — and nudging it
You can’t speed up what you can’t see. Every SignPe document carries a live status — Sent, Received, Opened, Saved, Signed, Declined or Void — and your Documents list sorts them into Action Required, Waiting for Others and Signed. Each step is recorded with its date and time, in the Activity timeline on the web and the Document History page in the mobile app.
That status tells you exactly who is holding things up. If a signer has opened the document but not signed, a reminder is the next step. Automated reminders nudge signers so agreements don’t stall, and you can chase on demand too: press Remind, confirm Send reminder and SignPe emails every signer who hasn’t signed yet with a “Gentle Reminder: Required Signature on <document>” message. Signers with the app also get a push and in-app notification. A toast confirms “Reminder sent to pending signers”.
See document status tracking and signing reminders for the full detail.
Signing on the spot, in person
Sometimes the fastest turnaround is no turnaround at all. If the signer is standing in front of you — a customer at a counter, a client at a viewing, a contractor on site — choose In person Signing on the web or In-Person Signing in the iPhone or Android app and hand them your phone or tablet. They sign there and then, and the document is recorded in the same way as any other.
The mobile apps help on your side, too. You can scan a paper document with your phone’s camera (with automatic edge detection, up to 20 pages per scan), pick photos, or import from Drive, OneDrive, Box or Dropbox, then send it straight away. Push notifications tell you as soon as someone signs, so you don’t have to keep checking. See iOS, Android and web.
Faster signatures, faster payment
Turnaround isn’t only about convenience. For many businesses the signature is the gate in front of the money: no signed quote, no work order; no signed agreement, no invoice. Every day a document waits is a day later you get paid.
When the last signer signs, SignPe marks the document complete and emails the signed copy to everyone on it. Your accounts team, your client and you all have the final version at the same moment — no scanning, no “can you send me the signed one?”, and nothing to stop the invoice going out.
We don’t publish a “signed X times faster” figure, because your turnaround depends on your documents and your signers. You can work out your own, though. Track a few recent agreements against the stages below and compare:
| Stage | On paper, measure | With SignPe |
|---|---|---|
| Getting the document to the signer | Time to print, post or courier it | An email sent as soon as you press send |
| Waiting for the signer to be available | Days until they’re back at a desk | They sign from whatever device they have |
| Passing it between signers | Time each signer holds it before forwarding | The next signer is emailed automatically |
| Chasing | Calls and emails to find out where it is | Live status and a one-click reminder |
| Getting the signed copy back | Return post, scanning and filing | The completed copy is emailed to everyone |
Tips for the fastest possible turnaround
- Only use signing order when it matters. If nobody needs to sign first, let everyone sign at once.
- Double-check email addresses. A typo is the one delay SignPe can’t fix for you; if it happens, void the document and resend.
- Tell people it’s coming. A one-line message — “you’ll get a SignPe email in a minute” — means the request isn’t mistaken for spam.
- Prepare in advance. Build the document, then save it as a draft and send it the moment the terms are agreed. Drafts don’t use a document credit.
- Look at Waiting for Others each morning. Anything that has sat there since yesterday is a candidate for a reminder.
You can try all of this on real agreements: the free plan includes 3 documents with unlimited pages and unlimited signers on each, and no credit card. See how SignPe works for the overall flow.
How to get a document signed quickly with SignPe
Upload or scan the document
Upload a PDF, Word file or image on the web, or scan or import it in the mobile app.
Add signers and choose the order
Add each signer’s name and email, add observers if anyone needs updates, and turn on signer order only if one person must sign before another.
Place the fields
Drag Signature, Initials, Date and any other fields onto the page and assign each one to the right signer.
Send
Each signer gets a Review & Sign Document email and can sign from a phone, tablet or computer without an account.
Track and remind
Watch the status move from Sent to Opened to Signed, and press Remind if anyone is holding things up.
Receive the signed copy
When the last signer signs, everyone on the document is emailed the completed copy.
