What paperwork actually costs you in effort
A paper signature is rarely one task. It is a chain of small ones: print the document, find a pen, sign, scan it back in, attach it to an email, send it to the next person, wait, ask whether they got it, wait again, and finally file the copy somewhere you hope you’ll remember. Each step is quick on its own. Together they turn a two-minute decision into a week of follow-ups.
Email on its own doesn’t fix that. Swapping PDFs back and forth just moves the mess into inboxes: “final_v2_signed.pdf” in one thread, a photo of a signature page in another, and nobody quite sure which copy is the real one.
Going paperless means replacing the whole chain, not just the paper. In SignPe the document, the people who need to sign it, the order they sign in, every status change and the finished copy all sit on one record. You stop managing files and start managing agreements.
Get any document in without a scanner
Paperless starts with how documents arrive. SignPe takes the formats you already have, so nothing needs printing just to be digitised again.
- Upload a file. PDF, Word (DOC and DOCX) and images (JPG, JPEG and PNG), up to 20 MB per upload. See multiple file formats.
- Scan paper you’ve been handed. On the mobile app, Scan uses your phone’s document scanner with automatic edge detection, up to 20 pages per scan.
- Combine photos. Pick several images from Photos and they become one PDF automatically — handy for a multi-page form someone photographed.
- Import from the cloud. The Add Document sheet offers Files, Drive, OneDrive, Box and Dropbox, each with its own file browser. More on cloud storage integration.
- Share into SignPe. Send a document to SignPe straight from another app on your phone.
That last stack of paper on your desk — the one that arrived by post or was signed by hand last year — can come in through the scanner too. Once it’s in, it lives with the rest of your documents.
Prepare the document once, correctly
On paper, a missed initial or an empty date line means sending the whole thing back. In SignPe you place every field before the document goes out, and assign each one to the person who should fill it in.
| Field | What it’s for |
|---|---|
| Signature, Initials, Stamp | The marks that make the document binding, including your company stamp |
| Full Name, Email, Company, Designation | Details the signer would otherwise write out by hand |
| Date | In the format you choose, such as DD/MM/YYYY, MM/DD/YYYY or “MMMM DD, YYYY” |
| Text | Free text in sizes 12–36, in Inter, Roboto, Arial, Times New Roman or Courier New |
| Checkmark and Shape | Tick boxes, plus Circle, Square, Rounded, Star, Pentagon and Hexagon |
Drag each field into place, resize it, and choose its signer. Because every box is assigned, each person sees only what they need to complete, and the document can’t be finished with a gap in it. The add text and shapes page covers the editor in detail.
Not ready to send?
Leave the document wizard and SignPe asks “Save as draft?” Choose Save Draft and pick it up later from the Draft filter in Documents. Drafts don’t use a document from your allowance, and uploading a file with the same name as a saved draft offers Resume Draft or Start New, so you don’t end up with duplicates.
Multi-step approvals without passing paper between desks
The approval that used to travel in a folder — manager, then finance, then a director — is where paper costs the most time. Each hand-off depends on someone noticing the folder in their tray. In SignPe the route is set up front, and the hand-offs happen by themselves.
- Choose “Set signer order” and list your signers in the sequence they should sign. Each one is emailed with a Review & Sign Document button when it’s their turn, and the next person gets an “it’s your turn” email as soon as the one before signs.
- Out-of-turn signers can’t jump ahead. Anyone who opens the document early sees “Waiting for <name> to sign”.
- Add observers for people who need to follow along without signing — a colleague in legal, an assistant, a client’s accountant. They receive updates as the document moves.
- Let a colleague cover for you. A user can delegate their signing to a colleague in the same organisation, who can then sign on their behalf; the delegate is notified.
- Nudge anyone who’s stalled. The Remind button emails every signer who hasn’t signed yet, and signers with the app also get a push and in-app notification.
Your signers don’t need to set anything up either. People without an account sign in their browser as guests after accepting an electronic-records consent screen — no account, no download. See sign without an account and multiple signers and signing order.
Every version in one place, not scattered across inboxes
The hardest part of paperwork is often not signing but finding. With paper, the signed copy is in a cabinet, a scan is in someone’s email, and the draft with tracked changes is on a laptop. SignPe keeps each document as a single record from draft to completion.
- Filters that match your to-do list. Draft for work in progress, Action Required for what’s waiting on you, Waiting for Others for what you’ve sent, and Signed for completed agreements.
- A status for every step. Sent, Received, Opened, Saved, Signed, Declined and Void, each recorded with its date and time.
- History you can read at a glance. On the web, the Activity timeline sits in the document’s info drawer; on mobile, the Document History page lists each status with its date and time.
- An audit trail you can hand to anyone. Download the audit trail PDF with the document ID, sent and completed dates, and when each signer was emailed, viewed and signed.
- The finished copy reaches everyone. When the last signer signs, everyone is emailed the signed copy — no one has to ask for it.
One account works across the web app, iPhone, Android and Windows, and documents sync between them, so the agreement you sent from your laptop is in your pocket when someone asks about it. More in document status tracking and the guide to managing signed documents in one place.
Fixing mistakes without starting the paper trail again
With paper, a mistake found after sending means retrieving copies and explaining which one to ignore. In SignPe the clean-up is built in.
- Catch it before sending. Drafts can be renamed, edited, resumed or deleted at any time.
- Withdraw it after sending. The creator can void a pending document. SignPe asks “Void document?”, then emails every signer that it’s been cancelled, stops the signing link working and records the void in the audit trail.
- Respect a “no”. A signer who disagrees can decline, and you’re notified straight away rather than discovering it a week later.
Correct the document, send it as a fresh request, and the new version gets its own clean history. Nothing outdated stays in circulation.
Tips for a paperless workflow that sticks
- Name documents for the person searching later. “Smith – Supply Agreement – March” beats “contract.pdf”.
- Use signer order only when order matters. Approvals and countersignatures need it; a form several people sign independently doesn’t.
- Add observers instead of forwarding. It keeps everyone on the same record and saves you sending updates by hand.
- Save your signature, initials and stamp once. Your saved signatures library means you never redraw them, and “Apply to all fields of the same type” fills repeated boxes in one go.
- Scan the backlog as it surfaces. When an old paper agreement comes up, scan it into SignPe so the next person finds it with everything else.
E-signatures are recognised under the US ESIGN Act and UETA, the EU’s eIDAS regulation and India’s IT Act 2000. For the Indian position in detail, read the legality guide.
How to send a document without printing it
Add your document
Upload a PDF, Word file or image, scan pages with your phone, or import from Drive, OneDrive, Box or Dropbox.
Choose who signs
Pick “I’m the only signer”, “Set signer order” or “In person Signing”, then add signers and any observers.
Place and assign fields
Drag signature, initials, date, text and other fields onto the page and assign each one to a signer.
Send, or save as a draft
Send the request now, or choose Save Draft and finish it later from the Draft filter.
Track it to completion
Follow progress under Waiting for Others, use Remind if someone stalls, and receive the signed copy by email when everyone has signed.
