Sole Proprietors: What document signing software are you using?

[skeletron]

I am considering moving toward an electronic document signing software system for contracts and service agreements. Right now it is an emailed PDF to the Client, and I get a hodgepodge of return values. Some people scan and send the whole document, others just the front page, and then there are those that take a photo and send that over. I'd really like to get it standardized and also like to have each page initialed.

Does anyone have good/bad experiences with using these apps? I am considering:
1. DocuSign --> not sure if I can get away with 5 per month, or if I need to step up to unlimited. The price increase is steep ($150/yr to $400/yr).
2. DropBox Sign --> seems simple and unlimited for $300/yr with the added bonus of online storage (which I don't necessarily need).

There are others like Acrobat Sign, PandaDoc, signNow. I'm not an Adobe user right now and loathe having to re-engage with their infrastructure. It seems like it's a standard $15-20 per month kind of app.

Is there a bare-bones solution that is working for others and their clients? Or is there an existing solution that is just worth it's cost for the simplicity and use?

 

[phamENG]

I use DocuSign. Not cheap, but well known and well respected. Most people know what it is. Downside - quite a few end up in spam/junk boxes so you have to follow up.

 

[skeletron]

That's good feedback. I've been sent DocuSign a bunch of times, and it does seem legit in terms of name recognition. Can you "view" if the document has been opened or seen (similar to Quickbooks showing when an invoice has been viewed)?

 

[phamENG]

Yes. I get an email when the document is opened and read. I get an email when it has been signed. They have a dashboard with document status.

 

[gte447f]

I use Adobe Sign. It works well from within Adobe Acrobat. I used to send pdf forms via email as an attachment, like I think what you are doing now, and my results were typically pretty varied and bad. Even though the pdf's were "live" forms with signature fields embedded, people rarely used the signature fields for some reason. They would print, sign and scan; take a picture, etc. I often got complaints that people couldn't sign on their phone. The worst was people that would print, mark-up the document with changes, sign, and scan.

Since migrating my process to Adobe Sign, it works pretty flawlessly almost every time. I still send an email from my personal email address with the service agreement as a pdf attachment, but the pdf is not live (i.e., no signature fields embedded). The email text is a template that I have developed that instructs the recipient that the contract is attached for their review, and that they will receive a separate email from Adobe Sign that will contain a link to sign the document online, etc. My current system works great. Perhaps the best part, is that people have no options to make changes to the documents before signing. I would never go back to just emailing the pdf's. I can't remember what I pay annually for Adobe Acrobat subscription, but it is well worth it, even if I only used it for collecting signatures on service agreements.

P.S. Using Adobe Acrobat for stamping and signing engineering documents is another story. It is a pain in the rear end.

 

[PJ218]

I like Signaturely. It sends an email when the document is viewed and signed by the client and it registers the client IP address for a document audit trail. Signaturely is free for under 3 signature requests and $20/month last I checked.

 

[kissymoose]

PandaDoc. It's free, I don't know why, but has worked exactly how I want for years. I just upload my contract, put in the areas for the client to fill out, and create a link to send out. Tells me when it's been opened and completed.

 

[phamENG]

kissymoose - you must have been an early adopter - minimum plan is $20/ month now.

 

[skeletron]

Yes. I looked at PandaDoc but it appears to be subscription on the same price level as others. The benefit seems to be the "unlimited" signatures and, to be honest, seeing that Konica Minolta and AutoDesk use something called "PandaDoc" actually does something for me.

In the end, I settled on DocuSign. The trial was pretty easy and it's worked pretty well. Much better than waiting for someone to scan in only one page, or sending me a blurry photo of the signed document on their table, or ... I get notifications when they view and when they sign, so I like that little bit of surveillance. Not a huge fan of the extra cost, nor their definition of "unlimited" which is 100 send's per year. I don't think I'll need more than that and I am a bit more picky about how and who I send it out to.

 

[NorthCivil]

am i the odd man out?

just using bluebeams "stamp" feature, and flattening the PDF with no unflattening allowed?

 

[phamENG]

NorthCivil, we're taking about getting signatures from clients on proposals and contracts.

 

[NorthCivil]

As far as my knowledge extends - note i operate in a system based on common law.

a contract is valid as long as agreement has been made. Any sort of record of the agreement is a sound record.

I usually forward my fee proposals/contracts as a PDF file. some clients will print off, sign, scan and send.

though some clients will just respond by email "please proceed". I understand that is just as sound of an agreement should things ever head to dispute

 

[Eng16080]

Just this week I used Acrobat Sign for the first time to have a client sign an Agreement. It worked great and made for a very simple process. No need to download, print, sign, scan, and email back. It's included with my subscription of Acrobat Pro.

I sent an email to the client explaining that they could expect the next email to be a request for signature. That way, if it somehow didn't go through or ended up in their spam they wouldn't think I ghosted them.