4 minute read
SuiteFiles How secure is your
by XU Magazine
How secure is your signing?
What you can do to improve your practice’s signing...
With so many options for signing documents online, it’s important to consider the tools you’re using and whether they provide the security features your practice or small business needs.
@SuiteFiles
Jemmah Revell, Marketing Coordinator, SuiteFiles
Jemmah is a Marketing Coordinator for the SuiteFiles team, passionate about all things content and digital, you will mainly see her across our blog, socials, and events (when they’re back). She began her SuiteFiles journey two years ago while finishing up her degree in Marketing and International Business, we’re now happy to have her full time at Suite!
D
igital vs E-signing
Many small businesses are unaware of the legal differences between e-signatures and digital signatures. The laws vary from country-to-country but in Australia and New Zealand we follow a minimal approach to digital signing, called an open legal model. This model lets nearly all documents be signed with a simple electronic signature!
The key features of a digital signature include signature encryption and linking to the original signee, it holds a data trail, there are high levels of authenticity, it secures a document and is legally binding. This differs from an e-signature in
that the document is only verified instead of secured, the signature is non-encrypted, it’s typically simpler to use but less authentic, there is no guaranteed data trail, and the intent to sign is what creates the contract.
The main benefits of using a digital signature are around security, ensuring the person signing the document is the signee, and being able to back this up with an audit trail can be essential to the document holding up in court. If your business is set on using e-signatures, one way to have this document hold up in court is by gaining consent before using an online signature and be able to reasonably identify them. This shows the signee knows they entered a contract by symbolising their agreement.
Common Signing Methods
the handwriting and signature matches the clients and without reasonable doubt you would assume this is who has signed the document. This method offers no security in the form of an audit trail or encrypted signature. It also offers only one authentication method of email, which is often not enough.
Having a digital signing feature, our sales team often hears all the Another common method is using different ways small businesses free tools. The small business are currently signing will upload their documents. These Our digital document to a free different methods are often used because they are the simplest, signing feature offers encryption, authentication, and online provider, create their signature, paste it on the document, are typically free, provides a full then send it off to and don’t involve audit of each their clients. This the client learning document. poses the same any new technology security risks as the so takes less time to previous method but implement. includes a third party who may not be trusted, nor does it offer The traditional ink signature the confidence of a handwritten is one a lot of businesses are signature. still using. This usually involves printing the document, manually The most common method we signing it, scanning it, then see is using a free tool to turn a emailing it to their client who will Word Document into a fillable do the same. The time sunk into PDF, the signees will then type this process, the expectation of their name into the document, clients to have access to printers and this will act as a signature. and scanners, and the manual This method is also sent via email follow ups required to get this so poses the same security risks signature back manually are often as the above methods. not considered. The learning curve of a new technology usually SuiteFiles Digital Signing takes far less time than the manual processes seen here, Our digital signing feature offers not to mention the difficulty of encryption, authentication, and following this process while social provides a full audit history of distancing. This method offers each document. Our approach medium security; you can see complies with both tiered and open digital signature legal models.
The SuiteFiles signing feature works by automatically turning any document held in SuiteFiles into a signable PDF file, you can then drag and drop your chosen fields (signing, date, and text fields). The document is now ready for signing, you add your recipients or save the file into your clients shared folder. If you’ve added recipients, they will receive a link to sign the document in the browser, the signed document will then automatically be saved back to the original location with a signed copy sent to each signee. If you’ve chosen to save the document to a shared client folder, you can add the recipient’s email address so they receive a notification to login with their Xero, Google or custom credentials to sign the document. The completed document will be automatically saved back to their shared client folder.
This year we’re focusing on adding enhancements to a number of features, including digital signing. We’ll be making this a simpler process for both SuiteFiles customers and end users, as well as adding even more security features.
FIND OUT MORE...
Get to know our digital signing feature here:
