The operations focused guide to digital signature software
Digital signature software has become the most effective way for companies to have customers sign papers, authorize work, etc.
Even with such wide adoption, most companies are underusing digital signature tools.
Scroll through this guide to find out:
- Why using a digital signature program combined with payments increases your business efficiency and cash flow.
- Three common ways to get signed contracts and capture an electronic signature.
- Features to look for to meet your business needs with software for digital signatures.
- Best practices for implementing digital signature solutions.
- Insights on pricing and comparisons between the leading digital signature companies.
Why use digital signature software?
Speed
Cost
Corp Magazine
Electronic Signature Solutions Compared to Traditional Paper-Based Processes
Cost Savings: Lower operating costs by cutting out paper, postage, and labor by digitizing document delivery and signature management.
Revenue Impact: Faster turnaround times mean shorter cash flow cycles. Get faster revenue recognition from deals closed or services delivered.
Convenience
Many companies send important documents like contracts through certified mail, so they know for certain the items were delivered.
Using digital signature software replaces the need for certified mail because there are other methods for tracking digital signatures. This also cuts costs because a good software service won’t charge you extra to use tracking features such as delivery method, recipient interaction, IP address, and geolocation data.
Security
Customer service
Digital messages aren’t optional anymore for business. Customers expect to use a digital signature tool if your company isn’t face-to-face.
It’s important to offer a fast, easy way to complete esignatures through email or text message. Don’t require customers to download an app, print out paperwork themselves, or wait for a document to come by mail.
Create a better customer experience with digital signature software.
Tracking
Requesting a signature through a digital channel lets you follow every stage of the customer’s journey. Signature software can easily track the stage of a request (sent, opened, complete, failed, etc.).
Allow individuals or group emails to opt into these tracking notifications, so everyone knows what’s going on.
Forrester
Analytics
Common ways to use digital signature software
Every company has its own processes for getting documents signed, moving a customer from one stage of a sale to another, and managing other customer transactions.
Digital signature tools make it possible to manage all types of workflows for faster, more convenient customer interactions.
Simple signature
Document templates with an esignature
One of the most common ways to use your digital signature software is to send a document for customers to fill out, electronically sign, and send back. This is useful for:
- Customer contracts
- Work orders
- Employee documents
Documents and payments together
Another common reason companies use esignature software is to get a digital signature and a payment at the same time. Some examples are:
- Event contracts and deposit - so the right payment can be associated with the right contract.
- Rental agreements and deposit - so renters can complete all necessary steps of the process in one message.
- Law client agreements and retainer fees - so law offices can onboard a client and start working on their case faster.
- Project Milestone Billing - so companies or freelancers can send the agreement and payment terms, and charge clients a portion of their total cost as each milestone of progress is made on a project.
- Medical intake forms with a copayment - so healthcare facilities can have patients fill out and sign forms and make a copayment before the start of a visit.
74% close rate of contracts signed with a payment.
What to look for in an electronic document and esignature solution
Forrester
Integrated payments
Many business workflows require a signature and payment at the same time. Rather than making customers go through two separate transactions, streamline the process! Payments and digitally signing together make it easier:
- To know where customers are in their journey
- To know whether they have completed all actions needed
- To track what payments are associated with which customers
White labeled custom branding
For a signature and payment together, the visuals and information that you send your customers should reflect your company’s brand — colors, logo, and contact information.
Look for software that lets you add customized branding and personalized messaging to the emails and SMS you send.
Send emails, SMS, or both!
Some digital signature solutions let companies send a request through email, but require an app or other workaround to send the same requests to a mobile phone number. However, customers now expect SMS communication options if you also offer email.
You should have the option to send signature requests to both an email inbox and a mobile number to serve customers better.
Control over workflows
Not every employee needs (or should have) access to all of the templates your company might create. Companies often segment work by location, department, group, or user.
Your software should come with administrative controls that make it easy to give employees access or restrict it, based on what is relevant to their jobs.
Personalized bulk messaging
There are times when you may need to request many digital signatures or send many messages at once. This is common for companies that:
- Send annual announcements, documents, or meeting notes to clients or customers
- Send forms to large customer groups at one time
- Have employees sign documents online
Your software should allow you to bulk send many personalized messages at one time via a simple method, like a CSV upload.
Message security and compliance
It’s important to know your software follows email delivery best practices and stays current with phone carrier guidelines for SMS messages. Ask the software provider what they do to keep email and text messages secure.
For companies that need to send secure documents a HIPAA compliant software is a good indication that messages will remain private and can’t be accessed by unintended parties.
Robust tracking and analytic tools
You need analytics in your digital signature software so you can view specific transactions and filter items by date or other metrics that help you learn more about workflow performance.
If you have esignatures and payments in one software, like with PDCflow, you can view all of the data and reports in one place, also making it simpler to reconcile accounts.
Digital signatures should also come with a documented audit trail, with features like multi-factor authentication, geolocation, date/time stamp, and delivery method. These pieces of information help prove your signatures are legitimate.
Legal signatures
Drag and drop editor
Forrester
Best practices of digital signature requests
Sending out signature requests or other customer messages always comes with a purpose. You may want them to sign a paper, verify a work order, or pay a bill.
For these messages to fulfill their purpose, you need to follow some basic digital communication best practices.
- Monitor metrics - Are your requests successful? If not, do you need to extend the expiration date on the Flow?
- Personalize messages - make it easier for customers to complete a form. Use personalized payment portals to auto-fill basic information, so customers don’t have to work so hard to complete a transaction.
- Make opt-ins a priority - If you send digital signature requests or other digital messages, make sure your company has a reliable workflow in place to receive email and SMS opt-ins.
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Digital signature pricing
Every company is concerned about overhead. Software tools are an investment and should be worth the price you pay. Esignature software pricing should be reasonable and not block major features or functionality behind high payment tiers.
You shouldn’t have to pay for access to things you don’t need just to send the number of messages you want per month.
In addition, your software should reduce other costs for your company. Specifically, replacing printing, paper, and postage expenses should help you lower operational costs.
Many things can impact price:
- Paying per user - Digital signage platforms that charge per user can get expensive. What’s more, if only a few people in your organization can log in to send a request or view a transaction’s status, teamwork and collaboration will suffer.
- Template creation - Some companies cap the number of templates you can create for customers. This means businesses that want to use digital signature software for all of their workflows may have to pay more just to create the templates they need.
- Quantity caps - Many software companies limit pricing tiers by how many requests a user can send per month. This can have an unexpected impact on your operational costs if you have a busy month and need to send more requests than expected.
- Pay-to-access features - Some companies block services like personalized bulk messages, live customer service help, or access to API integrations behind higher pricing tiers, so your business may need to pay extra just to access them.
PDCflow vs. Docusign vs. Adobe Sign
PDCflow
DocuSign
Adobe Sign
- Simple esignature (no document required)
- Simple esignature + payment request
- Document with esignature
- Built for payments
- More credit card processing choices
- All transaction data in one place
- Limited options
- Can only take payments with a Braintree account
- Need a separate account for payments
- Only available with a higher pricing tier
- Can’t request a payment without including a document.
- No payment portal.
Pricing is on a per transaction basis (volume discounting applies) and includes payments and bulk sends.
No long term contract commitments.
Docusign overview
As one of the leading signature solutions, Docusign is a well-known brand used often by enterprise companies.
Companies exploring Docusign alternatives have found, though, that many plans may not work for both their workflow needs and their budget.
Some of the limitations customers routinely face in using Docusign are:
- Prohibitively expensive for small to medium-sized companies
- No payment portals come with Docusign payments, and there are limited payment processor options available
- The focus is on documents and signatures, which doesn’t address other types of communication requests your company wants to send
Adobe Acrobat Sign overview
Similar to Docusign, Adobe Acrobat Sign is primarily intended for getting documents filled out and signed.
They offer other features to enhance business workflows, but the cost of Adobe Sign’s higher pricing tiers makes them unobtainable for companies who want to keep overhead low.
Some of the other limitations customers routinely face in using Adobe Acrobat Sign are:
- Signatures are only available with a document. No way to get a quick, simple authorization.
- No ability to send requests via SMS, which hurts customer satisfaction for those who want a text message rather than an email.
- Most features companies want for flexibility and better processes (bulk messages, access to APIs, creating unlimited templates) are blocked behind higher pricing tiers.
PDCflow overview
PDCflow offers more digital signature options and integrated payments at a better price than competitors. What makes our software different?
1. Fully secure and configurable esignatures and contract communications
- Send requests via email, text message, or both.
- Send documents with no signature request.
- Get a simple signature with or without a document, for less complex authorizations.
- Request photo (ID), image, and file uploads.
- Advanced security features like end-to-end encryption to keep payment data and customer information safe.
2. Better payment options
- Send email and SMS payment requests.
- Encourage self-serve payments with online payment portals.
- Take payments over the phone with staff-initiated transactions.
- Set up recurring payments and enable consumer initiated payment schedules via an online portal.
3. Exceptional service and support
- Get in touch with in-house customer success specialists via email ticketing system and telephone support for any questions or concerns.
- Access free personalized training – available for all customers.
- Visit Help Center articles and product walkthroughs for self-help options.
4. Pay for what you use…and not per user
- Get an account without signing a long-term commitment.
- Get as many user profiles as your team needs so staff can effectively collaborate.
- Access personalized bulk messaging, APIs, and other important features for growing your business without moving to a higher pricing tier.
Digital Signatures FAQs
A SIMPLE, FLEXIBLE, POWERFUL PLATFORM
PDCflow for Documents and eSignatures
PDCflow for eSignatures
Create faster, more cost-efficient business processes.
Send documents and gather electronic signatures and photos through email or SMS in bulk or one at a time.
PDCflow for Contracts and Payments
Simplify operations. End the need for separate software applications to send a contract, capture a signature, and collect a payment.
Get contracts signed and request payments in one digital workflow.
API Integration
Better UX, better revenue, better insights, no extra fees.
Add secure documents, esignatures, and payments directly into your software application with easy-to-implement drop-in components.
