Electronic document signing
Electronic signatures in Senta by IRIS are designed to adhere to the EU eIDAS regulations (Regulation (EU) 910/2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market) and the Electronic Identification and Trust Services for Electronic Transactions Regulations 2016 (the UK eIDAS Regulations).
Not all transactions will be suitable for electronic signing. For example, it may not be possible to use Senta for signing deeds.
Only PDF documents can be signed in Senta.
Electronic signing happens in two parts: firstly, you must upload a document and request a signature, and, secondly, your contact must then sign the document.
You can request signatures from any contact on Senta, but they must be activated for the client portal to be able to sign.
One-off signatures
You can request a one-off signature for any document that is on the client’s Documents tab.
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Under the Documents tab, highlight the document(s) using the tickbox and select Request signature. Alternatively, first select Request signature which will allow you to select a Practice document or Client document.
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The selected document(s) will attach to the signing request where you can edit the Requester and Signer (primary contact is selected by default), and add instructions for the client to view in their portal.
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Once you are finished, select Request signature.
Once you have requested the signature, a notification email will be automatically generated for the client. For further information, see our guide on Client notification emails.
The signature request will also display as an Ad hoc task under the client's Work tab.
Once the client signs the document, the task assigned to the user will switch from In Progress to Completed and the task(s) assigned to the client will also change to Completed.
Sign as part of a job
As an alternative to requesting signatures ad hoc, it is possible to request signatures as part of a job. For example, this might be useful if you want the client to sign accounts or a tax return when you’ve completed them, or perhaps sign an engagement letter as part of the client take-on process. In these cases, you can add a task to the job to request a signature at the appropriate time.
For instruction on how to set up a signing task as part of our job see our Task types guide.
View documents out for signing
The outstanding electronic signing tasks can be viewed via Ad hoc tasks under the Work tab or in the specific job. However, you can also view outstanding signing requests via the Documents tab.
In the Signing column, the Signer's name will be displayed followed by the date and time the signature was requested.
If the signing request was sent as part of a job, a link to the job will display in the Job column.
Download signed documents
The signed document can be downloaded from two places: the completed client task (in Ad hoc tasks or on the job) or in the Signing column on the Documents tab.
Client rejects a signing request
A client can reject the signing request in their portal. The task assigned to the client will change to Cancelled and the Account manager will be notified.
To view the rejection reason provided by the client go to the Documents tab and look at the Signing column for the specific document. The reason will be displayed in quotation marks:
To send the signing request again, on the In Progress task assigned to the user select Do again and then Send signing request. You will then have the opportunity to attach a different document or send the same document again.
Cancel signing requests
When cancelling a signing request, ensure that both the main task and the sub task(s) are cancelled; sub tasks are any signing tasks assigned to the client.
Select the main task and sub task(s) using the tick boxes and select More actions > Cancel tasks:
If the signing request was sent via the Documents tab, the tasks will be located in Ad hoc tasks under the Work tab. If the signing request was sent as part of a job, the tasks will be located within that job. In a job, More actions can be found at the top of the page.
Notifications
When you send a signing request to a client, Senta generates an email notifying the client about the request.
When a client has signed a document (or rejected the request), the Account manager for that client will be notified via the globe icon. If you would like to change the notification preferences to be notified via email, see our Notifications guide.