Where do companies most frequently use electronic signatures? Take a look at seven practical examples, ranging from contracts and HR to purchase orders and automation.
Electronic signatures are no longer a solution reserved solely for large corporations or specific legal documents. Today, companies, sole traders, and small teams alike use them in their daily workflows—whether dealing with contracts, orders, and HR records, or documents intended for clients and business partners.
The reason is simple. Most documents are now created digitally, sent electronically, and other business processes also take place online. But then comes the signature, and suddenly the document has to be printed, signed, scanned, and sent back. An electronic signature can eliminate precisely this step.
If you are still considering whether electronic signing is suitable for a smaller business, see also why even small businesses are already using electronic signatures. So where are electronic signatures most commonly used in companies? Let us look at seven practical examples.
1. Electronic signing of contracts with clients and business partners
Contracts are among the most common documents for which companies use electronic signatures. Once you have reached an agreement with a client, you no longer need to email the document with instructions to print it, sign it by hand, scan it, and send it back. You can send the contract directly for online signature.
In OKdokument, a signer can receive a signature request by email and sign the document without having to create an account. Electronic signing can be used, for example, for service agreements, framework agreements, amendments, orders, non-disclosure agreements, or other documents between a company and its clients or partners.
The benefit is not just using less paper. An electronic signature can shorten the time between agreeing to work together and signing the document, especially when the parties are in different locations. You can find out more about the practical benefits of online signing in the article Why switch to electronic signatures?
2. Electronic signatures in HR and personnel documentation
Hiring a new employee, changing working conditions, or handling day-to-day personnel administration can involve a large number of documents. In a paper-based process, the HR department has to prepare and distribute the documents, track their signing, and then process or archive them. If a document is missing, the entire process can take even longer. Documents for which electronic form is suitable and permissible can be sent to employees for online signature. Electronic signing can therefore be used during the onboarding of new colleagues as well as in other personnel administration.
If the process consists of several documents, they can be grouped into a single envelope in OKdokument. It can contain documents to be signed, documents to be read, and other attachments. This allows the new employee to receive related documents together and gives HR a better overview of the entire process.
3. Online signing of orders, price quotes, and business confirmations
Not every transaction requires an extensive contract. In many companies, the customer confirms a price quote, an order, the scope of services to be provided, or agreed business terms. It is precisely with these recurring documents that an electronic signature can significantly simplify the process between sales and delivery.
Instead of printing and scanning, the customer receives the document for online signature and can complete it remotely. This is practical, for example, for sales teams, e-commerce businesses, service providers, or companies that regularly process larger volumes of orders and confirmations. The more often the same signing process is repeated, the greater the benefit of digitizing it may be.
4. Signing documents with a customer directly at a branch or meeting
An electronic signature does not have to mean signing remotely only. In many situations, the client is physically present with a company representative: at a branch, in a store, during a property viewing, or at a business meeting. Even then, a paper document can be replaced with a digital one.
The client can read and sign the document, for example, on a tablet or another touchscreen device. This means the company does not have to print the document solely to obtain a signature and then scan it again. This method of electronic signing can be practical, for example, for real estate agencies, financial intermediaries, sales teams, or companies with physical branches. The result is a single digital process without the unnecessary transition from a document on screen to paper and back again.
5. Contracts with suppliers, freelancers, and external collaborators
Collaboration has long ceased to be tied to a single office. A supplier may work in another city, a freelancer may be based abroad, and an external consultant may never meet your team in person. Communication, work delivery, and invoicing can all take place entirely online.
A paper contract then remains one of the last steps that interrupts the digital process. For example, cooperation agreements, non-disclosure agreements, amendments, orders, or other project documentation can be handled electronically.
The signers do not have to be in the same place, and the document does not have to travel by post or as a repeatedly scanned attachment between the parties. An electronic signature can therefore be a natural part of working with external teams, suppliers, and international partners.
Try OKdokument for free for 14 days and discover which signing processes you can simplify in your company as well.
Try for free6. Consents, confirmations, and internal company documents
Electronic signing is not limited to contracts. Companies work with many documents for which they need to record a specific person's consent, confirmation, or signature. These may include internal documentation, acknowledgments of receipt, various agreements, or other documents related to the company's day-to-day operations.
In a conventional process, the greatest problem is often not the signing itself, but what comes next. Who has already signed the document? Who has not? Where is the latest version? Was the document changed after it was signed? A digital signing process helps unify these steps and limit the exchange of different document versions between participants.
For processes where a higher level of verification or trustworthiness is required, it is also important to choose the appropriate type of electronic signature and method of identifying the signer. We explain more about this topic in the article on electronic verification of intent and identity.
7. Automated electronic signing in company systems
For a few documents per month, an employee can simply upload the document and send it for signature. But what if the company processes dozens or hundreds of documents? In that case, automating the entire process may be more worthwhile.
Electronic signing can be integrated into the system in which the company already creates orders, contracts, or customer documents. OKdokument offers an API through which electronic signing can be connected to existing applications and business processes. A document can therefore be created based on data from the company's system, then proceed to signing, and return to the digital workflow once completed, without unnecessary manual file transfers.
With a higher volume of documents, electronic signing thus becomes not only a replacement for handwritten signatures on paper, but also part of digitizing the entire business process. We also cover this topic in more detail in the article Document digitization and process automation.
Which documents are worth starting to sign electronically?
Digitizing the signing process does not have to mean that a company stops using paper in all its processes overnight. The easiest way to start is with documents that you sign frequently and that currently involve the most unnecessary manual steps.
Is it a contract that you send to new clients every week? A price quote that a salesperson waits several days to have confirmed? A package of documents for a new employee's onboarding? Or a form that a customer signs every time they visit a branch?
Repeated processes in particular may offer the greatest opportunity to save time. After all, an electronic signature does not only eliminate paper. It can also eliminate printing, scanning, sending attachments, waiting for a document to be returned, or manually processing the signed version. If you are interested in a broader view of the benefits of electronic signing for smaller businesses, also read the article Why small businesses are already using electronic signatures.
Electronic signatures as part of the business
Whether it involves contracts with clients, HR documentation, price quotes, or cooperation with external partners, the principle is similar: a document created digitally does not need to leave the digital environment just to be signed.
With OKdokument, you can sign documents online, send them to other people for signature, sign documents during in-person meetings, process multiple documents in a single envelope, and connect electronic signing with company systems.
Less printing also means lower paper consumption. You can learn more about how electronic signing fits into more sustainable business processes in the article on green transformation and electronic signatures.
