In the year 2000, the ESIGN act declared that electronic signatures are just as valid and enforceable as the traditional kind. Since then, we’ve seen eSignatures spark a revolution of productivity and speed across every industry—including law.
With electronic signature tools like Vinesign, legal professionals can cut delays, save money, and increase client satisfaction. And when a disaster like Covid-19 strikes, electronic signature software can keep you and your clients up and running.
Make sure you’re getting the most out of Vinesign with the following tips:
9 Best Practices for Electronic Signatures with Vinesign
1. Unlimited means unlimited—take advantage
Electronic signature software often comes with limits on the number of signatures you can request, or tack hefty usage-based fees onto their monthly bill. As the demand for electronic signature capabilities grows, law offices find themselves tethered to platforms that hold them back.
In contrast, Vinesign offers unlimited use, allowing your team to create and send as many documents as needed. Your clients, vendors, and professional colleagues increasingly expect eSignature options. Give them what they want and maximize your ROI by moving more signature requests through Vinesign.
Make this easier by fleshing out your template library in Vinesign. Include all documents you commonly use that require a signature, with customized fields for signatures, initials, and dates.
2. Request multiple signatures per document
Do you need to gather multiple signatures for one document? No problem. Send up to 15 signature requests for each document with Vinesign. Choose the order for the requests (for instance, maybe the signed document needs to go somewhere afterward for a countersignature). You can also assign each of the signatures a name, such as Client, Guardian, or Attorney.
This feature is especially useful when you need to gather signatures from a couple, or a parent or guardian.
3. Personalize your invitation message
We’re understandably wary about opening links from unexpected emails and text messages. When you send a document to be signed from Vinesign, customize your invitation message to build trust and understanding.
Personalize your SMS message, or your email subject line and message, to give the signer some context, greatly increasing the likelihood of them opening and signing the document.
4. Cater to Spanish-speaking clients
When your clients are more comfortable with Spanish, choose the Spanish-language user interface when you send a document with Vinesign. This will make all of the Vinesign prompts and explanations in Spanish. Make sure you also upload and use a Spanish version of your template.
5. Automate with preset signers.
Is there someone in your organization who regularly signs documents? Make it easy on them by automatically populating their information into a template. This is particularly useful for countersignatures. Instead of inputting a name and other information each time a countersignature is required for routine documents, automation can move the process forward faster.
6. Decide between typed and drawn signatures
Vinesign users have the option to draw, type, or upload an image of their signature. Some agencies and individuals, such as medical providers, can be fastidious about signatures, dismissing those that are illegible or dissimilar to signatures already on file. Avoid this risk by using the signature typing option to sign. The typed name will appear in neat, signature-style font.
You can also choose whether signatures appear in blue or black ink, for times when someone wishes to distinguish between the original version and black and white copies.
7. Tailor your follow-up by checking job history
Follow up with clients and others who haven’t signed and returned their documents. Tailor the support you give them by first checking Vinesign’s job history, where you can see if recipients have opened the document you sent.
If the recipient hasn’t even opened the document, you can first verify that they received it. If they’ve opened and viewed it, they might instead have questions about the language in the form or contract.
8. Keep information confidential
Mark Vinesign documents and templates as ‘private’ when you don’t want them to be visible to anyone else in your organization. This is useful when you’re sending an employment contract with salary details you might not want other employees to see. Whenever you’d like to limit access to information inside your own organization, private jobs and templates will help.
9. Integrate to automate
Since Vinesign integrates seamlessly with Filevine, users can send out any document in Filevine for a signature. Once you’ve integrated, you can simply select Vinesign from a dropdown menu for any document in Filevine.
You can then turn your Filevine document into a Vinesign template, and the job you send out will automatically be saved in the docs section of the Filevine project you’re in (though you can also change the associated project if you’d like).
As soon as the recipient has signed the document, it will show up as a note in the activity feed and the docs section of the project. This makes it easy to track and ensures your important documents are all accessible and safely archived in one place.
As soon as the recipient has signed the document, it will show up as a note in the activity feed and the docs section of the project. This makes it easy to track and ensures your important documents are all accessible and safely archived in one place.
Electronic signatures are the most convenient, most efficient, and fastest way to authorize documents. Delight more clients and improve your productivity with Vinesign’s enhanced eSignature capabilities.