Consigne
Your first signature request
From a PDF on your computer to a signed document, the first time.
Take a real document you have to sign anyway. The five minutes this first time are the same five you were about to spend printing it, and from here on nothing gets printed.
The five steps
- 1
Upload the document
The PDF as it is. No special preparation needed.
- 2
Say who signs
Name and email. If there are several, decide whether they sign at once or in order — at once is faster and usually right.
- 3
Place each signature
One field per person. Two signatures in one spot collide.
- 4
Choose how identity is checked
Email is enough internally; a phone code for a third party.
- 5
Send
They get a link. No account, nothing to install, and it works on a phone.
Five minutes before hitting send
- Read the document through once. Wrong amounts show up here and not later.
- Check there are as many signature fields as signers.
- Look at the preview exactly as the recipient will see it.
Important
If you are sending the same document to more than twenty people, send it to yourself first. A misplaced field across two hundred sends is two hundred awkward conversations, and they cannot be pulled back out of anyone's inbox.
What happens next
You will see whether it arrived, whether it was opened and when they signed. When it finishes, everyone receives a copy with the evidence inside: when it was opened, how identity was checked, and the exact moment of signing. That is what makes it hold.
Worth knowing
The date is set by the system, never by hand. A date written by the signer does not prove when they signed, which is precisely what has to be provable.
›Is it legally valid?
Yes, and with more evidence behind it than a hand-signed sheet, where nobody records the time.
›Does it cost the signer anything?
No, never.
›What if I get it wrong?
As long as nobody has signed, void it and send the corrected version.
A real case
The situation
A company prints, signs and scans every tenancy agreement.
What you do
- Sends the next one through Consigne
- The tenant signs from their phone that afternoon
What you get
The agreement is signed the same day and with a certified time, which the paper never had.
The situation
The perfect document is prepared before testing.
What you do
- Sends any PDF to a colleague
What you get
The whole circuit is seen in ten minutes.
The situation
Nobody knows what the signer receives.
What you do
- Adds themselves as a signer
What you get
You know the other side before using it with anyone.
The situation
It is tested with a real, confidential document.
What you do
- Uses a test document
What you get
Learning compromises nothing.
The situation
It is signed and nobody knows where the result goes.
What you do
- Checks where the signed document is stored
What you get
You know where to look next time.
The situation
The first time is slow and discouraging.
What you do
- Saves the setup that worked
What you get
The second send takes a minute.
This article answers
- how do i send a document for signature
- send a contract for electronic signature
- first time using consigne
- how signing a pdf works