Electronic Signatures Save Time & Money

Many businesses require signatures on printed documents. These documents are first printed then sent out to customers for signing. The customer  must then return the signed documents to the business, and the business has to store them. This is a laborious time-consuming process.

DocuSign is an online service that allows businesses to send documents to their customers to be signed electronically. It is fast and secure. The DocuSign service now claims more than 200 million users. It saves time getting documents signed as well as saving a lot of paper (and trees) by not having to print documents.

This solution allows Dynamics NAV users to send a Sales Quote, or Sales Contract, through the DocuSign service for electronic signature.

Fenwick Software has written a Dynamics NAV solution that interfaces to the DocuSign service using its API. This solution allows NAV users to send a Sales Quote, or Sales Contract, as a secured ‘envelope’, to the DocuSign service. DocuSign will then forward the envelope to an approver to be approved (if required) then to the signatory. The customer can then log into the DocuSign web site to electronically sign the document. Once the document is signed, an e-mail is sent to all parties with the document attached. DocuSign will store a copy of the document on its servers where anyone involved can securely log in and view it. There will also be an electronic trail of the document as it passes through the DocuSign service through all stages of its journey from creation, to approval, to signing. The solution also provides a job which will periodically request updates from DocuSign on the status of documents sent for signing.

Currently, the Fenwick solution works for the enwis) Waste Management system sales quote and contract, but it can be changed for other areas in NAV that produce a document that needs to be signed. This solution also allows for other PDF documents to be appended (e.g. Terms and Conditions) to the NAV report to be signed. These documents can be added dynamically via the Links option on the Sales Quote or Contract.

A subscription to DocuSign is required for the creation of the DocuSign ‘envelopes’. But the customers who sign the document do not need a subscription to DocuSign.

Fenwick Software’s experience is that its clients want to improve authorisation security, speed up the approval process, and remove the costs of paper based authorisation.