Paper is out. More and more business relationships are shifting to the digital world. In most cases, the advantages are massive savings in time and labour for all parties.

But when it comes to concluding contracts, many people in the business world are still unsure: Can I sign contracts digitally? Are these signatures legally valid? And what are the specific advantages?

We have summarised the most important information for you.

Signing contracts digitally has massive advantages

These are situations that still occur frequently: A new rental flat or a new job is found online. Initiation, contact and negotiations are conducted entirely digitally or over the phone.

However, to conclude the contract, it says: “Please print out, sign and return.” Often in the original by post. It is not uncommon for people to even be asked to be physically present to sign the contract – still a standard procedure for rental agreements.

This creates a lot of work on both sides, even just for the signing. Afterwards, the paper document has to be scanned in again, entered into the system and archived in a legally compliant manner.

Despite the elaborate measures, you cannot prove the identity of the signatories beyond doubt, for example if a person commits identity theft.

In contrast, concluding a contract completely digitally has many tangible advantages:

  • You reduce any waiting times to a minimum
  • You prevent media disruptions – the entire process can be completely digitalised
  • You reduce costs for printing, sending and archiving documents
  • It eliminates the need for physical presence when concluding contracts, which in turn enables concepts such as the completely digital e-office
  • They make it easy to store all signed documents digitally, find them again and prove their authenticity beyond doubt
  • You can identify all signatories beyond doubt

Read more about the advantages of digital signatures in the linked blog post. The benefits seem clear, but did you know how easy it is to sign contracts digitally?

Signing contracts digitally is easy

Signing contracts electronically is extremely easy with Certifaction, while at the same time ensuring the highest possible level of data protection:

  • Create an account with Certifaction (a free account is initially sufficient for a single document).
  • Now drag and drop the contract you want to sign into the corresponding field.
  • Now add all signatories and select which signature standard should be used. You can also optionally specify other things such as the signing order and the placement of the signature on the page.
  • A request is automatically sent to all invited persons; in the case of a PES and QES, the secure electronic identification of each signatory also follows.
  • Done!
Start immediately with the digital signature for contracts

Depending on the signature type, this process can be completed in less than 1 minute. Even with a qualified eSignature, it usually only takes a few minutes to sign the document.

You can print out the contract afterwards as a digital twin. The added QR code allows you to prove the authenticity of the document and the signatures beyond doubt.

This way, you and all other signatories can sign contracts from anywhere and from any device. There is no longer any media disruption and you can completely avoid travelling to sign in person.

Are digital signatures for contracts legally valid?

Fortunately, the legislators of most countries – including Switzerland and the entire EU – have created excellent framework conditions for digital signatures in recent years. The result:

In principle, electronic signatures are legally valid for almost all conceivable applications – such as contracts – and are equivalent to a handwritten signature.

However, there are sometimes formal requirements for certain types of contract. This means that in these cases you must use a so-called Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) in order to be on the safe side legally.

Here, each signatory is uniquely identified by a special identification service provider. However, the signing process itself remains as simple as described above.

You can find more information on our page on the legal validity of digital signatures.

You can find the special provisions on the electronic signing of rental agreements in detail in the linked article.

More information? Please feel free to contact us!

If you want to save costs and time in the long term and offer your customers, employees or business partners a better user experience, electronic signatures for contracts and other electronic documents are the ideal choice.

Do you have any questions? Then please feel free to contact us! We will take the time to respond to your enquiry.

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