E-Signatures

Signers sign through a link of their own, and each completed request keeps a signed PDF and a certificate of completion.

A signer opens the link in their email, completes their fields and selects Finish signing, without a Magpie account. When the last signer finishes, Magpie writes the values into the PDF and makes a certificate of completion: who signed, when, from which IP address and browser, and the SHA-256 of the files. The request's activity list records each event as it happens.

Get started free

What a signer does

A request shared in a client's Client Portal can also be signed from the portal, where it is listed under For you to do.

  1. Open the link

    The email has a Review and sign button. The link is that signer's own: anyone with it can open the document, so the email asks them not to forward it. If you set an access code, the signer enters it first.

  2. Complete their fields

    The signer's fields are highlighted, a count shows how many required fields are left, and Next field moves to the next one. A signature is drawn with a mouse, finger or stylus, or typed, then adopted for each of their signature fields.

  3. Finish signing

    Selecting Finish signing confirms that the signer intends to sign the document electronically. Their email address, the time, their IP address and their browser are recorded with the signature.

  4. Or decline

    Decline, with an optional reason, stops the request for everyone, and you are told.

The files when everyone has signed

When the last signer finishes, every signer is emailed a link to download the signed PDF and the certificate, and you are emailed too. The request page has a download for each file.

Signed PDF
The original file byte for byte, with the values added after it as an incremental update, so the document's own text is not changed.
Certificate of completion
A separate PDF that records the signing, described below.
Original PDF
The file as it was uploaded.
All three as a ZIP file
The signed PDF, the certificate and the original in one download.
Text signers type
Printed in a font that covers Latin, Greek and Cyrillic characters. Characters outside those scripts may not print correctly in the signed PDF.

What the certificate records

SHA-256 is a fingerprint of a file's exact bytes: a copy of the signed PDF whose SHA-256 matches the one on the certificate is the same file. Times on the certificate are UTC.

The document
Its title, request ID, original file name and page count, who sent it and when, when it was completed, and the SHA-256 of the original and of the signed PDF.
Each signer
Name and role, email address, signing time, IP address and browser, how they were verified (the email link, or the email link and an access code), and the consent statement they accepted, with its version.
The activity
Every event on the request, with its time, and the IP address where one was recorded.

The activity list

The request page's activity list records each event when it happens, and events are not changed afterwards.

Sending
Request created, Request sent, Signer invited, Email sent or Email not sent, and Reminder sent.
Opening and signing
Document viewed, Access code entered, Wrong access code entered, Signature adopted, Initials adopted and Document signed.
Changes
Signer changed, Expiration extended, Declined to sign, Request expired, and Request voided with the reason given.
Completion
Request completed, and Completed document downloaded.

Legal effect and identity

Electronic signatures can have legal effect depending on the jurisdiction and the circumstances. Magpie verifies a signer by their email link, and by an access code when you set one; it does not provide notarization or identity verification beyond those checks.

The record of the signing is the certificate of completion. Magpie does not add a certificate-based digital signature to the PDF itself.

A signing link holds a random code, and Magpie stores only its SHA-256, so the stored copy cannot be used to open a document.

Keeping and deleting the files

The files stay on the request page until the request is deleted. Delete, in the request's More menu, removes it from E-Signatures: its signed PDF and certificate are deleted, and its original is deleted when no other request or starter uses it. Download the files you need first. Copies in server backups are not removed when you delete a request.

A request that is waiting for signatures has to be voided before it can be deleted.

Send a document to sign.

Create a Magpie account, open E-Signatures and upload a PDF.

Create account