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Electronic signature software offers small business a number of time and cost-saving benefits. If you’ve considered going paperless but haven’t yet made the plunge, here are 6 excellent reasons to start using digital signing today.

Get paid faster

Digital signatures make it easy to close a sale on the spot, turn around contracts faster, and finalize documents that require signatures from multiple parties. Electronic signature software streamlines the generation of invoices, cheques, legal agreements – any paperwork that ink signatures typically hold up. The result is quicker document processing and faster payments.

Direct and indirect cost savings

Switching to electronic signature software means you’ll spend less on paper, ink cartridges, printer maintenance, postage and courier costs. You’ll also save time spent managing paper documents, including tracking them down and filing them. Digital signing software automatically forwards a document from one signee to the next – a huge time saver – and it’s easy to track the status of an e-document as it makes the rounds.

Improve customer service

A recent marketing report showed that 65% of digital growth is from mobile use. That means a very high proportion of your customers and clients do business online via their personal devices. The bottom line: digital signing is what a growing number of your customers expect. Make it easy to sign and you’ll maintain customer loyalty and avoid losing sales because your business is behind the times.

Simple to implement

Digital signing software is easy to use and cost-effective. You can test drive different software with a free trial and when you’re ready to buy, expect to pay as little as AU$50/month for a yearly basic plan. One of the benefits of electronic signature software is that it can seamlessly integrate with other applications. This is so you can use it to sign different kinds of documents in various formats.

Enhanced security

Digitally signed contracts can be more secure than paper documents. Here’s why:

• Documents signed by digital signature are protected with a tamper-evident seal. The originator of a document is automatically notified when there’s been a change.
• An electronic record of the document’s lifecycle serves as evidence of who signed the document and when.
• Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is the highest standard of encryption verification technology. It also identifies an individual by electronic signature and ensures the integrity of each signed document.
• E-documents dramatically reduce the risk of being stolen, damaged, intercepted, lost, destroyed, altered, or read by unwanted eyes.

Legally binding

In many parts of the world, legislation is in place to protect parties who have signed documents via electronic signature. If you work with international clients and customers, be sure to get familiar with the laws around electronic documents everywhere you do business to make sure your digitally signed documents will hold up in court.

Final thoughts

Now that you know the benefits of digital signing, do you still need convincing?

According to the Paperless Project, the average office worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper a year – a staggering number when you consider the global financial and environmental cost.

Why not save time, money, and trees by going digital?