Choosing the Right Salesforce eSignature Tool

It’s fair to say that eSignatures are at the heart of digital documents and services. Without the ability to sign and process a document electronically, remotely, and – above all – securely, organizations would be unable to succeed in today’s hybrid work environment.

Choosing the right tool for your documentation and eSigning needs is pivotal in your digital transformation. In this article, we give you top tips for how to choose the right solution, and we’ll also explore some useful Salesforce electronic signature use cases. Join us on this journey toward the holy grail of digitization. Let’s dive in!

A World of Possibilities With Salesforce eSignatures

Integrating your signing processes with Salesforce is one of the best decisions you will ever make. Using Salesforce to store all your business knowledge on customers, products, and opportunities (and conducting signing processes from there) gives you a single source of truth. This means you don’t have to sync your data to another system.

Even though Salesforce is a powerful tool, it does not have an out-of-the-box option for initiating and triggering signing processes. This means you need to find another solution, one that integrates seamlessly with Salesforce, if you want to get all the data-driven power of the leading CRM without having to use custom development.

So, where do you start and what should be your checklist when choosing the right Salesforce eSignature tool? Below, we outline the minimum requirements.

1. Initiate the signing process from anywhere on anything

We kick off with the first and most important step of triggering the signing process. You need to make sure your chosen tool has the following options:

• It can be triggered from any custom or standard object.
• It can be seamlessly integrated with Salesforce Flow. This enables you to automatically trigger your signing process from within a flow without any human interface.
• The signing component must have the capability of being embedded within any Salesforce asset, for example, record pages, list views, app pages, Experience Cloud, and the Salesforce mobile app. This will allow the most flexibility in your implementation – notice the list view option, which will allow you to select multiple records and trigger a signing process to all records with just one click!

2. Work with any dynamic template or document you like

Having the flexibility to initiate a signing process on different types of documents is a must-have option. Any candidate you are considering must provide the following functionalities:

• The power to pre-configure dynamic templates that, in turn, will be generated in real time with data coming directly from Salesforce. You should then be able to start a signing process on top of the generated document.
• The ability to upload a document from your local device and start the signing process on top of that document.
• The ability to choose any file saved in Salesforce and start the signing process from there.

Having all of the above options in a Salesforce Electronic Signature tool will take your signing processes to the next level!

3. A dynamic number of signers

You can never know in advance the exact number of signers you will need per document. A quick example is when you send a contract for an opportunity, and based on the opportunity amount, you would like to determine the number of signers. For instance, if the opportunity amount is greater than $1 million, you might need four signers. Whereas, if the opportunity amount is less than $1 million, you would only need two signers.

Although this is a very simple example, it provides insight into how robust and flexible your signing tool needs to be. A quality tool will give you the option to create business rules to decide on the number of signers, and these business rules will get fed by Salesforce data coming in real time.

4. Determine the identity of your signers in real time

Now that we have discussed the need for a dynamic number of signers, let’s discuss the identity of your signers.

Following our previous example, on some occasions, you might want the first signer to be the Account Manager of the prospect, while on others, it might make more sense for the first signer to be the CFO of the company. The most important thing to be aware of is that a successful Salesforce eSignature solution will give you the option to set business logic to determine the identity of the signer based on your Salesforce data.

So, be sure to include this option on your checklist! Once you have established the identity of your signers, you will need to secure your documents.

5. Secure your documents

It is essential, no matter the nature of your organization, that your confidential contracts, proposals, and documents are 100% secure and cannot be viewed by just anybody.

It is up to you to make sure you choose a signing tool with the option to add a 2-factor authentication mechanism or single sign-on (SSO) layer to identify your signee on top of the document – this will prevent unwanted readers.

If your tool has the ability to use facial recognition for the signers, this is a huge bonus point for several business verticals, so be sure to ask about this capability!

It is also a good idea to choose a signing solution that is compliant with HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). This assures your clients that any private data you collect from them will remain protected and secure. Even though HIPAA is designed for the health industry and the USA market, it is fast becoming the platinum standard of data security. So, to ensure maximum security and foster a sense of trust in your organization, don’t choose a tool that is not HIPAA compliant.

6. Track your signing processes in Salesforce

The ability to fully track the signing process is a necessary capability of any good signing tool. Furthermore, being able to track the signing lifecycle directly from Salesforce is a huge advantage. This means your users don’t need to log in to other systems to find out where their contract is stuck or who is currently waiting to sign their proposal.

Tracking your signing in Salesforce gives every user full visibility according to their individual permissions. Similarly, the ability to void a document or even send a notification to the signer is something that your chosen signing system needs to be able to do quickly and efficiently. For managers and admins, having a full view of all signing processes (that are active right now) is a big plus and will help your entire organization be much more productive and efficient.

7. Integrate the post-signing processes with your Salesforce

When selecting the signing tool that’s right for your business, it is important to keep the post-signing process in mind. Ideally, you should use a tool that updates Salesforce records with data coming from the document or input fields once signing is completed. With this line of thought, you should be able to initiate Salesforce flows after the signing process is completed or rejected to seamlessly continue the business process without any delays.

8. Leverage conditional logic throughout the signing process

The ability to add conditional logic on top of your interactive signatures and fields is a must. This opens up new opportunities for business processes that can be performed using your signing tool. This is because conditional logic gives you the power to change required fields, show/hide elements, and provide a more interactive experience for the customer.

For example, when a contract is being signed, you can provide users with the option of whether or not they want to receive a copy of the document via email. If they select yes, a field will display asking them to fill in their email ID, but if they select no, this conditional field will not show. With conditional logic, the document itself doesn’t change, but you get the ability to add an interactive layer.

9. Save your signed documents in Salesforce

Once the signing process is complete, you must have your signed document saved in Salesforce for future reference. Managing your document outside Salesforce will require your users to learn another system and to log in to multiple systems, which is always a disadvantage. Managing all your documents and data in one convenient and secure location is a plus.

In the event that you have a large number of documents and you choose to save them in a storage service like Google Drive, SharePoint, OneDrive, or DropBox, you should make sure the system allows for native integration with Salesforce. It is vital that your storage service will still keep a connection between the saved location of the document and the record in Salesforce. This means your users will be able to get to the file with one click rather than waste time and energy trying to find it manually.

Top 5 Most Popular Use Cases for Salesforce Electronic Signatures

Now that we have taken a look at some of the requirements you need to consider when choosing a Salesforce eSignature tool, let’s explore some use cases. Electronic signing, or eSigning, has become increasingly popular in business processes due to its convenience, efficiency, and security. While there are countless examples of how you can utilize it, here are five top use cases, which are also core processes in Salesforce:

1. Seamless contracts and agreements

Contracts and agreements are central to many business processes. From lease agreements to contracts for new employees, vendor agreements, NDAs, and even partnership contracts. You need these documents to move your business processes along and ensure that you are aligned with all stakeholders.

eSignatures are widely used for signing contracts and agreements, whether it’s between businesses or with clients. They streamline the process, reduce paperwork, and accelerate turnaround time. All in all, this is a far more convenient process for all parties involved and it frees up your organization to focus on the strategic tasks and initiatives that really matter.

2. Fast and accurate financial and legal documents

The financial and legal industries are both synonymous with heavy paperwork and administrative chores. eSignatures are ideal for financial and legal documents such as NDAs, loan agreements, mortgage applications, insurance policies, and legal disclosures.

Using eSigning solutions via the Salesforce Financial Services Cloud ensures the authenticity and integrity of these critical documents while enabling faster completion and reducing administrative burden. Ultimately, client experience is enhanced while financial and legal institutions can fast-track paperwork in bulk – all while you rest easy that all data is secure.

3. Streamline your compliance and regulatory documents

Ensuring compliance with relevant regulatory standards builds trust in your organization and also gives you the credentials to court and win top clients. A wide variety of industries require compliance with leading regulations and standards, and this inevitably involves the signing of documents.

Electronic signatures provide a secure and fully auditable trail for compliance-related paperwork. This includes consent forms, privacy agreements, regulatory filings, and certifications.

4. Enhance the approval and authorization process

Approvals and authorizations can take many shapes and forms, such as needing sign-off from the finance department for budget requests, change requests to your existing product or system, and permission from legally recognized bodies to obtain a specific license or permit.

Salesforce Electronic Signatures can simplify any approval or authorization process you can dream of within your organization. The big benefit of using eSignatures is that they empower teams to collaborate seamlessly, leadership to make important decisions in real time, and – perhaps most importantly – they ensure there is a reliable and secure audit trail.

5. Salesforce electronic signatures for any client and customer form

Of course, eSignatures boost customer and client experiences by facilitating the digital signing of almost any form or document you can think of. These can be loan applications, onboarding forms, client service agreements, and data consent forms. No matter the specific industry or use case, Salesforce Electronic Signatures empower customers and clients to ditch messy paperwork, embrace digitization, and spend their time on projects and tasks that matter most.

Any transaction or business process can be made faster and more efficient when eSignatures are used to sign your forms and documents online.

How do Titan’s eSignatures for Salesforce Work?

Titan Sign is a market leader in eSigning solutions for Salesforce. This no-code tool works with multi-patented bi-directional Salesforce integration to streamline your signing processes from end to end. Initiate and build signing processes, create eSignatures, track multiple and dynamic signees, automate your business processes, and track every step of your documentation.

So, what are Titan Sign’s stand-out features and what makes it a solid Salesforce Electronic Signature tool? Here’s what you can expect:

• It’s fully secured to protect your data! Choose whether you want to use eSignatures or digital signatures. Protect your document with 2-factor authentication and enhance security with facial recognition of the signee.
• You can reduce the number of templates by leveraging Titan’s dynamic signee functionality and allowing the system to determine (according to business logic) the identity and quantity of the signers in real time.
• Automate your signing processes with Salesforce flows. Titan Sign is 100% built for Salesforce and allows you to take advantage of any Salesforce automation tool.
• Track the progress of your document in real time directly within Salesforce. You can allow management’s view with our out-of-the-box dashboards and reports.
• You can update Salesforce records with data collected throughout the signing process and you have the ability to launch any post-sign process in Salesforce.

Final Thoughts

eSignatures are crucial to any business process and form a big part of digital transformation. Choosing a solution that integrates with Salesforce has numerous advantages, but given that Salesforce does not have an out-of-the-box signing solution, there is a strong case to be made for choosing a third-party tool to meet your organization’s eSignature needs. The top requirements for choosing a Salesforce Electronic Signature tool include flexibility, as well as the ability to cater to multiple use cases without the need to write a single line of code.

At the end of the day, it’s up to you to choose the signing solution that’s right for your organization. If you find a tool that empowers you to track your signing processes within Salesforce, trigger your signing from anywhere and any object in Salesforce, work with dynamic signers, and make use of flexible business rules, then you are definitely on the right track!