Electronic signature for small and medium-sized businesses

The electronic signature is a reliable, practical and fast solution, which allows you to improve your productivity. Indeed, purchase orders, invoices or employment contracts are signed in just a few clicks. It is therefore a particularly effective way of dematerialising your contractual relations with your employees and customers. In addition to the considerable savings in time and money, let’s find out what other advantages there are to adopting an electronic signature solution for small and medium-sized businesses.

What is an electronic signature ?

The electronic signature is a process that allows you to sign all types of documents remotely, electronically, as its name suggests, by recording the data they contain and giving them probative value. This is provided that the electronic signature solution chosen is reliable and secure. The purpose of the digital signature is therefore to enable the exchange of legally valid documents, thus guaranteeing the integrity and authenticity of these contents as well as the identity of the signatory or signatories. It is therefore likely that the use of electronic signatures in small and medium-sized businesses would be a real advantage, if not a necessity, since the digital transformation of businesses has accelerated with the pandemic.

The value of the electronic signature

The value of the electronic signature is similar to its handwritten counterpart. This has been true in France since the Act of 13 March 2000, which stipulates that an online signature commits the signatory in the same way as on paper. This is also the case in all European Union member states, the article in French law being a transcription of the requirements of the eIDAS regulation. For the conditions to be met, it is therefore necessary to use an electronic signature solution that relies on the signatory first obtaining an electronic certificate with a variable security level. This is why we also speak of a “certified electronic signature”.

What are the applications of electronic signatures ?

Thanks to an electronic signature device, it is possible to sign any digital document online :

• Deeds and contracts of any kind: sales contracts, service contracts, employment contracts, etc.
• Invoices and estimates
• Financial statements and company documents
• Registration forms for public registers
• Communications with the public administration, administrative procedures
• Emails, minutes, reports
• Purchase orders
• Delivery notes etc.

More specifically, this process can be used to facilitate online administrative procedures and remote exchanges. Auditors, administrators, board members or managers of very small companies or small businesses can use electronic signatures to sign minutes, resolutions, financial statements, reports or explanatory notes. As you can see, electronic signature has many benefits.

Regardless of your company size or industry sector, there are many benefits to using a secure and intuitive electronic signature solution.