Emboss official company documents electronically to verify their authenticity
Many organizations prefer to stamp their company seal on items such as contracts, ownership certificates, and company resolutions. With the signNow Stamp Field feature, you can easily ensure the authenticity of the corporate documents your business or organization produces.
What exactly is an e-seal?
Conceptually similar to electronic signatures, an electronic seal (stamp) serves as evidence that an electronic document was issued by a specific legal entity. Yet, unlike electronic signatures, electronic seals do not imply any commitment from the signatory over a document’s content — apart from guaranteeing data authenticity and origin. In this regard, the idea behind the electronic seal has more in common with digital signatures rather than e-signatures.
The technical definition of an ‘electronic seal’ refers to any piece of data attached to an electronic document or form in order to ensure its origin and integrity. If you’re finding this complicated, think of an electronic seal as the digital equivalent of the classic company rubber stamp, which certifies and protects your data’s origin and authenticity.
The legal standing of electronic seals
Just like electronic signatures, electronic stamps are regulated by eIDAS, an EU regulation for electronic identification. Compliance with eIDAS ensures that any electronic seal added to a document is uniquely linked to the signatory or person who creates the electronic signature.
Apart from that, an electronic seal must be linked to an original document’s data so that any subsequent change in that data is detectable. This prevents the use of a fake seal that cannot be created without access to the data used for the creation of the digital seal. This data-seal linking is usually achieved via the use of a digital certificate involved in the creation of a digital seal.
Popular use cases covered
So when and why would you or anyone else need to e-stamp a document? Let’s have a closer look.
An e-seal is used to ensure the integrity and origin of sensitive information (financial reports or health information) or to seal automatically generated documents (invoices, payment statements), etc.- An organization wants to mark a contract or agreement with their unique corporate stamp.
- A government agency requires e-stamps to be affixed on documents as part of the authentication process.
- A Hanko Stamp (Japanese stamp) is required on a document instead of an e-signature, or both a Hanko Stamp and electronic signature must be presented simultaneously. In this case, the signer uses the signature field to e-sign the document and uses the stamp field to attach the stamp.
In addition to all that, signNow’s stamp fields present the opportunity to replicate the process of “stamping” a document with your official company seal or mark a document with a custom image stamp such as ‘Approved,’ ‘Rejected,’ ‘Received,’ and so on.
As a sender, you can add a Stamp Field to any of your documents together with other fillable fields and share that document with your intended recipient(s). Finally, you can add a legally-binding company stamp image to a document, convert it into a template, and use it for corporate purposes.
Stamp documents digitally with signNow
To add a new Stamp Field to a document, open it in signNow, click the My Stamp button, and click anywhere on the document.
Add the image of your stamp saved on your device. Use the upload menu to change its contrast, rotate, or rescale it according to your preferences. Once your stamp has been added, use a mouse or trackpad to resize the stamp image or change its position on the page.
To invite another user to stamp your document, open the document in the signNow editor, click the Stamp Field button, and click anywhere on the document to insert a new field.
If necessary, resize the field so that it fits your document’s layout. Set the name for your field, assign it to a specific individual, or specify whether your field is required or conditional.
Summing up
Unlike an electronic signature, where a signer’s direct actions are required, e-seals can be applied both manually and automatically, saving you a lot of time by streamlining daily routine processes.
Use signNow Stamp Fields to increase the volume of data you’re able to process (e-invoices, contract templates to be shared with multiple signers, paychecks, etc.) as well as speed up data collection.
