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Preparing signature requests with witnesses
Preparing signature requests with witnesses

Witness signing is typically used in the UK to validate the execution of deeds

Support Team avatar
Written by Support Team
Updated over a week ago

Intro

Ledgy offers eWitness signing via the DocuSign integration.

Please connect Ledgy to your DocuSign account to request witness signing for your documents.

For more details on signing documents via DocuSign, please visit this article.

By default, eWitness does not require the witness to sign on the document directly. If you need the witness to sign the document, you can use signature anchors to request their eSignature.


There are two ways to enable witness signing:

1. On Documents > Templates page, either (i) add a new template or (ii) click on a template in the table and hit ‘edit’ to open the modal.

2. Choose who should sign the template (and if stakeholder involved should be a signatory). Choose whether a witness is required per signer, as well as the signing order. Edits made to the Signature setting level will apply as the default for new requests. This is the best way to prepare for bulk signature requests.

Note: once the invitation has been sent out, it is impossible to edit the signers and the signature type on Ledgy. You can prepare a new request with the automated signature workflow and delete the original signature request and document where necessary.


What happens after sending out the signature requests

  • Once the Signatories have been invited, they will receive an email from DocuSign.

  • By opening the email invitation to DocuSign, a window will pop up where the signatory can define their witness details before they can sign the document.


What will the witness receive

  • The witness will receive an email invitation to sign the document; they typically are asked for their occupation and address

  • The availability and billing details for witness signature depends on your DocuSign subscription


Reviewing the status of the signatures

  • You can track the status of the signature from both signers and witnesses. The stakeholder's signature will only show as fully signed once their witness has also reviewed the document and confirmed their details on DocuSign.

  • E.g. in the image below, Elon Must's witness has yet to review the document.


FAQs:

How can I ask the stakeholder to sign in a certain place on the document?

  • When preparing the document template in Word format, you can add a text anchor.

    • Stakeholder: **Please Sign Here - {stakeholder.name}**.

      Tip: use a light colour for the anchor text, as this will also appear on the document. To prevent the text from showing on the document, use the same colour as the document background.

    • Witness: **Please Sign Here - Witness of {stakeholder.name}**

    • Company Signatory: **Please Sign Here - Company Signatory 1**

      • If there is more than one Company Signatory, you can define each of their anchors through the order in which they are added on Signature Settings.

      • In this case, 'Parker, Peter' would be Company Signatory 1, and 'Rogers, Steve' would be Company Signatory 2.

    • Company Signatory Witness: **Please Sign Here - Witness of Company Signatory 1**

  • When the document has no text anchor, the signer can drag and drop their signature anywhere on the document.

  • For best formatting, we recommend inputting the anchors within a table in the Word document.


Can we define where the signers or witnesses add text fields?

  • Indeed, we allow placing free text anchors for signers and witnesses!

  • The respective anchor text for this is e.g. **Free Text for - Company Signatory 1** (sticking with the example above). Please note that signers or witnesses can place any text into free text anchors, but they are required to enter some text to complete the signing flow.

  • The stakeholder themselves will still have access to the other DocuSign fields such as unlimited text, checkboxes and date stamp.


How can the witness enter their address and occupation onto the document?

  • When enabling eWitness signatures with the DocuSign integration, the named witnesses will be prompted automatically to provide their address and occupation in a pop-up box. This data will be stored on the DocuSign document's metadata.

  • If the witnesses are required to write their name, address and occupation directly on the document, you can use these additional free text anchors for this specific purpose:

    • For the Stakeholder witness:

      • **Name - Witness of {stakeholder.name}**

      • **Address - Witness of {stakeholder.name}**

      • **Occupation - Witness of {stakeholder.name}**

    • For the Company Signatory (the first one in this case):

      • **Name - Witness of Company Signatory 1**

      • **Address - Witness of Company Signatory 1**

      • **Occupation - Witness of Company Signatory 1**

    • For best formatting, we recommend inputting the anchors in a table format and using a light colour/invisible for the anchor text.

      See an example template for signing a Deed with witnesses here:

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