Using bSign

Getting started

Sign in

Go to the bSign app (Sign in at the top of this page, or your organization's own bSign address) and sign in with your email and password. If your organization uses Microsoft 365 or Google sign-in, you can use that instead.

Protect your account

Click your name at the top right, then Profile. There you can set up two-step verification with an authenticator app, and connect Microsoft or Google sign-in. Keep the recovery codes you're given somewhere safe.

Save your signature

Go to Settings, My signature. Draw, type or upload your signature and initials once, and bSign offers them whenever you sign.

Find your way around

• Dashboard: what needs your attention, and your recent documents.
• Documents: all your documents, in folders.
• Templates and Contacts.
• Signing: Awaiting me (documents you need to sign), In progress, Completed, Drafts, Declined and Expired.
• Settings: your signature, preferences, cloud storage and, for administrators, the site's settings.

Send a document for signature

1. Click New document, then Request signatures.
2. Add the file: a PDF, a Word document (.docx) or an image, from your computer or from a connected OneDrive or Google Drive.
3. Give it a title, and add the recipients: pick people from your contacts or type a new name and email address. Each recipient is a signer, an approver (approves without signing) or a viewer (only views).
4. Choose the options you need: Send in order (each person gets it after the one before has finished), an Expiry date, and an Auto reminder for people who haven't finished.
5. Place the fields for each recipient on the pages: signature, initials, name, date, text, checkboxes, dropdowns, images and more. Each recipient's fields have their own colour.
6. Click Send. Each recipient gets an email with a link to sign.

You can also save a document as a draft and send it later; it waits in Drafts.

Sign it yourself

For a document only you need to sign: click New document, Sign yourself, add the file, place your fields and click Finish. The signed copy and its certificate are in Completed.

Signing a document you received

1. Open the link in the email. If the sender's site asks for it, enter the code bSign emails you.
2. Follow the Next button through each field that's yours, and sign where you're asked.
3. Click Finish. You'll get an email when everyone has signed.

If you shouldn't sign it, click Decline and say why; the sender is told. Signing works on phones and tablets, and doesn't need an account.

To have someone sign in front of you, for example at a front desk, use Sign in person on the document.

After you send

Documents waiting for signatures are in In progress. Click a row to select it (shift-click selects several), or use the menu at the end of the row:

• History: who opened, signed or declined it, and when.
• Resend: send the email again to someone who hasn't signed.
• Change recipient: send it to someone else instead.
• Extend expiry date: give people more time.
• Correct (or Fix & resend): change the document or its fields and send it again.
• Revoke: cancel the document, so nobody can sign it any more.

Finished documents

When everyone has signed, the document moves to Completed and everyone involved is told. Each finished document has a certificate of completion: who signed, when, from where, and its full history. The signed PDF is sealed with a digital certificate, so any later change can be detected.

• Download the signed PDF and its certificate, or select several documents and download them together as one .zip file.
• Save to OneDrive or Google Drive, one by one or several at once, or have every finished document saved there automatically (see below).
• To check a signed PDF someone sends you, click your name, then Verify document, and choose the file.

Templates, bulk send and public links

For documents you send often, make a template once: New document, Create template. Add the file and place the fields for each role (for example "Client" and "Manager") instead of for named people.

• Use or Quick send a template: fill in who plays each role, and send.
• Bulk send: send the same template to many people at once, from a list or a CSV file.
• Public link: a link anyone can open to fill in and sign the template, for example on your website. Each person who uses it gets their own document.
• Share with team or with a colleague, and Duplicate a template to make a variation.

You can also turn a document you've sent into a template with Save as template.

Contacts

People you send to are saved in Contacts, and bSign suggests them as you type. You can add them yourself (Add contact), import a CSV file, or sync them from Microsoft 365 or Google.

Sync contacts from Microsoft 365 or Google

1. In Contacts, click Sync, then Connect next to Microsoft 365 or Google.
2. Sign in and allow bSign to read your contacts. Your contacts come in straight away.
3. Press Sync any time to bring in what changed.

The Source column shows where each contact came from: bSign, Microsoft 365 or Google. Synced contacts are changed in Outlook or Google Contacts, then synced; bSign never changes your Microsoft or Google contacts. If you delete a synced contact in bSign, it stays deleted.

If Microsoft says "Need admin approval", your organization's Microsoft 365 administrator needs to approve bSign once for everyone. The Sync window and Settings, Cloud storage have an I'm the admin: approve button, and a Copy link for my admin button to send them.

OneDrive and Google Drive

Go to Settings, Cloud storage and connect your OneDrive (with the SharePoint and Teams libraries you can open) or Google Drive. Then you can:

• start a document from a file there;
• save signed documents and certificates there, into a folder you choose;
• turn on Save completed documents to have every finished document saved there automatically.

Connecting can also sync your contacts; untick the box before connecting if you don't want that. You can disconnect at any time.

For administrators

Administrators of a bSign site see more under Settings:

• Users: invite people, choose their role, turn off access, and reset someone's two-step verification.
• Signing groups: send a document to a group (for example, Accounts payable); whichever member opens it first signs for the group, and the others are told it's done.
• Branding: your logo and colours on the app, signing pages and emails.
• Privacy: Send links only (emails carry a link and a one-time code, never the document) and Keep finished documents (how long finished documents are kept before they're deleted for good).
• Access log: every time someone opened, downloaded or printed a document or its certificate.
• Billing: your plan and your documents this month.
• API & webhooks: an API token for your own systems, and webhooks that tell them when documents are viewed, signed or completed.

IT providers who manage bSign for several clients get a Client sites page to create and manage each client's site.

Common questions

Are electronic signatures legally binding?

For most documents, yes: in Canada, the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom. Some documents need a handwritten signature or a witness; check with your adviser if you're not sure.

Someone didn't get the email.

Ask them to check their junk or spam folder, then use Resend. Check the email address in History; if it's wrong, use Change recipient.

The link says the document has expired.

Ask the sender to use Extend expiry date; the same link works again.

Which files can I send?

PDF files, Word documents (.docx) and images (PNG and JPEG). Word documents and images are turned into PDFs.

Which languages does bSign speak?

English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Hindi and Korean. Everyone can choose their own language.

Where is my data stored?

In Canada. See our privacy policy for the details.

Getting help

Email support@binarium.ca. A real person at Binarium answers, usually within one business day. If you received a document to sign and have a question about it, ask the person who sent it.