Digital Signatures Solution - eSign

eSign logo

eSign automates and streamlines the document signing process for contracts and internal forms for all Pepperdine faculty and staff. What has traditionally taken days and sometimes weeks to get a document signed has now been reduced to minutes.

Log on at: esign.pepperdine.edu

Benefits

Legally and securely send documents for signatures online as easy as sending an email
Conveniently sign documents using any web browser or device, anywhere and anytime
Easily track document status and send reminders to signees online

Are Digital Signatures Legal?

Yes. A digital signature is the same as a wet signature in accordance to the California Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (codified at California Civil Code secs. 1633.1 - 1633.17) and the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (15 U.S.C. 7001 - 7006).

Working with eSign

How to configure a PDF for use with eSign

Open Adobe Acrobat
Open the Tools panel in the top left corner of the screen.
Scroll down to the "Forms & Signatures" section and select Prepare Form.
Click "Select a file" to open the pdf file from your computer that will become the form to be sent and signed.
Once a file has been selected, click the "Start" button.
1. Adobe Acrobat will attempt to find all the form fields that need to be entered for you. You will still need to update/modify fields before you are finished.
In the right side pop-out panel, select "More" and "Convert to Adobe Sign Form".
Add any fields that need to be entered into the form (like printed names, dates, or additional form details) by selecting the "Add a Text field" icon in the task bar at the top of the form. Learn more about creating and editing forms in the "Creating and Editing Forms" in the Acrobat XI: Creating Forms course.
1. Move your mouse to the spot you'd like the box to appear and use a single mouse click to insert the box.
2. Edit the title for the field in the pop-up editor that appears. Note: Assigning signees will occur in later steps. You only need to edit "Field Names" in this step.
Review the auto detected fields and edit/modify/delete all fields names or properties as needed.
1. Double left click or Right Click on each field to open the properties and update the field name.
OPTIONAL: If you need to add a new signature box in a spot not already identified by the auto-detection tool that processed the file when you first opened it with the "Prepare Forms" tool (Step 5a), select the "Add a Signature field" icon from the task bar.
Convert any auto-detected signature lines from standard text boxes into signature boxes by double clicking on the text box to open the properties and change the Field Type from "Text" to "Signature".
For each signature field or text field that requires a specific signer to complete, update the "Participant Role" to Signer 1-6. This should be setup to match the order you will want signatures to be collected in eSign. (e.g. Employee Signature - Signer 1, Supervisor - Signer 2, Dean/Department Head - Signer 3, VP/Provost - Signer 4) Note: Do not enter Signer email address. Email addresses will be identified before it is sent out using eSign.
Repeat Step 11 for each signature or text field in the form that requires a specific order of completion.
Save your document.

How to Send a Single Form Out for Signatures with eSign

In a web browser, go to esign.pepperdine.edu and select "Click to log in to eSign".
Log in using your Pepperdine credentials (NetworkID and Password).
Click "Send Document".
Complete the Send Document form for a Single Send.
1. Select "Single" from the "Send Mode" options box. (Bulk Send is used when the user wants to send the same document out to multiple different people to sign. It allows the sender to do a single send process multiple times for the same document. See additional information on "Bulk" sends in the eSign FAQ.)
2. In the File Storage Method dropdown, choose "Accellion". **Only select "Etrieve" if you have received prior instruction on this process and Application Management has created the correct workflows for this to function properly.**
3. Inside the "Upload File" field, click "Choose File". This will open the file viewer on your local computer. Find your PDF form that was configured using Adobe Acrobat (Instructions can be found on this webpage), select the pdf form, and click "Open" in your file viewer to upload the file to eSign to send out for signatures.
4. In the "Recipients" field, enter the email addresses in the order of each person that will need to sign the document (signer1, signer2, signer3). Separate each email address with a comma and a single space. The final signature, is considered the "Approver" and is added in the "Final eSign Approver" field.
5. Use the "Optional note to all recipients" field to share information with recipients.
6. In the "Final eSign Approver" field, enter the email address of the final signature required for this document.
7. The "Optional CC" field allows you to send a notification to the selected email address that the form has been sent out for signatures.
8. Click "Send out for Signatures".
The document will be delivered to all the indicated email addresses for signature.

How to Sign a Document with eSign

The first signer will receive an email from Pepperdine University eSign Portal echosign@pepperdine.edu. Be sure to check the SPAM filter if notifications are not being received as expected. Note the name of the document, along with the list of recipients.
1. Click the blue "Review and Sign" button to open and sign.
Read the document in full to confirm that you should complete the form as requested and provide your legally binding signature.
Click the yellow "Next" button to fill out the next requested fields.  
When you reach your signature field, select "Click here to sign" to open up the signature window.
Select how you would like to enter your signature.
1. To type your signature, click on the "Type your signature here" section and enter your signature using your keyboard. The entered characters will be stylized to look like a written signature.
2.   To draw your signature, using your mouse or touch-screen to draw your signature in the area marked "Sign Here". Then enter your name using your keyboard in the "Enter your name" field in the bottom left corner of the signature window.
Select "Apply" to add your signature to the document.
Review all of the entered fields in the document for accuracy.
Once all of the requested fields have been entered and your signature has been added, select the "Click to Sign" button at the bottom right corner of the browser window to complete your portion of the form.
Once the document finishes processing, you can close the browser tab.
If you are the "Approver", or final signature, on the document as assigned by the person that sent the document out for signatures, the process will mostly be the same. You will "approve" the document with your signature rather than just signing the document.
Once all the recipients have signed the document and the Approver has approved, the person that sent the document out for signatures will receive an email with a link to download the completed document through Accellion, as selected in the send process.

How to Navigate eSign

In a web browser, go to esign.pepperdine.edu and select "Click to log in to eSign".
Log in using your Pepperdine credentials (NetworkID and Password).
This is the eSign Homepage.
This is the eSign Homepage
1. The "PEPPERDINE" wordmark takes you to www.pepperdine.edu
2. The "eSign Portal" and the Home icon take you to the eSign Homepage.
3. The FAQ link takes you to the eSign Frequently Asked Question webpage.
4. The User dropdown option allows you to Create Template for sending a document out for signature, Edit Template that has previously been created, Logout from eSign, or Submit an Error Report to our Application Development team regarding eSign. 
Create a new send or search for existing sent documents. 
1. Create a new request for signatures by selecting "Send Document" and following these directions.
2. Creation and modification of templates is restricted to certain user roles. To gain access to Template creation tools, please email appmgmt@pepperdine.edu.
3. Enter text to search for in progress or completed documents sent out for signature.
4. Change the search criteria by clicking the blue "NAME" or "RECIPIENT" button and selecting "Document Name" or "Recipient Name". 
5. To complete the search, click the blue "Search" button or hit the return key on your keyboard. Search results will appear in the document history section below.
Choose how you would like documents to be displayed using the "Sort Documents By" window. 
1. Change the document sort criteria by clicking the blue "DATE" or "NAME" button and selecting "Date" or "Name". 
2. Sort your documents based on the Date or Name criteria in Ascending or Descending order. The option highlighted in orange is the active sort option.
3. Select the "Export to Excel" button to start a Microsoft Excel file download of all your past and current requests for signature. Excel doc will be called "eSignOutput.xlsx".
Review your current and past documents sent out for signature as well as any documents requiring your signature.
1. View your existing documents by "Waiting For Me To Sign", "Out For Approval", "Out For Signatures", "Signed", and "Canceled/Declined".
  The number of docs in a section is displayed with the title (e.g. Waiting for me to sign (2)).
2. In each section, you can view each document's Display Name, Created Date, and Recipients.
3. Click the Display name for the document to open the document viewer and download the document in its current state from the document viewer.
4. Click the blue button under "Recipients" to view all recipients in the signature chain.
5. In "Waiting For Me To Sign," click the pencil icon to open the document and complete the signature process. 
6. In "Out For Approval" and "Out For Signatures," select the bell icon to Send a Reminder or the X icon to Cancel the request for signatures. The reminder is sent to the current recipient that needs to sign the document .
If a document is waiting for signatures for 30 days, it will automatically be cancelled and the entire process must be started over.