Signatures & sign-offs

When a client or customer has to agree to something in writing - your terms when they send a request, a design before it's built, a contract or statement of work - they can sign in Plan Things Better, with no account. Every signature keeps a record of who signed, when, and exactly what they signed.

#Signing

Wherever someone signs - a form's signature question, or approving a sign-off - they give their full name, then sign:

Type - their name shows as a signature as they type it. This works from the keyboard and a screen reader.
Draw - with a mouse, a finger or a pen, in the box. Clear starts again.

Then they tick the box that says they agree to sign electronically.

Before anything is kept, a 6-digit code goes to their email, and they enter it to confirm the signature is theirs. The code works once, for 10 minutes. Someone signed in to Plan Things Better who fills in a form in the app is confirmed by their account instead. A doc sent for signature can have its code turned off: then their own link is what confirms them.

#What's recorded

Each signature keeps an audit record:

the name they gave and their email, and how it was confirmed (an email code, or their account)
when they signed, to the minute, in UTC
the address the signature came from (IP) and their browser
how they signed (typed or drawn), and the words they agreed to
a fingerprint: the SHA-256 of exactly what they signed, with their name, email and the time in it. Any change to that text gives a different fingerprint, so the record shows what they agreed to even if the form or the task changes later.

#A signature on a form

On a form's Questions tab, Add question → Signature adds one, required to begin with. Put your terms in a Text block above it: what they sign is the whole form as they saw it - its text, headings and their answers.

A form with a signature needs an Email question, for the code. Its responses show each signature, with its record, on the Responses tab, and the task it makes says who signed.

#Asking for a sign-off

On a task or a milestone, choose Request sign-off… from its ••• menu (or right-click its header), or + beside Sign-offs on the page.

What it is - the name they see, the task's or milestone's own to begin with.
What they're signing off - its description, a doc attached to it, or a file in its description (or, on a task, in its comments). What they see is fixed when you send it: a file by the fingerprint of its bytes, a description or doc as it was written then. A later change needs a new round.
Who's signing off - the guests who see it are listed to tick, and anyone else can be added by email.
Note - what they're approving, and what comes after.

Each person gets their own link by email. Asking again on the same task or milestone starts a new round; the earlier ones stay in its history.

#What they see

Their link asks for the code first, then shows what you sent: the text, or the file to look at or download, your note, and the history of earlier rounds. They choose:

Approve - they sign, and get a signed copy by email, as a PDF.
Request changes - they say what should change. On a task, their words arrive as a comment in their name, marked via Sign-off; nobody can edit it, though it can be deleted. On a milestone, they're kept on the sign-off.

Their link stops working if you cancel the round.

#Following a sign-off

Sign-offs on the task or milestone shows each round, newest first, with each person: waiting (and whether they've opened it), approved, or changes asked for. An approved one has its signature and record, and Signed copy (PDF) to download. Cancel the round stops everyone still waiting.

When someone answers, you're told in your Inbox, and Activity records it in their name, via Sign-off (activity.kind:signoff in its query bar).

Sign-offs are seen by the workspace's admins and members who see the task or milestone - never guests - and move with it to another Space.

#The signed copy

A signed copy is a PDF of what was signed, the signature, its audit record and the history. It's emailed to the person who signed, and anyone who sees the task or milestone can download it from Sign-offs. It's made from the record each time, so it always says what the record does.

#Sending a doc for signature

A page doc - a contract, a statement of work, an agreement - can go out for signature and come back as a sealed PDF, kept with its project.

#Where they sign

Type / in the page and pick from Signatures:

Signature - where a signer signs.
Initials - where they initial.
Date signed - filled in with the day they sign.

Each block is for a signer by their number - Signer 1 signs first - and says who that is, as the doc names them ("Ana Ruiz, {client}"). Click a block to change it. Give each signer the same number in all their blocks. A doc with no blocks can still be sent: its signers sign its certificate page.

#Placeholders

Write {client}, {fee} or any word in braces where the doc needs filling in. When you send it, each one gets a box, and its value goes into what's sent - the doc itself keeps the placeholder, so it can be sent again for someone else. {project} is the project's name. The values you give are remembered on the project, so the next doc sent for it starts filled in. A doc made from a template keeps the template's placeholders.

#Sending it

Each plan takes a number of signatures a month per workspace (Free 10, Team 150), one for each signer, counted when their invite is sent. If sending would go over it, you're told and nothing goes out. A signature in a form counts too. See Plans & billing.

Choose Send for signature… from the doc's ••• menu (or right-click its header).

Signers, in order - one row for each signer its blocks ask for: an email, and a name. Pick people from the workspace, or type anyone's email. The arrows change the order.
For project - where the signed doc is kept once everyone has signed.
Placeholders - their values.
Message - a note in their email.
Expires - after a week, two weeks, 30 days or 90 days, or On a date… of your own, up to a year ahead: it's open until the end of that day.
Remind them - every day, every 3 days or every week, until they sign.
Ask for an email code - on to begin with.

Sending locks this version: what everyone signs is the doc's text as it was then, with its placeholders filled in, and its fingerprint (SHA-256) - and each picture and file in it, with a fingerprint of its own. Editing the doc afterwards doesn't change it - its Signatures section says the doc has changed, and Send this version sends a new one. Sending a new version cancels the one still out.

What the doc shows from elsewhere is written in as it was when you sent it, so the signer reads it and the sealed PDF keeps it:

An embedded doc - a page's text, a database's rows (up to 200), JSON, a diagram's Mermaid source, slides, and the words on a whiteboard or a draw.io diagram - headed by its name and key.
A live task list - the tasks it listed that day: key, title, status, assignee and due date (up to 200).
A Mermaid diagram - its source.
An embed from elsewhere (a video, a Figma file) - its link, since it can't be kept.

Each is read as you see it, so a doc you can't open stays out. Later changes to them don't change what's signed.

#Signing it

The first signer gets their link by email. They confirm it's them with a code, read the doc - its pictures, and its files to open from Files in it; their blocks are marked you sign here, with the signatures made before theirs in place - and sign once: their signature, initials and the date go in each of their blocks. Then the next signer is asked. A signer whose turn hasn't come yet is told so.

#The sealed PDF

When the last signer signs, the doc is sealed into a PDF: its text and pictures with every block filled in, its files attached to the PDF, then a certificate page - the files with their fingerprints, each signer, how their email was confirmed, when they signed, the address and browser it came from, the fingerprints, and the history. It's kept in the workspace's files, attached to the project you chose, and emailed to every signer and to you.

Its fingerprint and a seal code are recorded when it's sealed. Anyone can check a copy at planthingsbetter.com/verify - by the code, by dropping in the PDF (only its fingerprint is checked: the file stays on their device), or both. Any change to the file gives a different fingerprint, so a changed copy shows as changed.

#Following it

Signatures at the foot of the doc shows each version sent, newest first: its signers in order - waiting their turn, asked (and whether they've opened it) or signed, with their signature and record - and once everyone has signed, Sealed PDF and the seal code. Cancel stops a version that's still out. Earlier versions fold away.

You're told in your Inbox as each signer signs, and when everyone has. Activity records it being sent, each signer signing (in their name, via Signing), and how it ended - signed by everyone, expired or canceled (activity.kind:signing).

A doc's signatures are seen by the workspace's admins and members who see the doc, and move with it to another Space. A guest sees the docs sent to them on their Space's overview.