Electronic signature: get your contracts signed online
An electronic signature lets you have a contract, quote or mandate signed remotely, without printing or scanning. For a Belgian SME, it shortens the sales cycle and cuts email back-and-forth. Still, you need the right security level and a tool that keeps a reliable audit trail.
The three eIDAS levels of electronic signature
The European eIDAS regulation distinguishes three levels. First, the simple electronic signature: a click or a ticked box after email identification, which covers most everyday B2B uses. Second, the advanced electronic signature, uniquely linked to the signer and able to detect any later change. Finally, the qualified electronic signature relies on a qualified certificate and has the same legal effect as a handwritten one. In Belgium, itsme notably supports this qualified level.
The right level depends on the risk. For example, an NDA sent to a prospect or specific terms that a regular customer accepts usually only need the simple level. However, regulated sectors or high-stakes documents justify a higher one. In every case, keep solid evidence: a timestamp, the signer's identity and a document that stays frozen after the electronic signature. Therefore, clarify the required level before you choose a tool.
Rolling out electronic signature in your company
An effective tool goes beyond a Sign button. It starts from reusable templates (NDA, mandate, specific terms, partnership agreement) and fills in variables automatically: customer name, enterprise number, amount and date. Moreover, it manages internal roles, from drafter to approver, before anything reaches the customer. The signer then receives an email in their language, French, Dutch or English, with a unique link. As a result, nobody retypes the same information twice.
Think about reminders too: without them, a contract can sit in an inbox for weeks. Clear reminders also spare you awkward follow-up calls. Finally, once both parties have signed, the tool should send the PDF back to each of them and archive it immutably, for instance with a hash that guarantees its integrity. Also make sure your team can easily find every contract and its history.
Our electronic signature article and when to call on us
Our article on electronic contracts details a complete flow: versioned multilingual templates, the TipTap editor, PDF generation with header, page numbers and a signing area, automatic reminders on day 3 and day 7, and archiving of the signed document. It also presents permissions (reader, editor, approver, sender) and concrete use cases, from an NDA sent right after the first call to a mandate signed before work starts. You will also see why the PDF stays unchanged once signed.
Call in a professional if you want to connect electronic signature to your CRM, quoting tool or client platform. The Espero-Soft team develops custom web platforms and automations, so that your contracts go out, come back signed and land in your archive without re-keying. We also help you define your templates and approval circuits. Before our first meeting, list the documents you sign most often and who approves them internally.
