Start small, but start
Most small teams do not move to e-signatures in one go. They start with one painful document, see it work, and then move the rest. That is a good approach. This checklist walks you through the switch in a sensible order. You can do the first document in an afternoon and the rest over a few weeks.
1. List the documents you sign today
Spend half an hour making a simple list. For each document, note who sends it, who signs it, how often, and what happens to it afterwards. Common entries for a small business include offer letters, contractor agreements, NDAs, client contracts, quotes, purchase orders, consent forms, leases and policy acknowledgements.
Mark the ones that cause the most trouble today. That might be the document you send most often, the one that always gets lost, or the one that delays revenue because clients take a week to print, sign and scan it.
2. Check which documents can be signed electronically
Most business documents can be signed electronically in Canada, the United States and the EU. A few cannot, or need extra steps. Wills, certain powers of attorney, some land transfer documents, negotiable instruments and some family law documents often need paper, witnesses or a notary, depending on where you are.
Go through your list and flag anything in those categories. Keep those on paper for now and ask a lawyer if you are not sure. Everything else can move.
3. Pick your first document
Choose one document that is high volume and low risk. An NDA, a contractor agreement or a policy acknowledgement is ideal. Avoid starting with your most complex contract.
Set it up as a template in eSora Sign. Upload the file, add roles such as Client or Employee, place the fields, and add variables for the details that change each time. Send it to yourself and a colleague first.
4. Choose sensible defaults
Before more people start sending, set workspace defaults so everyone starts in the same place. Admins can do this in Settings.
Identity check: email code for most documents. Turn on SMS or access code for specific templates that need more.
Reminders: first after 2 days, repeat every 4 days, stop after 3, with quiet hours on so reminders go at 9 AM in the signer's time zone on weekdays.
Expiry: 14 or 30 days for most documents.
Branding: add your logo, colours and the sender name signers will see in emails, so they recognise the request is from you.
5. Set up your team
Invite the people who will send documents. Give each person the right role. Admins manage settings, billing and the team. Senders send and manage their own documents. Viewers can see documents but cannot send. Start with fewer admins than you think you need.
If some documents need sign-off before they go out, set an approval rule. For example, contracts over $10,000 need Finance to approve before the client receives them.
6. Decide where records live
Paper files had a place: a cabinet, a box, a shared drive of scans. Decide the same for signed documents now. Options include keeping them in eSora Sign in folders with labels, downloading them to your own document system, or both.
Set retention rules that match your obligations. Employment records, tax documents and client files often have minimum retention periods. Write down your choice so the next person knows.
Whatever you choose, keep the original signed PDF. Do not print and rescan it, and do not re-save it in an editor. That keeps the tamper seal and fingerprint intact.
7. Tell the people who sign
Your signers do not need to do anything special. They do not pay, create an account or install anything. But a short heads-up helps, especially for older clients or people who are used to paper. A sentence in your next email is enough: 'From now on we will send documents for signing by email. You can sign on your phone or computer in a few minutes.'
For signers who prefer French, the signing page and emails are available in French.
8. Train your team in one short session
Thirty minutes is enough for most small teams. Cover how to send from a template, how to check progress on the timeline, how to send a reminder now, how to change a recipient, how to correct a document while it is out, and where completed documents go. Have each person send one test document to a colleague during the session.
9. Move the rest, one at a time
Once the first template is working, move the next document on your list. Templates for recurring documents, bulk send for documents that go to many people at once, and public signing links for forms anyone can sign, such as waivers or sign-up forms.
Retire the paper version as each one moves. If both stay in use, people will keep using the old one.
10. Review after a month
After a month, look at what happened. Which documents are taking longest? Are signers declining or asking questions about the same thing? Are reminders working? Small changes to a template, such as a clearer email message, fewer fields, or a shorter expiry, often make a noticeable difference.
Also check with your team. Ask what is still annoying. Often it is something easy to fix, such as a missing template or a default that does not fit one type of document.
A note on cost
You can try all of this on the Free plan, which includes 3 documents a month with a certificate on every document. When you need more, Premium includes unlimited documents and signers, and Teams adds shared templates, roles, approvals and bulk send. Signers never pay.
This article is general information, not legal advice.