Tutorial on signing with Agrello signature and PDF creation - how signing is more simple with Agrello
With Agrello, you can create and sign documents easily and quickly. In this post, we will be giving a tutorial on creating PDF documents and signing documents using the Agrello signature.
Why sign with Agrello?
The Agrello signature is a simple electronic signature that can be used by anybody using the Agrello platform.
The Agrello signature works by adding a cryptographic fingerprint into a “space” created within a PDF document. This means that when you sign with the Agrello signature, you are embedding a visual, cryptographic version of your signature into a PDF.
In most use cases and countries, the Agrello signature will be valid.
The Agrello signature is particularly useful for those outside of the Baltics where Smart-ID, Mobile-ID and ASIC files are not supported.
Why use PDF documents?
In the Agrello platform, you can easily and quickly create PDF contracts - but why use PDFs? Well, simply because it’s the most common file type that signed documents are created in and circulated around the business world. PDFs are easy to use, send and circulate, and their non-editable nature means you can be sure that your contracts can’t be changed after they’re signed. In addition, Adobe Acrobat reader is free, and you can easily check the validity of the Agrello signature with Adobe Acrobat.
With that, let’s start with the tutorial!
How to create a PDF Document
Step 1 - Log In to Agrello
With Agrello, logging in is easy and fast, there are no long passwords to remember or long sign-up forms to fill in. Simply log in to Agrello with your email, by entering the one-time passcode. You’ll then be brought to your “My documents” screen.
Here in the “My documents” screen you will see this kind of a view (don’t worry if it’s blank to start with, it will fill up). On the left hand side is create new, then “My documents”, “Shared with me”, “My templates”, “Invitations”, “Spaces”, “Account” and finally “Support”. “Shared with me” is where all the documents you get from other Agrello users live. “My templates” is where all your templates you create go. “Invitations” is where your pending invitations to view or sign other documents go (once you accept an invitation a document will move into “Shared with me”). “Spaces” are where your spaces go, once these are created you can put documents there to collaborate with others. “Account” is where you see your account settings, and “Support” is where you can get support for any issues you might have.
On the right, you can see the progress view of all your contracts - “Drafts” is where all the contracts that haven’t been sent out yet go, “In progress” shows the contracts that have been sent out and partially signed, and “Signed” shows all fully signed contracts.
Step 2- Create a New Document
Click the “Create new” button and click “Document”. You can also create a new document using the green “new document” button at the top of the progress view.
There are some other options here. ASIC container is for documents created in the Baltic states, as this is a Baltic-specific document format.
“Template” is to create a template - for a good overview of how to do that in detail, you can see here. Simply put, templates are a really handy way of creating reproducible documents for your commonly created contracts - you can create one template, and then from that continue creating hundreds of contracts. It reduces the amount of mistakes you make and ensures you have perfect contracts every time.
“Space” is to create a space - a space is a place to store documents that are shared with others. This allows for team collaboration on documents and allows easy access for all team members to documents they need to see.
Step 3 - Upload Your Document
Upload the document of your choice, from wherever the document is located in your computer.
Step 4 - Add Signature Fields
Once you’ve uploaded your document, you need to add signature fields. Add signature fields to the document by clicking the “Add signature field” button. You can really easily drag and drop signature fields into place. You can add as many signature fields as you need into a document, but do be aware that signature fields are exclusive - i.e. one person cannot sign a document multiple times.
A blue box will appear in the top left of the page and you can easily drag and drop this wherever you need it on the document.
You can also rename them however you like by clicking the pen/edit form field icon.
Once you’ve added the signature fields you like, make sure to click the “Save field” button in the top right to save your fields.
Step 5 - Assign and Fill in any Text Fields
With Agrello, if you create a document that contains fields in curly brackets like {{so}} then you have created a fillable field. These are the parts that you would want to change in a contract, for example, the signer name, ID code, address, etc. This is really handy - it reduces time spent on your contract, as you don’t have to spend ages emailing back and forth for details, and it reduces mistakes associated with copying and pasting things.
If you have created a text field with curly brackets, fill in the document fields, or you can assign someone via email to fill in fields. When the assignee receives the email inviting them to fill in fields, then they can fill them in.
Step 6 - Assign Signature Fields
Finally, you need to assign the signature fields to people, either to yourself or by typing their emails into the box.
Here, you can add yourself as a signer.
Then, you can type out the email of the other person you want to invite.
Here is what the document looks like when all signers have been assigned.
How to use Agrello signature
Now you have prepared your contract and added in your signers, we will now give a tutorial on how to use the Agrello signature to sign a document.
Step 1 - Click “Send for signing”
Click the green “Send for signing” button in the top right. Here, I’ve assigned myself and laura+demo@agrello.org as the signers.
Step 2- Add a Message, and Confirm you are OK with Sending the Document Out
One you click “send for signing”, you will confirm you cannot modify the document after sending it for signing, and you can also add a message for the signers.
This is my message. Click “Continue” to send the document for signing.
This is what the email will look like when your signers get the invitation. As you can see, there is a button for the signer to click where they can review the contract before signing it. They will also be able to fill in the fields assigned to them at this stage. We recently introduced a feature called loginless signing which means that signers can sign super quickly without even needing to create an account or log in.
Step 3- Click the “Sign” Button
Now a button with “Sign” has appeared in the top right corner. It will appear when all fields have been filled in correctly, for validation purposes. Click it!
Step 4- Prepare Your Visual Signature
Now another dialogue box has appeared to get you to sign the document. Only focus on the “Agrello” tab. Here, you can prepare a visual signature either by typing your name or drawing your signature.
To draw a signature, click the “Draw” button and draw out your signature as you would on paper.
You also need to check the box agreeing that your visual signature electronically represents your signature for all purposes including signing legally binding contracts.
Step 5- Sign the Document
Read the agreement, check the box, and click the sign button! You’ll then get a box confirming that you have signed the document.
This is what the document and the signature will look like when it’s all fully signed.
Congratulations - you have now learnt how to create a PDF document in Agrello using curly brackets, and how to sign a document using the Agrello signature.
As you can hopefully see, the Agrello learning curve is short, and creating and signing documents is a very quick and easy process. You can even do it on your mobile with our iOS and Android apps! That way, you can create, sign and keep an eye on your documents' progress on the go.
If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or you just want to have a chat about Agrello and what it can do for you, then you can contact us here - we are always happy to answer any queries!
With Agrello, you can unlock your contract management powers and sign contracts quicker than it takes to make a cup of tea. Sign up and start now!
