How Small Businesses are Taking Advantage of eSignature

When we first released fmESignature Link (DocuSign Edition), our FileMaker solution for integrating with the DocuSign eSignature platform, back in 2019 we had already been helping customers automate the management of electronic document signing for a number of years. Our focus was mainly on workflow automation and leveraging the power of the the DocuSign platform, one of the most popular electronic signature platforms. DocuSign has one million customers in over 180 countries and has processed more than one billion eSignature transactions.

When you have a lot of agreements that need to be signed by customers or employees, for example as part of an onboarding process, you can quickly become overwhelmed when trying to manage this manually or using paper based forms. Combining your FileMaker custom business app with DocuSign allows you to bring order to this process: you can generate and send agreements to be signed electronically using your familiar FileMaker interface and download the completed agreements without requiring users to even login to DocuSign.

The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the associated move to remote working along with changes to social distancing forced many small businesses to quickly adopt solutions to workflows that previously were designed for in-person events, such as signing documents by hand. Many governments around the world introduced either temporary or permanent laws to allow companies and individuals to electronically sign documents which allowed them to continue issuing agreements with staff and customers working from home.

We were kept busy during 2020 helping customers integrate their existing FileMaker business apps with DocuSign using our fmESignature Link solution. We now have customers all around the world using fmESignature Link to send a variety of agreements to their customers and staff, including in the USA, UK, Australia and Europe. They are spread across a wide variety of industries including:

• accounting firms sending agreements to clients
• property management firms sending real estate tenancy agreements to landlords/tenants
• pool service companies sending proposals to potential customers
• law firms sending case agreements to the relevant parties
• healthcare organisations sending privacy consent forms to patients
• servicing firms sending annual renewal agreements with associated payment requests

DocuSign have a list of the Top 10 eSignature Use Cases for Small Businesses which show some of the common ways small businesses use DocuSign eSignature, including for sales contracts, purchase orders, vendor/supplier agreements, new customer forms and non-disclosure agreements. In Australia DocuSign’s research has found that Australians made more agreements than ever before in 2020, and now prefer to sign for a new job electronically (with 28% doing so in bed!). These agreements now look completely different from the old school pen-and-paper and can be signed anywhere on any device, including your mobile phone.

It’s been over two years since we first released fmESignature Link (DocuSign Edition) v1.0 and we’ve added a number of features since including support for DocuSign Payments, SMS Notifications and Auto Place to make the management of electronic document signing even easier. We’ve had some great feedback from customers over the past 5 years who have been sending agreements electronically which we’ve incorporated into subsequent updates to fmESignature Link to make the product even better.

If your small business is still sending paper based agreements and you would like to streamline and digitise these business processes implementing eSignature will save your business time and money and let you ‘Automate What You Hate’. If you would like to discuss integrating DocuSign with your FileMaker business app please get in touch for a free initial consultation to discuss your requirements or to request a free 14 day trial of fmESignature Link.