The 'System terminologies' page comprises of a comprehensive list of essential terms and definitions related to system functions, components, and processes. Understanding these terminologies will help you navigate SigningHub more effectively and provide insight into the key concepts that form its core. Each term is defined to give you a clearer understanding of its role and importance within the system, ensuring you have the foundational knowledge needed to interact with and manage the system's features confidently.
| Terminologies | Description |
|---|---|
When the document owner shares a document package having multiple signature fields assigned to the same recipient, only the last dropped signature field on the last page will be retained as a Digital Signature field and the rest of the signature fields will be converted to the lowest level of assurance that is Electronic Signature (i.e. an annotation). Learn more about it here.
SigningHub Cloud
SigningHub Cloud is the hosted cloud service for document approval workflows, advanced digital signatures and document status tracking. It allows "Individual" and "Enterprise" level subscriptions against the predefined Service Plans.
SigningHub Enterprise (on-premises)
SigningHub Enterprise (on-premises) is a license-based privately hosted cloud service for document approval workflows, advanced digital signatures and document status tracking. In addition to the public cloud features, it offers advanced product-level configurations where administrators can manage accounts, create custom Service Plans, configure desired service connectors, signing methods, and billing details, integrate and embed with 3rd party business applications and tune many more system provisions through an Admin console. In short, giving you complete control over customizing the SigningHub web interface for large enterprises.
Guest User
A user who does not own a SigningHub account (i.e. not registered in SigningHub) is called a guest user. They can still be added to a workflow for e-signature. However, for a digital signature, a guest user will have to register themself.
Individual Account
A SigningHub subscription acquired for an individual entity is called an individual account. Individual subscriptions have limited features as compared to enterprise subscriptions.
Enterprise Account
A SigningHub subscription acquired for any group of people (team) or organization is called an enterprise account. An enterprise account features an enriched subscription and is comprised of an enterprise owner, enterprise admin(s) and enterprise user(s).
Certified Signature
Signatures that certify a PDF are called certified signatures. A certified signature attests to the contents of the document and allows the signer to specify the types of changes allowed for the document to remain certified.
Certified Document
A certified document has a certified signature applied by their Document Owners when the document is ready for use. The document owner specifies what changes are allowed for the recipients, from the following permitted modifications:
Certify and allow no changes
Certify and allow form filling and signing
Certify and allow form filling, signing, and annotations
Unassigned Form Field
A PDF form field that has not been assigned to any recipient in a workflow, is called an unassigned form field. When the workflow is initiated with unassigned form fields, then any configured recipient (in a workflow) can fill these fields upon their turn.
Unassigned Signature Field
A signature field in a PDF document that has not been assigned to any signer is called an unassigned signature field. During workflow configuration, such fields are assigned to signers before initiating the workflow.
Payment Type
SigningHub supports two types of payment:
"Regular" payment type is opted for when payment is to be made on a regular basis (monthly/ annually) against a continuous Service Plan. In the case of a monthly payment, the payment is made automatically on the 31st day, from the subscription date, and the signature pack is reset. Similarly, in the case of an annual payment, the payment is made automatically on the 366th day from the subscription date, and the signature pack is reset accordingly. Moreover, special discounts are also offered on annual payments.
The "Pay As You Go" payment type is opted when payment is to be made after consuming the allowed signature pack.
Template
The workflow settings configured on the documents are called templates. The templates are created to reuse the same configurations on other documents as well. Based on your Service Plan, a template may save the following information:
Configured recipients
Collaboration order (the sequence in which users are required to sign/ review/ update the document)
Signing fields and their respective positions
Form fields used (if any)
Initials and In-persons used (if any)
Workflow type (sequential or parallel)
Allowed permissions (downloading, printing, password, access duration, and legal notice)
Workflow
Workflow in SigningHub is a document approval process (i.e. signing, reviewing, updating) that is configured by the Document Owner. It is also called document preparation. A workflow can be of three types:
Serial - A single copy of the document is circulated among all the signers in the defined (linear sequential) order and collects all the signatures on it. Each signer can sign the document on his turn.
Parallel - A single copy of the document is circulated among all the signers in a parallel order and collects all the signatures on it. Any signer can sign the document in any order.
Individual - Each signer is sent an exclusive copy of the document to sign/ review, and multiple signed copies of the document are produced.
Custom - A custom predefined mix of serial and parallel signing.
Local-Side Signing
In Local (client-side) signing, the signing keys (crypto keys required for digital signature creation) are held in a local keystore in smartcards or in USB-crypto tokens. For this, the Go>Sign Desktop application is required on the system along with the correct drivers of the installed devices. Download Go>Sign Desktop.
Mobile Signing
In Mobile signing, the signing keys (crypto keys required for digital signature creation) are held on the user's mobile device. For this, a supported mobile signing app is required to use this feature.
Server-Side Signing
In Server-Side signing, the signing keys (crypto keys required for digital signature creation) are held at the server end. These keys can be used through any modern browser of Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, Andriod or other devices/ tablets for signing at the server end. For this, an SMS OTP authentication can also be enabled, by which the authentication password will be directly sent to your mobile device at the time of signing for confirmation.
One-Time Password (OTP) Security
OTP is a security system that requires a new password every time a user authenticates themselves, thus protecting against an intruder replaying an intercepted password. If this option is enabled in the user billing plan then after clicking on the "Sign" button, an OTP will be sent to the user's mobile number that was provided at the time of registration.
Group Signing
The group signing feature enables you to send a document to a group of users (e.g. Sales, HR etc) and allows any group member to sign the document on behalf of all the group members. In such a scenario, when a group member opens the document, it (the document) becomes locked (read-only) for other group members, hence allowing only one signer (who opened it first) to sign the document.
Group Approving
The group approving feature enables you to send a document to a group of users (e.g. Sales, HR etc) and allows any group member to review/ approve the document on behalf of all the group members. In such a scenario, when a group member opens the document, it (the document) becomes locked (read-only) for other group members, hence allowing only one reviewer (who opened it first) to review the document.
Group Updating
The group updating feature enables you to send a document to a group of users (e.g. Sales, HR etc) and allows any group member to edit/ update the document on behalf of all the group members. In such a scenario, when a group member opens the document, it (the document) becomes locked (read-only) for other group members, hence allowing only one editor (who opened it first) to update the document.
Initials Fields
Initials fields are the short form of signature and are associated with the recipients (i.e. signers, reviewers, meeting hosts, and editors). In this case, the digital signatures are not embedded. Initial fields can be filled in by hand drawing, text filling or image uploading (the same as when signing a field), and they are added as annotations in the PDF. However, the initials feature is package-based and is available for configuration, if it is included in your Service Plan.
In-Person Fields
In-person signatures are similar to the initials fields. They are associated with the signers and meeting hosts only and are usually done on behalf of someone else. In-person signatures are added as annotations in the PDF. They can also be used as witness digital signatures if they are generated by using a witness certificate which is a public signing certificate available on the server for digital signing. The recipients who are configured as in-person signers don't necessarily need to be registered users of SigningHub. However, the in-person signature feature is package-based and is available for configuration, if it is included in your Service Plan.
Workflow history
The complete list of activities performed on a shared document with respective details, is maintained in workflow history. The "Workflow History" option is available to the respective Document Owner only.
Attachments
Any type of file that is added to the document as an annotation is called an attachment. The "Attachment" option is available to the respective Document Owner only. Once added, the attachments are available to all the recipients who can view and download them.
Legal Notice
A legal notice is comprised of certain terms and conditions that must be agreed upon by the (configured) recipients before signing/ reviewing/ updating a workflow document.
Password Policy
Password policy binds the enterprise users to use the same combination of characters for their account password, as defined by the enterprise admin, i.e. password length (total number of characters), number of alphanumeric characters in the password, and number of special characters in the password.
"Send" Button
Whenever a document is shared, the system performs the following operations:
The status of a document is changed from "Draft" to "In Progress".
The workflow is initiated.
The workflow quota of respective document owner's account is consumed, and hence the available count is decreased by one.
An intimation email is sent from the Document Owner to the first configured contact (in case of a sequential workflow) or to all the configured contacts (in case of a parallel or individual workflow), requesting them to respond to the shared document accordingly. The recipient can then follow the document link from their email to sign/ review/ update the document.
"Recall" Option
Whenever a document is recalled, the system performs the following operations:
The status of the document is reverted to "Draft".
The workflow is terminated.
The available workflow quota of the respective account is increased by one.
An intimation email will be sent from the Document Owner to the immediate next configured recipient (in case of a sequential workflow) or to all the configured recipients (in case of a parallel workflow), regarding the termination of the workflow.
Tight Integration
In the tight mode of integration, the users interact with your web application and present the document or form as an iFrame/widget within your application’s webpage. There is no website redirection and the user’s browser address bar doesn’t change. Your users can then view the document, fill in form fields and create their digital signature while staying on your site. Tight integration is suitable for ECM, CRM or ERP web applications or portals, where a user already logs in to interact in a defined way.
Loose Integration
The loose mode of integration is where your business application initiates the sign-off workflow, but the end users actually interact with SigningHub when it is their turn to sign the document, instead of logging on to your business application. This loose mode of integration is useful in situations where external users are required to sign documents and they do not have access to your internal business application web interfaces. For more details, contact support@signinghub.com
Document Owner
Any SigningHub user who initiates a document workflow is called a document owner. In addition to performing other activities, a document owner can exclusively view the "Workflow History" and "Attachments" options in their documents.
Recipient
The actual user who has been sent a document for collaboration (signing, reviewing, updating, or hosting) by the Document Owner, is called a recipient. A recipient may or may not be a registered SigningHub user at the time of document sending. However, to collaborate with the document workflow, s/he will have to register with SigningHub. Based on your document approval requirements, a recipient can be assigned any of the 5 different roles, i.e.:
Signer: Being a signer, the recipient needs to sign a document. As per the workflow configuration, this signature can either be electronic or digital. After signing in the assigned signature field, a signer has to click the "Finish" button to complete the document signing. Alternatively, s/he may use the "Decline" option to refuse or use the "Delegation" option to assign their role to someone else. Whenever a digital signature is made by any signer, the signature quota of the respective document owner's account will be consumed. Moreover, a signer should also fill in the assigned form fields, initials, and/ or in-persons fields (if any) before signing.
Reviewer: Being a reviewer, the recipient needs to approve a document by clicking the "Approve" button. Alternatively, s/he may use the "Decline" option to refuse it or use the "Delegation" option to assign their role to someone else. Reviewing does not involve any signing activity. Moreover, a reviewer should also fill in the assigned form fields, and/ or initials (if any) before reviewing.
Editor: Being an editor, the recipient needs to update a document by clicking the "Submit" button. Alternatively, s/he may use the "Decline" option to refuse it or use the "Delegation" option to assign their role to someone else. Editing does not involve any signing activity. An editor should also fill in the assigned form fields, and/ or initials (if any) before updating.
Meeting Host: Being a meeting host, the recipient needs to facilitate the document signing process for the configured in-person signers. A host can give his/her device control to the (in-person) signers, and get their signatures in his/her presence. After getting all the signatures, a meeting host has to click the "Close" button to complete the document hosting. Alternatively, s/he may use the "Decline" option to refuse it or use the "Delegated" option to assign their role to someone else. Hosting itself does not involve any signing activity. However, a host should also fill in the assigned form fields, and/ or other information fields before finishing.
Send a Copy: When the "Send a Copy" role is selected for a recipient, SigningHub emails the most recent copy (at that stage of workflow) of the document to the recipient as an email attachment. The document copy is auto-sent (on its turn) and does not require any human intervention.
Electronic Seal This user role only appears against an electronic seal added to the workflow. This user role is disabled and can not be updated.
Placeholder
A recipient that is added as a part of the approval workflow, but unknown at the time of the document preparation phase, is called a placeholder. There can be multiple placeholders in a workflow. In such cases, a document owner can define a title (i.e. Manager, Admin, etc.) for each placeholder while preparing their document workflow, which can later be updated with the actual recipient by the immediate previous recipient or by the document owner himself during workflow execution. Just like a recipient, a placeholder can be assigned any of the 5 different roles in a workflow, i.e.:
Signer
Reviewer
Editor
Meeting Host
Send a Copy
Shared Folder Owner
An enterprise user who creates a shared folder in their SigningHub account to delegate their signing authority to a group of collaborators is called a shared folder owner, of that particular folder. However to be a shared folder owner, an enterprise user must be allowed to manage shared folders in their enterprise role. The enterprise user may then:
Create multiple shared folders as required
Add their choice collaborators in their shared folders, who can process their workflow documents on behalf of the shared folder owner
Move workflow documents into their shared folders to share them with the collaborators
Edit their shared spaces
Delete their shared spaces