Docusign

You can’t run a small business without signing a seemingly endless flurry of contracts. From sales contracts to lease agreements, purchase orders, and more, we understand you are tired of signing these documents. E-signature tools make these processes easy by enabling remote document signing and efficient contract management.

Docusign provides a one-stop platform for signing, sending, and managing business contracts, accessible from a desktop browser or mobile app. This guide explores reasons small businesses choose Docusign and provides guidance on using it effectively.

Docusign costs significantly more than competitors, although many customers find the features and extensive integrations to be worth the extra expense. You can view the full pricing details on Docusign’s website.

Here are some of the most popular use cases for Docusign:

Signing Business Contracts Remotely

Running a small business involves signing many contracts. For example, if you rent an office space, you’ll sign an agreement with the building owner and management firm. When a customer places a large order, you’ll sign a contract to fulfill that order.

Docusign enables you to sign contracts even when the other party is physically far away. You can store, manage, sign, and analyze agreements seamlessly with this platform.

Security

Docusign provides a platform to share sensitive documents securely, ensuring third parties don’t gain unauthorized access. It uses sophisticated encryption algorithms, and you can further protect sensitive documents by requiring identity verification before access. 

Multi-Channel Delivery

Docusign delivers documents to signers via several channels. Your recipients can receive Docusign alerts by email, SMS, or WhatsApp. This way, they’ll always be updated on any changes to existing documents or new agreements that need signing. 

Employee Onboarding

Hiring and onboarding a new employee requires a contract. The business owner/manager and the employee must sign a formal contract dictating employment terms, including compensation, holidays, bonuses, working hours, etc.

Docusign enables both parties to sign these documents seamlessly, even when not in close proximity. You could hire an employee in another country and use Docusign to sign a legally binding contract.

Contract Lifecycle Management

Docusign isn’t only about signatures. It also allows you to store and retrieve contracts seamlessly. You can access crucial documents from any device with your Docusign credentials.

Document Templates

Docusign provides professional templates for legally binding documents, including purchase orders, non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), and rental applications, eliminating the stress of creating from scratch. Using these templates, business owners can save time and money, mitigating the need for legal consultation to draft standard agreements.

Limited Budget

Docusign can be expensive if your small business needs multiple accounts. If you have limited budgets, you may prefer to choose a more affordable tool like Zoho Sign or SignWell. These alternatives provide free plans, albeit with limited features.

Note that Docusign offers a free plan to sign and send unlimited documents. However, you can only receive three signatures on this plan. 

Bundled Plans

Your small business might already be subscribed to a software suite that includes an electronic signature tool. For example, if you already use Dropbox for file sharing and storage, it’s wise to use the built-in document signing tool instead of paying extra for Docusign. If your small business already uses Zoho for emails and invoicing, choosing Zoho Sign is a cost-effective bundled option. 

Integrations

Docusign has broad integrations, but you might not find the exact ones you need. In that case, you can choose an alternative that offers your desired integration. PandaDoc, for example, offers integrations with CRMs and payment platforms for sending, tracking, and signing sales forms and contracts. It integrates seamlessly with helpful business software such as Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho, Paypal, and Stripe.

Registration

Start using Docusign by first creating an account. As a new user, you can use the 30-day free trial to test Docusign’s features, and only pay if you’re convinced it's the right option for your business. Follow this link to sign up with your email address, no credit card details needed.

Signing or Getting Signatures

You’ll be redirected to your Docusign dashboard after registration. This dashboard gives you access to all features (depending on your plan), with the primary functionality being signing and sending documents for others to sign.

Docusign allows you to preview any document before getting signatures. You can add new fields to the document on the preview dashboard, such as a signature and name field. Click Send after confirming the preview. Docusign will instantly email any address you provided; this email tells the recipient they’ve received a document to review and sign. The recipient can click the call-to-action button to do that immediately.

Managing Documents

You’ve sent documents for people to sign. But, how do you check if they’ve signed them, and know when to follow up with those who haven’t? Docusign provides this information in the Agreements dashboard, which is accessible from the top menu. On this dashboard, you’ll see all the documents you sent out and which recipients have signed them. You'll also see any documents sent to you that need to be signed.

Document Templates

As a small business, it can be challenging to draft legally binding agreements from scratch, especially those that require consulting with a lawyer. However, Docusign reduces this headache for small business owners. It offers dozens of templates created by business and legal professionals, ranging from sales contracts to tax forms, wire transfer requests, employee offboarding requests, employment letters, etc. You can also create your own reusable templates.

Recipient Verification

Docusign allows small business owners to verify the identity of signing recipients, ensuring impersonators don’t sign documents. It supports three verification types: phone, knowledge-based, and valid ID.

ID verification requires the recipient to present a government-issued photo ID or electronic ID for Docusign to verify. You’ll set the level of security based on the document's sensitivity; the verification feature helps your small business protect sensitive documents.

Docusign is one of many e-signature tools used by small businesses. PandaDoc, Zoho Sign, Adobe Sign, and SignNow offer similar functions, letting small businesses sign and manage documents seamlessly.

But, what if you already have an e-signature provider and decide to migrate to Docusign? The process is straightforward. You’ll create a new account on Docusign and bulk upload your existing documents. Unfortunately, there’s no option to directly import your settings from another e-signature platform to Docusign; you must set them from scratch.

One of the best things about Docusign is its extensive library of third-party integrations. This platform has built an extensive network of integrations, setting it apart from competitors. It has over 900 ready-made integrations, which you can access on any paid plan.

One such example is Zoom, the popular videoconferencing tool used by many small businesses. With a Docusign integration, you can share, review, and sign documents right from a Zoom meeting, simplifying your workflows. For example, you can onboard a new employee via video call, and the employee can sign their employment contract on the same call.

Another helpful integration is with Stripe, the prominent payment processor. After an initial integration, you can access Docusign inside your Stripe dashboard. Then, you can link signatures to payments, allowing you to click on any past transaction and automatically see the relevant contract stored on Docusign.

Likewise, there’s an integration with Workday, the popular HR software. This integration provides an easy way for employees to sign agreements related to employment, taxes, and payroll.

Docusign has broad integrations, but it lacks integrations with some notable business tools. For example, there is no direct integration with Notion, Asana, and Trello, which businesses use to manage projects and documentation. There is also no integration with the HubSpot CRM.

However, there is a workaround: you can use Zapier to connect Docusign with these tools. Zapier offers dozens of integrations between Docusign and external apps, enabled by Docusign's robust API.