If you’re still printing, signing, and scanning documents, you’re slowing down your business and creating unnecessary work.

Electronic signatures have changed the way businesses operate, speeding up deals, streamlining approvals, and getting documents finalized faster.

Thinking of making the switch? You’re in the right place.

Whether you’re a small business trying to save on paper costs, a remote team looking to streamline workflows, or an enterprise aiming to close deals faster, this guide will show you how e-signatures can make a real difference.

Key takeaways

Close documents quicker and give clients a seamless signing experience from any device.

eSignatures drastically reduce printing, mailing, and storage costs

Electronic signatures help automate routine workflows, no more chasing signatures or re-sending lost docs

E-signature tools help to reduce human error, helping you ensure forms are filled out correctly the first time

What is an electronic signature?

An electronic signature (eSignature) is a legally recognized way to sign documents digitally.

You can type your name, draw a signature, or use tools like PandaDoc to securely verify and complete the signing process online.

Not all eSignatures are created equal. There are different levels of security:

• Standard electronic signature (SES): The most common type, used for everyday agreements. Easy to use and legally binding in many countries.
• Advanced electronic signature (AES): Includes identity verification and is uniquely linked to the signer. Ideal for more sensitive or high-risk agreements.
• Qualified electronic signature (QES): The most secure type of eSignature, especially in the EU. Requires identity authentication from a qualified provider and is equivalent to a handwritten (wet) signature under eIDAS regulations.

What are the benefits of electronic signatures?

Electronic signatures speed up signing, help businesses cut costs, reduce errors, boost security, and create a smoother experience for both teams and customers.

Whether you’re sending contracts, collecting approvals, or finalizing deals, going digital pays off in several ways.

1. Cutting down on paper costs

When you can sign documents electronically, you reduce the amount of paper you need to print. Based on a report from 2023, the average company spends $1,200 or more on printing costs per employee each year.

When you think about the resources required to process paper documents, this is unsurprising.

Of course, documents requiring an electronic signature only make up a portion of the total amount of paper used by an average company. But there are still significant cost savings to be made.

2. Automate your operations

There’s a reason tools like Zapier are so popular—they take repetitive, manual tasks off your plate so you can focus on what matters. eSignatures do the same for your document workflow, especially when they’re built into a larger platform like PandaDoc.

Here’s how:

Payment collection: PandaDoc lets you embed payment buttons right into your documents so that clients can sign and pay in one go through ACH payments, PayPal, and Stripe.

Automated document creation: With PandaDoc, you can create templates for frequently used documents like contracts, proposals, NDAs, and onboarding documents. Just plug in dynamic variables (like client name or pricing) and the platform auto-fills the details.

Instant notifications and status tracking: Instead of following up manually, PandaDoc alerts you when someone opens, views, or signs a document. You can also set automated reminders so no one forgets to sign.

Workflow routing: Set up multi-step approval workflows to automatically route documents to the right stakeholders. For example, you can configure a proposal to go from sales to legal to the client, in the right order.

CRM and tool integrations: PandaDoc connects with tools like HubSpot, Salesforce, and Zapier, so you can trigger document creation or send eSignature requests based on events, like a deal moving to a new stage in your CRM.

3. Fewer document errors

Research shows that e-signature apps reduce the total number of mistakes by an average of 80%.

Let’s take a closer look at what e-signature solutions can do for individual industries.

Healthcare

Healthcare providers can use e-signature solutions to be HIPAA compliant, create patient forms, get legally binding e-signatures from stakeholders, collect payments, and streamline workflows (so you can spend more time focusing on patients, and less time worrying about operations).

Banking, insurance, and finance

Those working in the banking, insurance, or financial sectors benefit from the way e-signatures reduce human-made errors, onboard clients faster, increase close rates, reduce time in document creation, and expedite the claim and contract approval process.

Education

Teachers and others working in education harness e-signature platforms to create and track applications, store and manage multiple student forms and documents, secure student information, and generate important docs like grant proposals, onboarding forms, and service contracts.

Professional services

Lastly, those who offer professional services can use electronic signature software to create branded documents, send contracts and documents to clients within minutes, collect legally binding e-signatures and payments, secure client information, and integrate with their existing workflows.

4. A more enjoyable, frictionless customer experience

E-signatures don’t just improve internal company processes, increase cost savings, and reduce human errors — they also have a positive effect on customer experience, boosting satisfaction and loyalty.

A key takeaway here? Businesses using e-signatures tend to have a higher net promoter score as well.

For one, customers can sign documents with e-signature fields from any device (including mobile and desktop), which adds an extra layer of efficiency and reduces turnaround time.

Another benefit is that all your documents and proposals can be approved from one place.

5. Increased close rates

In-house data from PandaDoc shows that companies that use e-signatures see up to a 28% increase in their document close rate.

Cutting out the cumbersome process of hand-signing documents, especially when multiple signatures are required, significantly reduces friction in the approval process.

E-signature apps also often allow document creators to add further efficiency-creating features to documents, like embedded payment buttons, which drive close rates up even further.

Also noteworthy: e-signatures also speed up internal approvals.

It can take days to prepare a signed document that requires wet signatures from several different people in an organization before it can be sent out.

E-signatures instantly solve this problem.

Dreamforce, for example, saw an 83% boost in performance for in-house approvals.

6. Positive ROI

According to data published by MSB Docs, companies that end up adopting e-signature solutions save up to 85% on document handling costs.

Data from Adobe also suggests that adoption of e-signature solutions can save you $6 per transaction.

So, why not jump on the e-signature bandwagon?

After all, setting up a software infrastructure which allows employees and clients to use electronic signatures is straightforward and inexpensive.

Apps come with numerous plans for organizations of different sizes (and individuals), and most offer dedicated onboarding support so that transitioning to a paperless workflow doesn’t take any longer than necessary.

Cutting down on the cost of paper alone is usually enough for most companies to see a positive return by way of electronic signature solutions.

7. Enhanced security

Enhanced security and compliance is one of the biggest advantages of using electronic signatures. eSignatures are backed by strong legislation in most parts of the world, giving them the same legal standing as handwritten signatures.

• In the U.S., the ESIGN Act and UETA make electronic signatures legally valid and enforceable.
• In the EU, eIDAS sets the gold standard by defining different levels of electronic signatures, including Qualified electronic signatures (QES)—the most secure and regulated type.

PandaDoc supports QES, which is especially important for businesses that need to meet strict identity verification or compliance requirements. It’s ideal for industries like finance, legal, or real estate where trust and traceability are non-negotiable.

Beyond compliance, PandaDoc adds multiple layers of security to every document:

Signing certificates: Each completed document comes with a certificate that confirms its authenticity and includes timestamps, IP addresses, and signer details.

Tamper-proof audit trails. Every action, like viewing, signing, or editing, is logged automatically. If something changes, you’ll know exactly when and by whom.

Recipient authentication: You can add verification steps (like SMS codes or email validation) to ensure the right person is signing.

Document encryption and secure storage: All documents are encrypted and stored securely, protecting sensitive information from unauthorized access.

8. Built for remote and hybrid teams

When your team isn’t all in one place, signing and managing documents the old-fashioned way can be a major hassle.

Electronic signatures solve that by making everything accessible, trackable, and fast, no matter where people are working from.

Here’s why electronic signatures are ideal for remote teams:

• Sign from anywhere: Whether someone’s working from home, traveling, or based in another country, they can review and sign documents on any device.
• Real-time visibility: PandaDoc lets teams see exactly where a document stands, who’s viewed it, who’s signed it, and what’s still pending.
• Centralized access: All documents live in one place, so your team isn’t digging through inboxes or shared drives to find the latest version.
• Easy for teams to work together: Need input from multiple people before sending something out? With shared templates, comments, and approval workflows, your whole team can contribute without sending a single email.

…oh, and did we mention that electronic signatures are better for the environment?

It will come as no surprise that e-signatures are much better for the environment than pen-and-ink alternatives.

Companies that use paperless apps to e-sign documents have helped reduce paper consumption by hundreds of tons.

Consider just our own footprint here at PandaDoc: In 2022 alone, we ended up saving 17,300 trees from being cut, reduced carbon and greenhouse gas emissions by 13 million lbs, saved 15.5 million gallons of water from being used, and eliminated more than 851k lbs of paper ending up in a landfill!

Enhance security and boost productivity with eSignatures

When you add it all up, less paper, fewer errors, faster approvals, stronger security, it’s clear that eSignatures can enhance your business and your workflow. And with tools like PandaDoc, you can make your entire workflow smoother, smarter, and easier to manage.

Curious how it could work for your team? Give PandaDoc a try and see the difference for yourself.

Disclaimer

Parties other than PandaDoc may provide products, services, recommendations, or views on PandaDoc’s site (“Third Party Materials”). PandaDoc is not responsible for examining or evaluating such Third Party Materials, and does not provide any warranties relating to the Third Party Materials. Links to such Third Party Materials are for your convenience and does not constitute an endorsement of such Third Party Materials.

Originally published July 27, 2020, updated November 24, 2025