What are eSignature Audit Trails and How Can They Keep your Business Secure?

Every organization needs to make security a top priority, especially when sensitive data is involved. But have you ever thought about the volume of documents and transactions your team processes and signs daily? That’s a lot of information to track and keep secure.

eSignature audit trails can help you take back control. They’re a valuable tool for providing greater levels of visibility across your workflows, while keeping your organization secure and compliant. Your accounting software likely includes audit trails, and your eSign solution should too.

Read on for a guide to audit trails and their importance in electronic signatures.

An eSignature audit trail, often referred to as an audit log or certificate of completion, records all activities that take place in your documents throughout the eSigning process. Key information is automatically tracked and recorded, from the signer's name to where changes have been made. Some details that are tracked in audit trails include:

• Details of the signers(s), including name and IP address
• Confirmation the signer(s) has been fully authenticated
• Time and date the document is signed
• Details of any further changes made to the document

Let’s dive into four of the top reasons your organization should be embracing audit trails.

Fully Compliant eSign Practices: Did you know that there are global eSignature laws your business must comply with? With audit trails, you can meet your industry’s specific legal requirements and guarantee the integrity of your eSignature workflows at all times.

More Efficient eSign Processes: Audit trails automatically track and store data throughout the signing process, replacing manual, repetitive tasks with fast, digitized workflows. Document history can be stored in one place for your team to access in real time, so you don’t need to waste precious time frantically searching for documents.

Improved Document Security: Are you in an industry that requires high levels of security like healthcare, financial services or real estate? Audit trails create safe and reliable workflows for your teams. You’ll have peace of mind that your documents are being seen by only the right people and are not being changed once the signing process is complete.

Reduced Paper Waste and Costs: Just imagine the volume of paper you would be dealing with if you printed and stored all of your documents, not to mention the high costs. By making the move to digitized document workflows, you’ll be positively impacting the environment and cutting business expenses.

With Nitro Sign, you can get a detailed audit trail of your document activity in just a few clicks. Every document that's uploaded to Nitro Sign is automatically recorded, so you don’t need to worry about capturing the information each time.

1. Open your document in Nitro Sign. 
2. Click the Information icon in the top right.  
3. In the collapsible information panel, select History. 

1. On the right information panel select Download Audit Trail.
2. To create a copy of the document, select the File tab and Duplicate Document.
3. Name your document and select Copy to finish.
4. To combine the document with the audit trail, select View on the top right.
5. On the Home tab, select Combine.
6. Add the downloaded audit trial file from your computer.
7. Select Continue.
8. You’ll have the option to request a signature for the newly combined documents or organize the pages after combining.
9. Select Combine 2 Documents.
10. The newly combined document is now ready.

See why Nitro Sign was named an eSignature leader by GigaOm in your your complimentary copy of the 2023 Radar Report for eSignature Solutions.

Global entertainment company, Salem Media, uses Nitro Sign to speed up workflows, boost visibility and enhance productivity across their sales, marketing, accounting and engineering teams. With the audit trails feature, they created an “electronic filing cabinet” of signatures to easily track and store the important information they need.

The company deployed Nitro’s electronic signatures to ten times the number of employees who previously had access, driving efficiency throughout the organization.

OUR BIGGEST SUCCESS IS WITH OUR SALES AND MARKETING TEAMS. EACH DIVISION ALREADY HAS THEIR CONTRACTS IN NITRO SIGN, AND THEY CAN COLLECT SIGNATURES FOR AD SPOTS WITH NO WAITING. WE USE NITRO ACROSS MORE THAN 35 MARKETS.

Sean Shordon | IT Project Manager

The benefits of eSignature audit trails are endless.

Talk with one of our product experts to see how audit trails work and a host of other powerful features in Nitro Sign.