Having a quote signed and the signed PDF

When someone signs a quote or a delivery note, Univents automatically creates a signed PDF: your original document unchanged, followed by two extra pages proving who signed, when, and how. That PDF is the record you can hand to a customer, to your accountant, or to a court if it ever comes to that.

How your customer signs

1. You send the quote as usual. The customer opens the link to their customer portal.
2. In the portal they click Sign, draw their signature with a mouse or finger or type their name, tick the consent box, and confirm.
3. The quote switches to Accepted immediately. The customer sees the confirmation "Signed on … at … by …" and, below it, the Download signed quote button.
4. If the signed PDF is not ready yet, the button shows a loading state. As soon as it is ready the customer can download it — and it also arrives as an attachment to the confirmation email.

There is only ever one download target for the customer: once the signed PDF exists, the button at the top of the document points at that version too. Two different files under the same name cannot happen.

What the signed PDF contains

Your document comes first, unchanged, exactly as the customer saw it. Two pages follow:

Digital signatures

• document type, number and title, issuer and recipient
• the checksum of the original (a 64-character string) and the original's page count
• one card per signature with the signer's name, the method (drawn, typed or uploaded), the time, the IP address and the device used ("Safari on iPhone, iOS 18.1")
• the consent text the customer read when signing, quoted word for word
• the signature image or the typed name

Document history

A timeline of the document: created, sent, viewed by the customer, signed, signed PDF created, order confirmation sent. Every line names the time and who was involved.

The two pages are numbered Enclosure 1 of 2 and Enclosure 2 of 2 — your original's page numbers stay untouched so the checksum still matches.

If something was never recorded, the page says so: "IP not recorded", "Consent text not recorded", "Device not recognised". Univents does not fill in gaps after the fact. Signatures carried over from the old system appear as a separate band noting that no signature image and no device details were ever captured there.

Where to find the signed PDF

• On the document card in the event's Documents tab: below the status you get the line "Signed on …" with the Signed PDF link.
• Inside the document: the link sits next to the usual PDF link and still works once the document is locked.
• In the customer portal: on the accepted quote, for your customer.
• In the confirmation email: as an attachment.

Switching off the confirmation email attachment

By default Univents attaches the signed quote to the confirmation email — that is the whole point of the feature. If you would rather it did not, switch Attach signed quote to confirmation email off under Settings → Documents. The email then goes out without an attachment and points to the customer portal instead. The signed PDF is still created and waiting for you in the back office.

If the file is very large, Univents links to the portal instead of attaching it, so the email stays deliverable rather than getting stuck in the recipient's mailbox.

Regenerating the signed PDF

The document card's three-dot menu offers Regenerate signed PDF. You need it when creation failed once — the card tells you so in plain words and offers the button as the first action.

Every run creates a new file; the previous one is kept and shows up as its own line in the document history. The link always points at the most recent version. If a document carries no verifiable signature at all, Univents reports "This document has no signature" and creates nothing.

Having a delivery note signed on site

A delivery note works the same way, just without the customer portal: you or your driver opens the delivery note and has it signed on screen on the spot — in the back office or in the staff portal. The signed PDF is created automatically afterwards.

Your driver still only sees the signature in the staff portal, never prices. The signed PDF is a back-office matter.

Documents without a PDF: the standalone signature record

Some documents were never rendered as a PDF, for instance a delivery note signed straight out of its draft. In that case Univents does not render your original after the fact — a PDF produced later would no longer be the document that was signed. Instead you get a standalone signature record: the same two pages, just without the document in front. It proves signer, time and history exactly the same way.

The same happens if the original file cannot be retrieved for once. The reason is then shown in plain words on the document.

Verification page: checking a document without a login

The signature page carries a note like "Verify at univents.app/verify/…" together with the checksum of the original. Anyone who opens that address — your customer, their lawyer, your accountant — sees, with no account and no login, which document it is, who issued it, when it was signed and who signed it. Nothing beyond that.

If the checksum matches no document, the page says exactly that and gives nothing away. The verification page knows contracts, signed documents and order confirmations.

Frequently asked questions

Does signing change my original? No. The original is never re-rendered and never altered. The signature pages are appended at the back.

What if several people sign? Then each signature gets its own card on the page, in chronological order. The document card names the most recent signature and the count.

The customer sent the signed quote back as a scan — does that work too? Yes. Mark the quote as accepted and upload the scan in the dialog. The scan then is the original, and Univents checks first that it really is a PDF. The signature page records the method "uploaded" and who filed the scan.

Can I delete a signed PDF? No. Older versions are kept so the record stays complete.