Today, most finance, tax, legal and procurement teams are working with digitised documents. Signing is an age-old process of download the document, print it, sign it, then scan and send it back. This is time-consuming with a large number of documents and later it is difficult to sag who signed when, for what context and how.
Part of this problem is solved through a Digital Signature Certificate(DSC). The Digital signature allows an authorized individual to verify the sign of an electronic document. DSCs are issued in India by Certifying Authorities which have been licenced by the Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA).
That's why just being aware of the procedure to sign documents using a DSC will not be sufficient if your team signs PDFs regularly. You not only will want the process to be faster but you will want it to also be controlled and easily manageable.
SEPFUST Digital Signature Automation being created for this need. It enables a business to transition from manual signing to a more organized digital process.
What Is a Digital Signature on a PDF?
A digital signature uses a Digital Signature Certificate to validate the authenticity of a document electronically. Copying and pasting a picture of your handwritten signature into a PDF is another. The digital signature is associated with the signer's certificate, and thus can be validated.
According to the CCA, a digital signature provides for electronic authentication for privacy and can be independently verified. It is also tied to the content of the document so it's not just simple signature image that can be reused.
This actually makes a huge difference to a business. A scanned signature only represents the visual appearance of a signature. Digital signature provides a way to verify a signer identity and that the signed document remains unchanged.
What Do You Need Before Signing a PDF Using DSC?
Before you get started, have these three things prepared.
1). A Valid Digital Signature Certificate: An authorised signatory needs to have a legally valid DSC issued by a licensed Certifying Authority. The CCA governs the framework in which licensed CAs issue Digital Signature Certificates.
2). Access to the DSC and Private Key: A private key bound to a DSC is a security-sensitive element. It needs to remain with the owner of that authorisation, and no one else should possess it.
In the case of Hardware-based DSCs, the private key is inside a secure cryptographic device. The CCA also specifies hardware-based key storage requirements for the relevant certificate classes.
3). The PDF Required to be Signed: Before you sign the document. Read through it This is most essential for signed documents such as invoices, agreements, declarations, certificates and tax records that are subject to signature verification because any alteration after the signing can cause that there will always be a complication throughout its emission.
How to Digitally Sign a PDF Using DSC
Depending on the signing application and how your organisation has them set up, steps will differ slightly. Everywhere the basic flow is same.
Step 1: Prepare the PDF
Take the last version of the document.
All details should be correctly entered before applying the DSC: name of the document, date, values, clauses, attachment and signatories. Ideally it should be signed after the internal reviews and approvals are done.
Step 2: Connect or Make the DSC Readily Available
While DSC is hardware-based, The authorised signatory has to physically be present with the token and credentials for authentication if that is the case.
Treat the DSC with care. It is the private key that enables the subscriber to generate the digital signature, and it is specifically an recommendation of CCA that subscribers have an obligation to protect their digital signature key.
Step 3: Open the PDF in Signing Application
Open your PDF in your digital signature application. It will find the signing certificate available to use and display the option to sign.
Some workflows may require the signature to be at a fixed point in the document.
Click on Step 4 — Select the DSC you need.
Choose the relevant Digital Signature Certificate by that authorized Signatory.
This is particularly relevant in cases where there are multiple certificates (or a number of authorised signatories). If you choose the wrong one, you may face approval and verification issues further down the line.
Step 5: Authenticate the Signer
The signer verifies the action with a PIN, password or any other authentication mechanism used in that signing system.
This ensures that the signature is created by the authorizer subscriber, not just an image pasted into the file.
Step 6: Add the Digital Signature
After the authentication is completed, the digital signature is applied to the pdf with an application.
The file now contains digital signature data, and this data can be verified in the future by a recipient or verifier.
Step 7: Verify the Signed PDF
Do not skip this one.
After the signing, make sure that you can see it clearly and verify that document shows the expected signing status and certificate information.
CCA says to check a signature, the signer's certificate is needed along with the issuer certificate chain.
It comes in handy where signed documents are required to be sent across clients, suppliers, departments or other teams within your organization.
How signing PDFs manually creates challenges at scale
The manual method may not seem like a problem if one person signs one or two documents. By pinch, we mean when finance, tax, legal or operations teams only must deal with hundreds of docs.
Consider a finance department that receives hundreds of documents daily for approvals by authorized signatories. Each one may need:
- Document preparation
- Internal approval
- Signatory identification
- PDF opening
- DSC selection
- Authentication
- Signing
- Verification
- Saving the final document
- This was in line with a: Sharing it with the right person
- Maintaining a record
All of these steps are simple on their own. However, when repeated over 24 hours, they can collectively become more challenging to manage.
There is some risk too. The signing of a document may take place on different individual computers, emails and folders such that maintaining one single consistent record is difficult.
This is where the relevance of automation in digital signatures comes into play.
How SEPFUST Digital Signature Automation Works
SEPFUST Digital Signature Automation is designed to integrate digital signing into a more organised business workflow.
Signing is no longer just a standalone task on one person's desktop. Organisations can put it in their routine document processing system.
The aim is to reduce manual intervention and still maintain command of the signing process.
This is especially useful for finance and compliance teams, often generating documents repeatedly requiring signatures from employees responsible or authorised signatories.
Centralised Digital Signing Workflow: This means that documents can be routed through a preset signing workflow without employees having to physically pass them back and forth each other.
This makes the process less reliant upon single users and a little more manageable.
Faster Document Processing: If employees process a high volume of documents, removing repetitive manual steps can reduce time required for the processes.
It is not just signing that saves. Fewer handovers between preparation, approval, signing and distribution can mean a much larger improvement.
Better Process Control: It also makes them know where a specific document lies when there is structured workflow.
I'm talking about skip-level approvals, where a document moves from ready to approved to signed digitally rather than being passed around informally over email.
Improved Audit Readiness: Digital signing means an electronic record, which can be helpful to fulfill requirement of document verification and audit.
When working with tax, finance and regulatory documents, the need for an accurate history of what has happened to each document is paramount.
The CCA framework also clarifies that verification and audit-related information is relevant in electronic signature processes.
Reduced Paper Dependency: By far the biggest benefit, for many companies, is actually the most basic one. No more printing, cloak and dagger sign, scan and resubmit.
It is particularly helpful in scenarios where five or more departments share signed PDFs regularly.
Automating Digital Signature vs Signing the PDF Manually
Here's what the two methods look like on a day-to-day basis.
| Manual Signing Process | Digital Signature Automation |
| Documents are handled individually | It creates a custom workflow for documents. |
| More manual intervention | Reduced repetitive activity |
| Greater dependency on individual users | Structured process |
| Documents may circulate through emails and folders | Centralised workflow can improve control |
| Hard to manage at larger volumes. | More suitable for repeating numbers of documents |
| More scope for process delays | Faster movement between workflow stages |
| You may require manual record keeping | Digital records can support tracking |
The authorised signatory is very much still in needed and its that persons responsibility as the person who signs. Automation just makes the between signing work more effective and controlled.
Where Can Businesses Use Digital Signature Automation?
It can be of greater use in SMEs or Large functions of the business.
Finance and Accounting
Approvals, declarations, certificates of funds and other finance documents may require authorised signatures.
Tax and Compliance
Authenticating Documents: In tax and regulatory work, there are documents that require the sign-off from approved officials. This is where having a structured digital signing workflow can help teams manage more effortlessly.
Procurement
As a result, to get on track and provide the purchase documents, vendor documentation and commercial approvals may contain so many people. Then digital signing will reduce the time taken to move paperwork from one department to another.
Legal and Contracts
Contracts and legal documents in general require scrutiny on signing and retention. Organisations usually need some digital workflow to manage this process
HR
Digital signing workflow can also apply to offer letters, employment documents, declarations and various employee records.
Is a Digital Signature the Same as a Scanned Signature?
No.
A scanned signature is merely an image of a handwritten signature inserted into a document. Digitial signatures using cryptography and a Digital Signature Certificate to authenticate both the signer and any connection the signature has with an electronic document.
When the authenticity of the document, as well as the ability to verify it, matters - a difference that is substantial.
The CCA says a digital signature links an individual's electronic authentication to the document or transaction and that it can be independently verified.
What Happens if the DSC Expires After the PDF Is Signed?
The validity of typed DSCs and the validity of signatures must be checked separately.
The CCA asserts that a signature is authenticated when it was added. The signature is positive if it was correct at the time this particular certificate was taken out.
Certain documents will need to remain verifiable for a long-time. You should also consider appropriate long-term archival signature formats and preservation practices for those. The CCA prescribes long-term signature formats which need to be confirmed long after the fact.
Here Are A Few Reasons Why Companies Must Automate Digital Signature Workflows
When you see the entire journey of a document, automation can actually be worth it. It will partially replace a manual action.
When volumes increase, these little repetitive jobs consume employee effort. Locating the appropriate PDF, figuring out who is the authorised signatory, Senator, Nigerian Ambassador to Japan via For-Profit Action.
This is where the concept of a digital signature automation workflow comes in, which brings signing into a more controlled digital setup to help close those gaps.
The value for CFOs, Finance Heads and compliance teams is three-fold — process efficiency, control and traceability.
Conclusion
If you are dealing with electronic documents then how to digitally sign a PDF with DSC will help you do your job better. The bigger opportunity is everything else around the signature being automated.
All you need to know is what a DSC, or Digital Signature Certificate, allows you to do. The difficulty for a business is performing that efficiently as the volume of documents and users scales.
This does mean SEPFUST Digital Signature Automation is conducive to organisations looking for a stepwise digital signing process fluidity. It minimizes repetitive manual tasks and also enhances the control of documents and operational efficiency.
For businesses that run finance, tax, procurement or compliance processes digitally then taking the step of automating digital signature can be an accessible next milestone on your journey to a more connected document workflow.
Digitally sign multiple PDF files at once to reduce manual work, avoid missed documents, speed up processing, and maintain consistent signature placement. SEPFUST automates DSC-based bulk PDF signing with folder processing, ERP integration, and signing status tracking.
