Document Signing

What it is

Document Signing lets an MSP keep a library of contract templates, assemble them into a package for one client, and email that client a link where they review and sign — or decline — without needing a Solidlio login. Every signature is stored with the signer, the time, the originating IP, the browser, and a one-way hash hash of the exact file bytes that were signed.

Concepts

Package statuses

DRAFT → SENT → PARTIALLY_SIGNED → COMPLETED

CANCELLED (you cancelled it, or a signer declined) and EXPIRED (the signing window elapsed) are terminal.

Document statuses

PENDING → VIEWED → PARTIALLY_SIGNED → SIGNED, or DECLINED.

SIGNED and DECLINED are one-way. A document that has been signed cannot afterwards be declined, and a declined document cannot be signed.

Roles and permissions

A package belonging to another account returns 404, not 403 — there is no way to probe for the existence of another tenant’s documents.

Walkthroughs

Build your template library

1. Go to MSP → Settings → Document Library.
2. To start from a sample, open the starter templates and choose Copy. The copy lands in your library with a disclaimer appended to the description: “This is a sample template only and does not constitute legal advice. Have your legal counsel review and customize before use.”
3. To upload your own, use Upload. Accepted types are PDF, DOCX and DOC, up to 25 MB. Anything else is rejected with Unsupported file type: <type>. Accepted types: PDF, DOCX, DOC.
4. To write one in Solidlio, use Create Blank Template, give it a name and category, and you land in the editor.
5. Click the eye icon on any template to open its stored file. A rich-text template that has never been rendered to a PDF opens in the editor instead — its content lives inline, so the editor is the preview.

Write a rich-text template with merge fields

1. Open a rich-text template’s Edit page.
2. Type / in the body for the slash menu, or use the placeholder picker, to insert merge fields.
3. Save. Each save bumps the template version and writes a revision with your optional change note.
4. Revision History lists every version with its author and note. Open one to read it, or restore it — restoring writes a new version rather than rewinding, so the history is never lost.

Which merge fields actually fill in:

Every other field — msp.representative_title, client.contact_title, the commercial terms under agreement.* (expiration date, term length, renewal terms, monthly fee, payment terms) and anything under custom.* — has no source of truth at build time and is deliberately left blank. It prints as a bracketed label such as [Payment Terms] for a person to complete. Solidlio does not invent values for a legal document.

Send documents to a client

1. Go to MSP → Clients → client → Onboarding.
2. Under Send documents, pick the templates you want and confirm.
3. Solidlio creates the package, renders every rich-text document into a per-client PDF with the merge fields filled in, and emails the client’s primary contact a signing link.
4. The response tells you how many signers were emailed and when their links expire.

If a document could not be rendered, the send is refused and names it: These documents have no file to sign and were not sent: <names>. Generate or upload their content first. Nothing is emailed until every signable document has a file behind it.

The default signer is the client organization’s primary contact, falling back to its earliest active member. If the organization has nobody with an email address you get At least one signer is required — this client has no contact with an email address.

What the signer sees

1. The email carries a link to /sign/<token>. No account, no password.
2. The page lists every document in the package, marks which ones are theirs to sign, and shows the sending company’s name and logo.
3. Opening a document streams it inline from private storage and moves it from PENDING to VIEWED.
4. Sign captures a typed name or a drawn signature. Solidlio computes the one-way hash of the document bytes server-side — the client never supplies it — and records the signature with the signer’s IP and user agent.
5. Decline asks for a reason (required, up to 1000 characters). Declining any document cancels the whole package and closes the signer’s link.
6. One link signs every document that signer was designated for. It is consumed only when they have nothing left to sign.
7. After the last signature the page offers Download your signed copies. The link stays readable — but no longer signable — until its expiry, so the signer can come back for their copy.

Track and audit what is out for signature

1. Go to MSP → Settings → Signature Tracking.
2. Filter by status (Draft, Out for signature, Partially signed, Completed, Cancelled, Expired) or search by package name.
3. Click a package to open its audit trail. For each document you see:
   • its status, and the decline reason if it was declined;
   • who was asked to sign, under which role, when they were invited, and whether their link has been used or is still valid;
   • every signature, with the signer’s name and email, the capture method, the timestamp, the originating IP, the user agent, and the one-way hash the signature was bound to;
   • an integrity check that re-hashes the stored file right now and compares. It reads Hash matches, Document changed since signing, or Not checkable right now if storage could not be read — that last state is not a claim that anything was altered.
4. Download original and Download executed copy stream the files from private storage through an authenticated request.
5. Resend signing links issues fresh links and invalidates the previous ones. Cancel package voids every outstanding link immediately.

Configuration

MSP → Settings → Onboarding holds every signing default:

An expired package flips to EXPIRED, its onboarding tracker to STALLED, and its signing links stop opening. Packages that are SENT or PARTIALLY_SIGNED are both swept, so a part-signed package expires on schedule like any other.

Reminders go to every signer who still owes a signature, not only the primary contact. Each reminder issues that signer a fresh link, which invalidates the one in their previous email.

Plan tiers

Document Signing is included on every plan. There is no entitlement gate on any template, package or signing route, and no signing feature flag in the plan catalog. Nothing here is metered or capped.

Troubleshooting

Limits and known behaviour

• Signing is invitation-only. There is no self-service way for someone to request a document to sign; a package is always pushed by MSP staff.
• Rich-text merge fields fill from account and organization records only. Commercial terms and custom fields print as bracketed blanks. See the table in walkthrough 2.
• Resending rotates tokens. Signing tokens are stored only as a one-way hash, so the raw value in a previously sent email cannot be recovered. Resend and automated reminders both issue a fresh link, and the older link stops working.
• Cadence is per account.
• A signing link stays readable after signing. Bounded by the token’s own expiry (your account’s expiry setting, capped at 365 days). Anyone with that URL inside that window can read the package and download its executed copies. Treat the link as a credential.
• Declining cancels the whole package, not just the document declined.
• Document Signing lives in the MSP portal. There is no org-portal or customer-portal screen for browsing signed agreements; clients retrieve their copies from their signing link.
• Signing runs entirely on Solidlio’s built-in capture.
• Statements of Work and quotes have their own acceptance flow, in Projects and Billing respectively. They record an acceptance name, signature, timestamp and IP against the accepting user, but they do not use document packages, signing tokens or content hashing.