What an electronic signature is
An electronic signature is a digital way for a person to indicate that they agree to the contents of a document, used in place of a handwritten, wet-ink signature. In practice it lets someone review a document and sign it from a browser or device, rather than printing, signing and scanning.
The legal standing of an electronic signature depends on the jurisdiction and the type of document, but in many settings a properly captured electronic signature carries the same weight as a handwritten one. What makes a signing trustworthy is the surrounding evidence: a record of who signed, when, and in what order, kept as an audit trail that can be relied on later.
Electronic signing is most useful when it happens where the work already is, so a document does not have to leave the system that created it just to be signed.
Electronic signatures in the Cohiva platform
Cohiva Sign provides legally binding e-signatures embedded across every Cohiva product. It handles agreements, contracts and franchise disclosure documents, it is eIDAS compliant, and it keeps a full audit trail for each document.
Because Sign is embedded, signing happens inside the product workflow rather than in a separate tool. To see how it works, explore Sign.