This guide covers the use of Netvisor's electronic signing service, which is implemented in collaboration with Visma Sign. You will learn how to send documents for signing, manage signature processes, cancel or edit invitations, and track the progress of the process. 

Contents

Service description and billing principles

Open electronic signing by selecting Electronic signing from the company menu.

In Netvisor, you can send .pdf documents for electronic signing. The service is implemented in collaboration with  Visma Sign  program.

  • In the Electronic signing view in the company menu, select the desired .pdf document to be signed.
  • Select the visibility of invitations sent via the company menu either at the sending stage or later:
    • Personal: visible only to the sender.
    • Public: visible to all company Netvisor users.

Please note the service charges:

  • The service is transaction-based: you only pay for the signature requests sent.
  • One signatory = one transaction (e.g. 2 signatories = 2 transactions).
  • The service does not have a separate monthly fee.
  • See the service price in the price list under Electronic signing and Text message (if you use text messages).
  • The price depends on the company's volume class.
  • The charge is based on sending the material, not on whether the material is ultimately signed or not.
  • If you also send a text message, both the electronic signing and the text message are charged.
  • If the invitation is sent only by email, only the electronic signing is charged.

Please note billing and the Visma Sign interface:

  • Billing for signature invitations sent through Netvisor is included in Netvisor's billing.
  • If you are also a direct customer of the Visma Sign service, electronic signings sent from the Visma Sign interface are billed separately.
  • If you have activated electronic signing through Netvisor and want user credentials also for the Visma Sign interface:
    1. Fill in the authorization: Authorization to add the administrator of the Visma Sign service.
    2. Inform Visma Sign customer service that you have filled in the form: tuki.sign@visma.com.

Before sending a signature, make sure that the company's address information has been entered in the company's basic information:

  • Name
  • Business id
  • Street address
  • Postal address
  • Postal code

Please note names and length limits:

  • The name of the document to be signed can be up to 100 characters long.
  • The company name can be up to 100 characters long.

Please note identification and the language of the invitation:

  • Electronic signing is possible with:
    • Finnish bank credentials
    • mobile certificate
    • BankID (Sweden and Norway)
    • NemID (Denmark).
  • The language of the signature invitation can be Finnish, English or Swedish.

Access rights

Open electronic signing by selecting Electronic signing from the company menu.

  • You can access the Electronic signing view with any combination of access rights.
  • You can access the view even if the profile is "No rights", but with this profile you cannot send invitations.
  • With the ready-made "Browsing rights" profile, you also cannot send signature invitations.
  • The sender must have some other user profile in Netvisor than "No rights" or "Browsing rights". Separate roles are not necessarily needed.

Sending the financial statements for signing:

  • Send the financial statements for electronic signing directly through the financial period archive .
  • Only those who have access to the Financial period archive can see the invitations sent through the financial period archive.

Electronic signing

All documents

Open the view by selecting Electronic signing from the company menu and then the All documents tab (if available).

  • The view lists the documents that have already been created.
  • Search invitations using the following information:
    • name
    • description
    • date
    • document
    • inviter.

Show in listing:

  • Select which fields you want to display in the listing.
  • After making your selections, select Update view.

Group:

  • Select the order in which the listing displays the created forms.
  • When you change the grouping, select Update view at the end.

Open the details of a single document:

  • Select the document name in the Document name field.
  • In the Document to be signed view you can see:
    • details of the document to be signed
    • the document to be signed itself
    • details of the invited signatories
    • details of the inviter.

Please note descriptions and messages:

  • The Internal description is not visible to the recipients of the invitation, only internally.
  • The Message field shows the message accompanying the invitation.

Document status:

  • Draft:
    • The document has been created but not yet sent.
    • Send the draft by opening it from the document name (Document to be signed view) and sending the invitation.
  • Sent:
    • The document is in the sending queue.
    • Sending takes place during the next automatic processing.
  • Received:
    • The invitation has been forwarded to the signatory or signatories.
    • The recipient has not yet signed the document.
  • Signed:
    • All signatories have signed the document.
  • Archived:
    • The material has been manually set to archive status.
    • Archive the invitation from the downward triangle at the end of the row.
    • You cannot archive an invitation if it has not been signed by everyone.
    • If the invitation is not signed within the validity period, the invitation goes to Rejected status, after which you can archive it.
  • Rejected:
    • If the document is not signed within the validity period, the document goes to Rejected status.
    • An invitation in Rejected status cannot be edited.
    • Send the invitation again to all signatories.
    • If the invitation was sent from the financial period archive, proceed in one of the following ways:
      • Save the financial statements to be signed to your computer in pdf format and send it through electronic signing as a new document to be signed (note that in this case all company users can see the document).
      • Release the financial statements, recreate them and send the invitations again.

Category: 

  • Currently, the service has two categories:
    • Other documents: materials formed through the company menu.
    • Financial statements: materials sent through the financial period archive.
  • If a person does not have access to the Financial period archive, they do not see invitations in the Financial statements category in the listing.

Signature status: 

  • The view shows how many people have signed the form.
  • The color changes to green when all signatories have signed the form.

Handle the invitation from the blue arrow at the end of the row:

  • Open the menu from the blue arrow at the end of the row.
  • Select the desired action:
    • Delete invitation: possible only if the status of the invitation is "Draft". A sent invitation cannot be deleted.
    • Archive invitation: the invitation/document is not visible on the front page. You can find an archived invitation by selecting "Archived" in the Show in listing section.
    • Edit invitation publicity information: the creator of the invitation can change the document to public or personal:
      • Public: all users see the document.
      • Personal: only the creator of the invitation sees the document.

New document to be signed

Create a new document to be signed in the Electronic signing view.

  • Fields marked with an asterisk are mandatory.

Provide details of the document to be signed:

  • Document name: maximum 100 characters.
  • Internal description: not visible to the recipients of the form.
  • Message sent with the document:
    • The message character limit is 840 characters.
    • The message is transmitted after the personal message.

Add a document to be signed:

  1. Select the document to be signed from your computer in the opened view.
  2. Make sure that the attachment is in pdf format.
  3. Make sure that the attachment size is a maximum of 15 MB or 350 pages.
    • If the size of the attachment exceeds the allowed size limit, the creation of the invitation ends in an error.
    • In that case, sign the attachment through another route.
    • A typical example of a too large attachment is large main and journal files during the financial statement period that exceed 350 pages.
  4. Note that the name of the attachment is not visible to the recipient, but the attachment itself is.
  5. You can add a specification as an internal comment.

Add signatory:

  1. Carefully check the correctness of the signatory's email address.
    • If there is a typo in the email address, the invitation will not be sent to that person.
    • You cannot edit the email address after sending the invitation.
    • In that case, send a new invitation to the correct address.
  2. Add the person as a signatory to the invitation.
  3. Edit the signatory's information or delete the signatory from the menu in the blue box at the end of the row before sending the invitation.
  4. Add all signatories at once:
    • The maximum number of signatories on one invitation is 50.
  5. Send the invitation to a personal email address to ensure it goes to the correct person.
    • Do not use general email addresses.
  6. Add a personal message if necessary:
    • The personal message is visible to the person first.
    • The document message is visible after the personal message.
    • The character limit for the personal message is 160 characters.
    • The message is visible only to the selected person.
  7. Enter a phone number if necessary:
    • The phone number must be Finnish, either with or without the international country code.
    • If you want to send a text message, the phone number must be entered.
  8. Select Signature as an organization if necessary:
    • If you select this, the user is required to add the information of the organization they represent with the signature.
  9. Select Text message settings:
    • One message can contain 160 characters, including both the personal message and the general message.
    • If the message is longer, the recipient will receive multiple messages.
    • If you select "Send invitation also as a text message", the recipient will receive the invitation link both by text message and email.
  10. Select Force signature order as above if necessary:
    • The invitation is sent to the next person only after the previous person has signed it.
  11. Select the language of the signature invitation:
    • Finnish
    • English
    • Swedish.

Inviter's information:

  • A message is sent to the inviter's email when the document is:
    • signed
    • rejected
    • or feedback has been given.

Visibility of the invitation:

  • Set the visibility of the document:
    • Public: visible to all company Netvisor users.
    • Personal: visible only to the creator of the invitation.
  • You can change the visibility status later.

Send invitation to signatories:

  1. Set the validity period of the invitation:
    • When the validity period expires, the document goes to Rejected status if it has not been signed.
    • After the validity period expires, you cannot edit the invitation.
    • In that case, send the invitation completely again to all signatories.
    • Set a sufficiently long validity period.
    • You cannot set the current day as the validity period.
  2. Please note resending the invitation:
    • If the invitation was originally sent through the Electronic signing view, a completely new invitation must be made.
    • If the invitation was sent from the financial period archive, proceed in one of the following ways:
      • Save the financial statements to be signed to your computer in pdf format and send it through electronic signing as a new document to be signed (note that in this case all company users can see the document).
      • Release the financial statements, recreate them and send the invitations again.
  3. Select Send invitation when you want to send the material to the signatories:
    • After sending, you can no longer edit the form.
  4. Select Save as draft if you do not want to send the material yet:
    • The invitation is not sent to the signatories.
    • You can edit the invitation before sending.
    • Send the draft by opening it in the Electronic signing view (Document to be signed view) and sending the invitation.

Sending a reminder from Netvisor

Open reminder sending by selecting Electronic signing from the company menu and opening the desired invitation.

  1. Check which of the people in the invitation has not signed the invitation sent to them.
  2. Select the clock button in front of the person who has not yet signed the invitation.
  3. Send the reminder:
    • The reminder message contains the same information as the original invitation.
    • You can send a reminder as long as the invitation is valid.
    • If the invitation goes to Rejected status, a completely new invitation must be made.
    • The reminder is charged the same price as the original invitation.

Cancellation of invitation

Open invitation cancellation by selecting Electronic signing from the company menu and opening the desired Document to be signed view.

  1. Select the function Cancel the signature process and start over in the Document to be signed view.
  2. Please note the effects of cancellation:
    • The signature link stops working for those who have not yet signed the document.
    • All existing signatures are removed.
    • When the signature process is canceled, you can create a new signature invitation if necessary.
    • In the Financial period archive, the signature status returns to "Invite signatories..." without needing to recreate the financial statement material.

Marking a partially signed document as signed

Open the partially signed document by selecting Electronic signing from the company menu and opening the desired Document to be signed view.

  1. Select the function Mark document as signed for the partially signed document.

Before marking, make sure the following requirements are met:

  • At least one approved signature must be present.
  • Before marking as signed, ensure the sufficiency and legality of the signatures on the partially signed document.
  • Information is stored in the document details about when the document was marked as signed by the user.

Tracking the progress of the signature process from the financial period archive

Open the financial period archive by selecting Financial period archive (e.g. Bookkeeping > Financial period archive).

  • A column has been added to the Financial period archive that shows the status of the signature process without having to switch to the Electronic signing view.
  • Select the icon in the column:
    • You can see a list of people who have signed.
    • You can see whose signatures are still missing.

Visibility of the signature in Netvisor

Track the visibility of the signature in Netvisor as follows:

  • When the document is signed, the information appears in Netvisor within about an hour of signing.
  • The service retrieves signatures from the server approximately every hour, so the information does not update in real time.
  • The document appears as signed when all the people in the invitation have signed the document.
  • Track the status of the signature:
    • in the Electronic signing view
    • in the Financial period archive.
  • The sender of the invitation receives an email notification when everyone has signed the document.

Please note the Signed status:

  • The Signed status of the invitation is based on email addresses, not names.
  • If the same person has been sent an invitation to multiple email addresses, the document is considered signed only when it has been signed through all email addresses.

Signature process from the signatory's perspective

Please note the email received by the signatory:

  • An email arrives to the signatory with the subject "Invitation to sign document xx".
  • The email address from which the message comes is in the form: "Name of the inviter" through the domain onnistuu.fi.
  • If the signature invitation is not visible in the email inbox, even though it appears in the system that the invitation was sent, check the spam folder.
  • The signature invitation is also visible in the Visma Sign service if the signatory has the service in use.

Steps of signing:

The email contains a password and a link to the invitation. Entering the password and opening the document does not sign the invitation.

  1. Review the document: Review the invitation and the document.
  2. Proceed to authenticate: Authenticate with bank credentials or a mobile certificate. Authentication does not yet sign the invitation.
  3. Sign the document: Select the Sign document button. After signing the document, the signatory receives confirmation by email.


If the signing of the invitation is left unfinished or the invitation has only been viewed, you can return to it from the link in the email.

Visibility of signatures in the signed document

View signatures in the signed document as follows:

  • Signatures appear on their own page as the last page of the document.
  • The page title is "ALLEKIRJOITUKSET / UNDERSKRIVNINGAR / SIGNATURES".
  • Below the title, the names of the signatories are listed in rows.
  • After each signatory's name, the following are shown:
    • date
    • time when the document was signed
    • UUID code (the user's signature identifier, a long string of letters and numbers).
  • The signatory's organization is shown below the name.
  • If the signatures are not visible in the document, try opening the document in a different browser, for example Chrome.

Example of a signature page: 

ALLEKIRJOITUKSET / UNDERSKRIVNINGAR / SIGNATURES

Maija Mallikas - 22.6.2017 9:33:02 - 2459j685-4575-9u65-4rt1b2548p9

Yritys Oy

Matti Mallikas - 22.6.2017 9:34:00 - 9659j685-4575-2u65-4rt1r2548p9

Yritys Oy

Document requirements

Before sending a signature invitation, make sure that the document to be signed meets the following requirements:

  • The document must be in PDF format.
  • The file name must not contain special characters such as %&_@€”.
  • The file name length must be a maximum of 100 characters.
  • The PDF file must not contain links.
  • The PDF file must not contain active fillable fields.
  • The file must be a single PDF/A file.
  • The file must not contain combinations of different-sized pages.

Email address requirements

When sending a signature invitation, make sure that the signatory's email address meets the following requirements:

  • The email address must not contain special characters.
  • If the email address contains special characters:
    • select "Text message only" as the sending method, or
    • request an alternative email address from the signatory that does not contain special characters.

Frequently asked questions

Do you need Netvisor credentials to send a signature invitation? 

Yes.

If I choose to send the invitation also via SMS, what information does it contain?

The text message contains the personal message sent with the invitation, the message sent with the document, the link to the invitation and the password.

The signature request has not been received by one of the signatories, why?

  1. Check if the signature link has gone to the spam folder in the email. Messages are sent from Visma Sign's email server, which is why they may end up in spam in some cases.
  2. Check whether a forced signature order has been selected for the document. In this case, the signature invitation is sent to the next person only after the previous signatory has signed the invitation.
  3. Check whether the signatory's email address is written correctly. If the address is incorrect, send a new invitation.
  4. If everything should be in order after the above actions, contact customer service.

How can I resend a signature request/add signatories to it? 

Once the invitation has been sent for signing, it can no longer be modified afterwards. Select all desired signatories at once for the invitation. The validity period of the invitation should be chosen so that all signatories have enough time to sign the invitation.

The invitation has gone to "Rejected" status, how can it be resent?

Once the invitation has been sent for signing, it can no longer be modified afterwards. All signatories must sign the invitation within its validity period. When the invitation goes to "Rejected" status, the invitation must be sent completely again to the desired signatories. (More information under the "All documents" and "New document to be signed" sections.)

If the document was sent through the Financial period archive, proceed in one of the following ways:

  1. The material can be saved to the computer, and a new electronic signature invitation can be manually created through the Electronic signing view (under the company name > Electronic signing). The signed document can be manually attached to the Financial period archive as a financial period attachment.  Note!  If the invitation is sent this way, any company user can see the document. When sent through the Financial period archive, only those with access to the Financial period archive can see the document. 
  2. If you want to resend the invitation through the Financial period archive, release the sealing from the Financial period archive by selecting the "Remove financial statement reports and sealing" button. Releasing the sealing removes all previously made signatures. After this, recreate the financial statement material and resend the signature invitations. Note! This action recreates the archive reference number.

How is the invitation signed?

The invitation is signed by authenticating with online banking credentials through the link in the email. The signatory does not need Netvisor credentials. (More information under the "Signature process from the signatory's perspective" section.)

Can attachments be added to the Financial period archive? 

Yes. Attachments can be added to the Financial period archive by selecting Attach file. This is a good option when, for example, you want to add another manually signed document to the Financial period archive in addition to the already signed document.

Can a minor sign a document through Visma Sign?

A minor (under 18 years old) can sign a form through Visma Sign if they have their own online banking credentials.

Can a person who does not have Netvisor credentials later see the form they signed?

All documents signed with Visma Sign are automatically saved in the Visma Sign account archive. The person can access the archive by registering for the service, for example as a private individual at https://sign.visma.net/fi/register. Registration is free. After registration, the person can download the document from the account archive. For security reasons, documents are deleted from the private individual's archive after 30 days unless the signatory registers for the service within that time.

The signature does not succeed, it complains about the wrong identifier

If the invitation has gone to spam, it must first be moved from there to the email inbox and then signed. 

How do I proceed when the financial statements need to be sent for signing first to the board and then to the auditor?

When creating an electronic signature invitation, it is possible to select a forced order for the signatories. In this case, the invitation is sent to the next person only after the previous person has signed it. 

If you do not want to use a forced order, for example, proceed as follows:

  • First send the financial statements from the Financial period archive to the board for approval.
  • When the board's signatures are in order, save the signed document to your computer.
  • Send the document to the auditors separately from the company menu under "Electronic signing".

In this model, the auditor's signature does not remain in the Financial period archive version, but it is available in Netvisor. You can, if you wish, attach it later to the Financial period archive as an attachment.

Also note the following:

  • You can review the document at the stage when the financial statements are being signed.
  • If you add all signatories (including the auditor) to the invitation immediately, the auditor will see the other signatures when opening the invitation.
  • The auditor can download the document for review.
  • You cannot print the financial statements with signatures from Netvisor if the signature process is still in progress, unless you mark a partially signed invitation as signed.
    • In that case, however, the missing signatures will no longer be added to the program.

What happens if a form that has already been signed once is sent again to someone else for signing?

You can do this from the company menu under Electronic signing. This adds a new page to the end of the form with the new person's signature. The previous signatures are visible before the new page.

Keywords: Netvisor, electronic signing, Visma Sign, signature invitation, financial period archive, implement, enable, activate, start using, document management

This article has been translated using an AI-based translation tool. The contents or wording of these instructions may differ from those in other instructions or in the software.


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