---
title: "Overview & Legal Notice"
space: "Frappe Sign Documentation"
url: "https://eben.isambane.co.za/frappe-sign-docs/overview-legal-notice"
updated: "2026-08-06"
---


# Frappe Sign

Frappe Sign is a native Frappe / ERPNext e-signature app for preparing, sending, signing, validating, and auditing PDF signing requests - entirely inside your own Frappe instance.

Every signing request keeps a full audit trail: every event, generated file, file hash, audit certificate, and final verification package is recorded and can be independently checked later.

## What you can do with it

- Create signing requests from an **uploaded PDF**, or directly from a **configured Frappe DocType and Print Format** (e.g. a Contract of Employment, a Site Transfer Form).
- Place signing fields visually with the **Frappe Sign Designer** - Signature, Initials, Name, Email, Date, Text, Checkbox.
- Send to **multiple signers**, in **parallel** or **sequential** order (including signing *cohorts*, e.g. `1, 1, 2, 3`).
- Let signers **draw, upload, or type** their signature and initials, reusable across future requests via their **Signer Profile**.
- Generate a final **signed PDF**, an **audit certificate**, and optionally a certificate-signed **final verification package**.
- **Cancel** a request that hasn't concluded yet, as its sender or as a Frappe Sign Manager.
- Optionally **attach the signed PDF back onto the source document** (into a specific field) and **submit the source document** once signing completes.
- **Validate** any signed PDF independently, without needing to trust anything except the hashes Frappe Sign already recorded.
- Detect **tampering** - has a stored file been modified since it was generated?

## Electronic signatures and South African law

Frappe Sign is built to support **ordinary electronic signature** workflows under South Africa's Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 25 of 2002 ("ECTA").

**It is not, by default, an accredited Advanced Electronic Signature service.**

For ordinary electronic signature workflows, Frappe Sign records evidence to support the signing process: signer identity and email, a unique signing link, a document-viewed event, the Electronic Signature Notice shown to the signer, the signing action itself (signature / initials / text / checkbox), timestamps, IP address and user agent where available, and a chain of hashes covering the source PDF, signed PDF, audit certificate, and (where applicable) the final verification PDF.

Every signer sees this notice before they can sign:

> **Electronic Signature Notice**
>
> This document is being signed electronically using an ordinary electronic signature.
>
> By signing, you confirm that you have reviewed the document and that your electronic signature, initials, typed name, checkbox selection, or other signing action on this page is intended to be your signature for this document.
>
> If you do not agree to sign electronically, or if you believe that an advanced electronic signature is legally required for this document, you may decline to sign.

An Advanced Electronic Signature may be required where a law, regulation, court, counterparty, or internal policy specifically requires one. Frappe Sign should not be relied on as an Advanced Electronic Signature solution unless it has been integrated with an appropriate accredited provider and the specific use case has been legally reviewed.

**Recommended positioning:** Frappe Sign supports ordinary electronic signature workflows and audit evidence. It is not, by default, an accredited Advanced Electronic Signature service under ECTA.

## Where to go next

- New to Frappe Sign? Start with **Installation & Roles**, then **Frappe Sign Settings**.
- Sending your first request? See **Creating a Request - From an Uploaded PDF** or **Creating a Request - From a Frappe Document**.
- Want to check a signed document is genuine? See **Validating Documents**.