Witnesses are an important part of many signing workflows. With Signority, witnessing can also be completed digitally as part of the eSignature workflow allowing you to maintain the benefits of a witnessed signing process while streamlining it for remote or distributed workflows.
How Witness Signing Works
For documents that require a witness:
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A primary signer is assigned to complete and sign the document
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A witness signer is added alongside that signer
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The witness is prompted to complete an authentication step
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Once authentication is complete, the witness signs the document to confirm their role
The witness’s actions, including authentication and signature, are recorded in the audit trail for verification purposes.
Adding a Witness Signer
When adding a recipient, you have the option to require a witness for their signature. A witness signer is assigned their own tags within the same document but is linked to a specific recipient and must be physically present with them during signing — they access and sign the document at the same time and in the same location. If you need a refresher on creating a document, visit our guide on creating a document before getting started.
Are you a witness signer? Check out our guide on signing as a witness to see what the experience looks like from the signer's side.
A witness signer can be added in two places:
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On the Recipients page when creating a new document.
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Click +New button in the main header and select New Document.
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Upload the document(s) that requires a witness signer and then click Next to go to the recipients page.
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In the Recipients pop-up in the Document Editor, when editing an existing document or working on a template
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On the document editor, select Manage next to the recipients section on the left panel.
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Once you are on the recipients list you can follow the steps below to add a witness to a recipient:
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Create the main recipient by selecting Add Recipient.
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Enter the main recipients' name and email address.
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Repeat steps 1 and 2 for any other recipients that will be part of this documents workflow.
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Add a witness to a recipient: To the right of the recipient you wish to add a witness for, you'll see four icons. Click the third ellipsis (···) icon and select Add Witness from the dropdown.
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A witness will then be added as a linked recipient beneath the signer.
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Since the signer specifies the witness signer, Witness Email Authentication is enabled by default for all Witness Signers to verify their identity. See Setting Up Witness Signer Authentication below to learn how to configure authentication further.
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To add more than one witness to a single recipient, select Add Witness.
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Click Next or Save when you're done.
Setting Up Witness Signer Authentication
Since the witness signer's name and email are unknown to the sender at the time of setup, you'll need to configure an authentication method to verify their identity. Email authentication is enabled by default but out can also enable SMS and/or ID authentication. To view and modify the settings authentication method, click the expand arrow beside the Remove button in the Witness Authentication panel. You can then configure which authentication method you would like to use.
Note: If you select ID authentication, you'll need to specify what type of ID information you want to collect from the witness.
Assign Tags to Witness Signers
In the document editor's left panel, witnesses are listed under their assigner signer and are numbered in order with the Witness recipient role.
Assign tags to witness signers the same way as any other recipient: select the signer, then place their tags. For details, see Assigning Tags to Specific Signers.
Tags assigned to a witness signer will display a distinct icon in the top-right corner of the tag to distinguish them from other recipients. This will not appear in the finalized document.
Once all tags are assigned, you can send the document for signature.