Set up and use eSignatures

• Plan: Elite.
• Enable the app: Company Owners and Company Admins.
• Set up signing on a task: any team member with access to the task.
• Sign: team members listed as signers, or Client Portal contacts listed as signers.

eSignatures in Uku is a witnessed-image signature with audit metadata — when a signer adopts their signature, Uku captures their signature image (typed, drawn, or uploaded), their IP address, and the timestamp, then stamps the signature image onto the document. The result is a regular PDF with the signatures and (optionally) timestamp and IP printed on the page.

This is not a cryptographic signature, not a qualified eIDAS signature, and does not use ID-Card, Mobile-ID, or Smart-ID. If your jurisdiction requires a qualified electronic signature (for example for some contracts in the EU), use a dedicated eIDAS provider. Uku’s eSignatures are well suited to internal sign-offs, NDAs, engagement letters, consent forms, and other agreements where a witnessed-image signature with an audit trail is sufficient.

eSignatures works on regular non-recurring tasks only. Recurring tasks and task templates do not support signing.

1. Open Settings & Apps in your company settings.
2. Find eSignatures in the app list and open it.
3. Read the overview, then activate the app.
4. Open the Settings tab to configure how signatures are stamped onto signed documents:
   • Position — which corner of the page carries the signature block: Bottom right, Bottom left, Top right, or Top left.
   • Placement — which pages carry the signature block: Last page, First page, or All pages.
   • Include timestamp — stamp the signing date and time next to each signature.
   • Include IP address — stamp the signer’s IP address next to their signature.
5. Click Save.

These settings are global — they apply to every document signed through Uku in your company.

Once the app is active, every non-recurring task shows a Signature (pen icon) button in the task toolbar.

1. Open the task you want to send for signing.
2. Click the Signature button in the task action bar. A signing section appears at the bottom of the task.
3. Click Select file (PDF, DOC) or Add file and attach the document. Only .pdf, .doc, and .docx are accepted — other file types are rejected. DOC and DOCX files are converted to PDF automatically before signing, so the final signed file is always a PDF.
4. Attach more documents to the same signing if needed. The signers will sign every attached document in one go.
5. Optionally set a Sign due date — the deadline by which all signers should complete signing. If the sign deadline falls outside the task’s date range, Uku adjusts the task dates and asks you to confirm.
6. Add at least one signer (see the next section), then click Save.

When you save, every signer receives a Review and Sign Documents email (sent through your company’s connected Gmail or Outlook, the same channel as other Client Portal messages) with a link straight into the task.

The signing section has two separate pickers:

• Add member — adds someone from your team as a signer. Any team member with access to the task can be added.
• Add contact — adds a Client Portal contact for the task’s client. This requires the Client Portal to be active for your company, enabled for this client, and a portal contact invited for this client. If any of these is missing, Uku shows a checklist of what to fix.

The contact must have an active Client Portal account. If you try to add a contact who has been created but never invited (or whose invitation is still pending), saving fails with “Signer is not yet activated for the client portal” — invite the contact first, then add them as a signer.

Signers and assignees stay in sync automatically. Adding a signer also makes them a task assignee so the task appears in their queue. Removing an assignee who is also a signer prompts you to confirm — Uku will remove their signer entry too.

Each signer sees a Sign button on the task. Clicking it opens the signature panel, which has three tabs:

• Name letters — the signer’s name is pre-filled from their profile; Uku renders it in a cursive font as the signature. The quickest option.
• Draw — draws a signature on a touch or mouse canvas. Clear resets the canvas.
• Upload — uploads a PNG image of a handwritten signature. The file must be a real PNG (the file format is checked on the server) and at most 1 MB.

The signer reviews the legal acknowledgement — “By selecting Adopt and Sign, I agree that this mark will be the electronic representation of my signature” — and clicks Adopt and sign. Uku records the signature image, the timestamp, and the signer’s IP address (taken from the nginx request, not from the browser, so it cannot be spoofed).

The signing section shows the current state of each signer:

• Pending — the signer has not opened the signature panel yet.
• Viewed — the signer opened the panel; hover the badge to see the timestamp.
• Signed — the signer has clicked Adopt and sign; hover the badge to see the timestamp.

Status updates live as signers act — no page refresh needed.

When the last signer clicks Adopt and sign, Uku queues a background job that:

1. Converts any DOC or DOCX source files to PDF.
2. Stamps each signature image onto each document, at the position and pages you chose in Settings & Apps, with the signer’s name, your client’s or company’s name, and optionally the timestamp and IP address.
3. Saves the signed file to the task — <filename>_signed.pdf if you attached one document, or signed_files.zip containing each signed PDF if you attached more than one.
4. Sends an in-app notification to every task assignee saying the documents have been signed by all parties.

The signed file appears in the task’s file list in the signature color so it is easy to spot among other task attachments. The original unsigned files are kept too — they are not replaced. There is no “documents signed” email — the completion notification is in-app only.

Once at least one document is attached, the action menu in the signing section offers Download (or Download all if more than one document was attached). After all signers have signed, Regenerate also appears — use it if you need to re-stitch the signed file (for example, you changed signature placement settings and want the existing signatures restamped at the new position). Regenerating does not change the signatures or send another completion notification.

If you add or remove a document on a signing that already has signatures, Uku clears every existing signature on remaining signers (signed status, timestamp, signature image) and re-sends the Review and Sign email to every current signer so they sign again. Uku warns you before saving when this will happen.

Adding a new signer to a signing whose documents have not changed only emails the new signer — the existing signers’ status is preserved.

To remove the signing entirely, open the action menu in the signing section and choose Delete. Uku confirms, then removes the signing section, all signer entries, and the signed file from the task.

• Recurring tasks cannot use eSignatures. For repeating signings, create a separate non-recurring task for each round.
• The signed output is always PDF. Word source files are converted to PDF before stamping; the original .docx source stays attached unchanged.
• Position and placement are global, not per-task. They live in Settings & Apps and apply to every signed document across your company.
• Team members signing do not receive the Review and Sign email. That email is the Client Portal channel; team members rely on the task assignment and in-app task list to know they need to sign.

Make sure the eSignatures app is activated in Settings & Apps. Also confirm the task is a regular task — recurring tasks and task templates do not support signing.

Three conditions must all be true: the Client Portal app is active for your company, the Client Portal is enabled for this client, and the contact has an active Client Portal account (not just created — invited and accepted). Uku shows the missing condition when you click Add contact. If saving fails with “Signer is not yet activated for the client portal”, the contact still needs to accept their portal invitation — open the client’s Client Portal settings and resend the invitation.

Confirm the signer appears in the signing section of the task. For Client Portal contacts, confirm they are logged into the right firm’s Client Portal. For team members, confirm they have access to the task. Re-saving the signing resends the Review and Sign email to every pending signer.

Once Adopt and sign is clicked the signature is recorded. To reset, you can either remove and re-add the signer (which clears just that signer’s signature, keeping the others’ intact), or change one of the documents on the signing — which clears all signatures and emails every signer to sign again.

Position and placement live in Settings & Apps → eSignatures → Settings and are global. Adjust the values there, then use Regenerate on the task to re-stitch the signed file with the new settings — the signatures themselves are reused, only the layout changes.