How We Record Signatures

Electronic Signatures with Audit Trail

GRTforms captures electronic signatures through a combination of drawn signatures and typed full names. Each signature submission includes an audit trail that records key information about the signing event.

What We Capture

Drawn signature: A visual representation of the signer's signature captured on a touch or mouse-enabled canvas
Typed full name: The signer's typed legal name as entered at the time of signing
Signing timestamp: The exact date and time (UTC) when the signature was created
Submission timestamp: The date and time when the form was submitted
IP address: The IP address of the device used for signing
User agent: Browser and device information
Form version: A hash of the form schema at the time of submission, ensuring the form's structure is recorded
Attestation: If enabled, whether the signer confirmed the attestation checkbox and the specific attestation text shown

Audit Trail Storage

All signature audit records are stored in an append-only manner. When a submission is edited, existing signature audit records are preserved, and any new signatures create new audit entries. This ensures a complete history of all signing events.

Important Disclaimer

GRTforms provides electronic signature capture with a best-effort audit trail. This feature is designed to help document electronic consent and acknowledgment.

This is not legal advice. The enforceability of electronic signatures depends on applicable laws in your jurisdiction (such as ESIGN Act, UETA, or eIDAS) and the specific use case. GRTforms does not guarantee compliance with any specific legal requirements or standards.

For legally binding documents or transactions with significant consequences, consult with a qualified legal professional and consider dedicated e-signature platforms that provide additional verification, authentication, and compliance features.

Form Owner Access

Only authenticated form owners can access signature images and audit details. Signature artifacts are served through authenticated endpoints with the same access controls as other uploaded files.

Export and API

Signature data is included in Excel exports (typed name and URL to signature image), owner-only PDF downloads (typed name, signature image, and key audit metadata), and API responses. Audit details can also be retrieved through the submission API with the includeAudits=true parameter. PDF downloads require form-owner authentication and do not expose signature artifacts on public confirmation pages.