Electronic signature

We're tackling electronic signatures and Form 8879, a critical topic for Part 3 of the Enrolled Agent Exam.

The most common point of confusion is the purpose of Form 8879 itself.

It is not the tax return.

And that is what's new from the team at ServiceNow.

Next up is eSignature for EmployeeWorks and EmployeeSlate.

Uh, it lets employees review and sign HR documents right inside ServiceNow EmployeeWorks.

The key features for this new app, render HR eSignature tasks natively in ServiceNow EmployeeWorks.

View the full document before signing.

Sign with a typed or drawn signature using the signature pad.

Downstream HR steps are notified once the document is signed.

eSignature tasks can be accessed through EmployeeWorks tasks and requests.

That's the Live Oak deal paying off.

And for Europe, eIDAS-compliant signatures in three tiers: simple, advanced, and qualified, SES, AES, QES.

The top two tiers are reserved for enterprise plans.

Third, the regulated industry modules.

Those are line-of-business bundles, CRM-native document generation, customer onboarding flows.

And at the top, enhanced in IAM for Enterprise, fully custom.

Single sign-on, org management, twenty four/seven support, Salesforce and Dynamics and NetSuite integrations, Part eleven, FedRAMP, HIPAA, data residency, QES, and Monitor, which is their security analytics product.

If you look at that as a system rather than a price list, three things jump out.

Today we're not, you know, fully, we're, we're, we're a digital solution, but with, you know, small operational hiccups every now and then between journeys where people need to sign, where people need to validate their identities, uh, physically and so on.

So I think such initiatives from the government and so on, uh, uh, want some have already happened, and others are, you know, just like, uh, uh, you know, the, the, the eKYC and, and, and the eSignature and so on.

And so I think this infrastructure changes that would actually help us and serve the whole ecosystem are things that I'm very excited, uh, about, which would actually tremendously help us to grow and, and remove a lot of operational hazards.

Uh, uh, yeah.

We are texting, Slacking, and emailing.

In New York, the Electronic Signatures and Records Act, or ESRA, gives an electronic signature the exact same legal validity as a hand-affixed wet ink signature.

Right.

But how is the subscription requirement, the actual intent to sign, met in an email or a text message?

That's a blurry line.

Very blurry.

Under current New York interpretation, unless there is an explicitly typed name within the text itself, like typing "- John" at the end, or a very clear established course of dealing showing that the parties intended text messages to serve as formal electronic signatures, it likely fails the subscription requirement.

The degree of volition required to authenticate the writing as a final, permanent agreement is absent in a simple unsigned text message.

I know.

Make them pay, and then they sign right there at an e- eSignature while you are talking on the phone.

You send them the thing, and they sign.

You gotta try these things.

That's what, that's what our issue's been.

So we're trying to figure that out.

But if you have an engagement letter set up, like a template in, like, eSignature or one of those, then you should modify a few things, and you send it.

Like, right there on the spot, like on the call.

The tech companies don't like it.

But honestly, eSignature was one of those.

I'm like, hey, we work very collaboratively at Portal.

You have multiple people touching.

Every person doesn't need their own login on eSignature.

Right.

Let's have one, a shared inbox.