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Haven’t got a signature policy in place yet? Looking to increase adoption of the one you already have? Either way, this guide can help.
Contracts move fast in scaling businesses. Teams need to agree and sign them without bottlenecks, but they also need to stay compliant and mitigate risk. Without clear guidelines, signatures can become a weak link in your contract process.
A signature policy provides the clarity teams need to execute contracts efficiently while protecting your business from unnecessary risks.
What is a signature policy?
A signature policy is a document or set of guidelines that define how and when signatures are collected during the contract lifecycle.
A signature policy defines how and when signatures are collected during the contract lifecycle. It sets out:
- Who can sign contracts: it specifies roles and levels of authority, making it clear who the authorized signatories in your business are, and when contracts must be sent their way.
- What can be signed: it outlines the different types of contracts and thresholds for approval, with higher-risk or higher-value contracts being routed to certain individuals for approval and signing first.
- How signatures are collected: it details the accepted methods for signing contracts, from wet-ink to electronic signatures.
- Where signed documents are stored: it explains the process for storage and access once agreements have been signed, streamlining post-signature contract management.
This framework not only streamlines the signing process but also reduces the chances of unauthorized signatories, compliance breaches, or misplaced contracts - all of which can prove costly for your organization.
Why does a signature policy matter?
Control over contract execution
Scaling businesses often delegate contract work to business teams. A signature policy ensures that only the right people, with the right context, are signing agreements. It protects the company from exposure to poorly negotiated terms or unintended commitments.
Compliance and risk management
Without clear rules, signatures can become an unchecked risk. Incorrect approvals or non-compliance with regulatory requirements can lead to enforceability issues or costly disputes later down the line.
A well-defined signature policy reduces this risk by establishing consistent procedures that are easy to understand and follow.
Efficiency and accountability
A signature policy minimizes confusion by setting expectations for all stakeholders. It makes it easier to track who signed what, when, and where the document is stored. This visibility accelerates contract processes and improves accountability across teams.
How to create a signature policy
Creating a robust signature policy requires clear thinking, cross-functional input, and alignment with your business goals. Here’s how to build one that works for your team:
1. Map out your approval process
First, you’ll need to Identify the stakeholders involved in creating, reviewing, and signing contracts. This will help you define roles and align signing authority with business priorities.
It’s helpful to start by auditing your existing workflows. Identify who is currently involved in contract approvals and what level of authority they have. Then, define signing thresholds based on contract type, value, or risk.
For example, it could be that contracts under $10,000 in value can be signed by department heads, while contracts over a certain threshold must get sign off from both the CFO and the legal counsel.
If you aren’t happy with them currently, this is a great exercise to refine, update, and enforce new ones.
2. Define your accepted signature methods
Next, you’ll want to establish which signature methods are acceptable for different contract types. Fortunately, most business contracts can be signed with ease using an eSignature tool. However, any exceptions need to be accounted for and signed in wet ink instead.
For more information on that, check out these guides:
- The best use cases for eSignatures in 2025
- Comparing digital signatures vs eSignatures
- Electronic signature laws in the US
If you do want to make electronic signatures the default way to sign contracts, you’ll want to find a reliable Docusign alternative like Juro to make this process as quick, easy, and secure as possible.
3. Outline storage and record-keeping requirements
While you have your team’s attention, it’s worth making it even clearer where they should be storing and recording contracts once signed. A centralized, searchable contract repository is essential to maintain visibility and control, but what this looks like can vary depending on the maturity of your business.
Some organizations will be capturing key contract data in a contract management spreadsheet of some sort, and uploading signed contracts to a shared drive like Google Drive or Dropbox.
Those with more sophisticated processes will likely be using a contract management system like Juro that offers a data-rich, fully searchable contract repository.
A big advantage of this is that contracts created and stored in Juro have a detailed audit trail, including a timeline of actions taken on a contract, like signing.
This makes it easier than ever to measure compliance with your signature policy (more on that shortly).
4. Choose an appropriate format for the signature policy
Once you’ve decided on your position and workflows, you need to distill this information into a signature policy that’s easy to understand and digest.
Whatever format you settle on, make sure you prioritize the audience in your explanations. As Jenny Zhao, Chief Operating Officer at Farewill, explains:
“Lawyers are at their most effective when they can distil complex legal information, and then communicate it to the business in an accessible way” - Jenny Zhao, COO, Farewill
And your signature policy should be no exception. There are a few ways you can make it more user-friendly for those without a legal background:
- Cut the jargon: To avoid inviting additional questions, opt for plain language instead of legal jargon and complex contract terminology.
- Use visual cues: Consider better ways to display the process than text, including images, flowcharts, or approval maps.
- Provide examples: Illustrate key points with real-life scenarios, such as when to use an eSignature versus a wet signature.
Better yet, you can set up guardrails and automations within the systems you use to reinforce these workflows and processes. This is our next tip, and it can be enabled quickly and easily with Juro.
5. Enable self-serve contracting with guardrails and automation
Now it’s time to look beyond creation and focus on implementation. A signature policy that isn’t adopted is as bad as not having a signature policy at all.
That’s why it’s so important to empower business teams to self-serve on contracts within the framework of your signature policy. This can be training, but it can also involve embedding the workflows in the tools you’ll be using to create, sign, and agree contracts.
With Juro, you can automate and enforce your signature policy through approval workflows and conditional logic.
These workflows ensure that:
- Contracts route to the appropriate signatories based on value or type using conditional logic (e.g a sales contract over $50,000 is automatically escalated to the CFO and legal for signing).
- Stakeholders can approve, reject, or amend agreements directly within Juro, eliminating the need for emails or in-person coordination.
- Only authorized personnel can sign contracts, putting in place guardrails that align neatly with the rules in your signature policy.
To see this functionality in action and explore whether it would improve compliance for your organization, hit the button below to book your personalized demo of Juro.
6. Educate colleagues on the workflows in place
Finally, make sure your colleagues understand the context behind the workflows and why certain contracts are routed to different individuals. This will help them to understand why these processes are important to follow and the risk presented to the business when they aren’t.
But this enablement shouldn’t be limited to signatures. You want to give your legal and business teams the tools and knowledge they need to self-serve confidently on contracting before and after the point of signing, too.
As Sophie Salisbury, Head of Legal, puts it:
“It’s important to educate your colleagues on the positions you’re prepared to take in contracts and why. This knowledge empowers colleagues to know when to push back with an understanding of legal’s position” - Sophie Salisbury, Head of Legal, Appear Here
Don't worry if this is new territory for your team. We've got a series of advice from experts on how legal can enable the business, ready for you to indulge in:
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