A little while back, I wrote a review of HelloFax and I came away definitely excited about where the technology of faxing documents was going. Like I had mentioned in that post, it still baffles me that the fax machine is still around and that people are still using it. What baffles me even more is the procedure that we need to go through to sign a document and send it back if we didn’t have a fax.
As someone who spends the majority of his day online, sending documents back and forth, this process can really be a pain. You have to print the document, then you have to sign it, scan it back in, and then upload it and send it back. There’s got to be an easier way to digitally send documents, if HelloFax could make it so simple.
Fast forward a few weeks and the last couple of days, I have been playing around with an app called BoxySign. The instant I saw the intro video, I thought to myself “This is it, someone finally has figured out how to do make the process of signing documents totally digital.” After that, I just had to try out it out and see if it was worth it.
How It Works
BoxySign is pretty straight forward and very easy to use. The first thing you need to do is upload the document that you want to get signed. As of right now, you can send either PDF’s or Word Documents.You can also link your Dropbox account to BoxySign and get your documents there as well. Once your document is uploaded, a shareable link is provided to you that you can give to the person that needs to sign the document.
Uploading a document to BoxySign
When the link is opened, the document shows up for them on their screen and they can either sign the document or add text. When signing, they click on the area where they need to sign and then you draw your signature with your mouse. As you can tell from the screenshot below, either I am terrible at writing my signature, or it is hard to do with a mouse. I am going to say that it is a combination of the two, but I think once I got used to it, I would be able to make a decent signature. I like that it went very slowly so I could actually try and create a legible signature. Both signatures and text can be moved so that they are in the right place on the document.
Signing and adding text to document
Once you are done signing the document, it is saved and then sent back to the originator. They get an email with a link to download the document and boom, the document is signed, sealed and delivered. You didn’t even have to print it out or scan it back in: everything was done on the computer, which is so nice! You also get a link to the document so that you can keep a copy of it for your records.
Email with link for signed document
Pricing
BoxySign takes a very standard approach toward their pricing, and there is nothing fancy or complicated about it. They start you off with 5 free signed documents a month. From there the number of documents and price goes up, ranging anywhere from $8-$100/month. There is no monthly or yearly contract, you can sign up whenever you want and terminate your service when you want as well.
Pricing for BoxySign
My Thoughts
My biggest attraction to BoxySign is the fact that I can literally do everything online when it comes to sending and signing documents. Better yet, the person you are sending the document to for a signature can do the same thing. They don’t even need an account to sign the document. I love that BoxySign took away any friction that could make this process a hassle.
Another thing that I love about the app is that it is so simple to use and the interface is very minimal. There isn’t any thing fancy about it, and that is quite alright with me. I did hit a few minor problems with the app, including slowdowns opening documents and one crash, but overall, it seemed to work just fine for me.
Conclusion
If you are looking for a quick and easy way to sign and send documents, then you really should go and check out BoxySign. It’s free for the first 5 documents a month, so there is no reason not to at least check it out and see if it will work for you. For most purposes, this level of security should be sufficient for signing standard contracts and forms, so whether you’re needing to get your remote employees to update their employment agreements or just want to get all of your siblings to sign a card for your parents, there’s many ways most of us could put BoxySign to use. It’s an interesting look at how signing documents might be done by default in the future!