Countersigning a Document and Changing the Signatory

Purpose

When a document needs your company's signature as well as the employee's, it does not finish when the employee submits. It moves to Pending with Employer and waits for the Employer Signatory to countersign. This article covers who that is, how to sign, and how to hand the job to someone else.

Who can do this: the Employer Signatory named on the document. Where no signatory is named, any employer user with access to the Documents module, or the Employer Administrator. See Understanding Roles and Access.

When to use this

• A document is sitting at Pending with Employer and someone needs to sign it.
• The named signatory has left, changed role, or is on leave, and the document is stuck.
• You want a different person to sign one employee's copy without changing the document itself.

How the employer leg works

Once the employee submits:

1. The document moves to Pending with Employer.
2. The Employer Signatory is notified that it is waiting for them.
3. They open it, sign, and submit. The document moves to Completed.

Who the signatory is was decided when the document was configured and assigned — either a specific person, or each employee's Reporting Manager, or someone fixed at the point of assignment. See Configuring Documents for Signature.

Who signs for the employer

The Assign to Employee(s) popup does not offer a signatory, so the signatory always comes from the document itself and is changed afterwards.

Countersigning a document

Go to Documents > Employees Document, open the category, and find the row showing Pending with Employer. You can also reach it from the employee's profile, under Documents.

1. Click Edit and Sign. The document opens with the employee's entries locked and shown as completed. Only your green fields are active.
2. Click the employer signature box. The signature canvas opens, with the typed name defaulting to yours. Draw, type or upload your signature and apply it — one signature fills every employer signature box on every page.
3. Complete any employer text or checkbox fields. Signatory Name, Job Title and the Date fill automatically.
4. Click Submit & Sign.

The document moves to Completed, and the audit records who signed.

Changing the signatory

You can hand the signature to a different person while the document is Pending with Employee or Pending with Employer. This is the same feature as Change Employer Signatory on the Form I-9.

Open Change Signatory from either:

• the employee's profile, under Documents, on the document; or
• Documents > Employees Document, on the document's row.

The popup shows the current signatory. Choose the new one from your employer users, and save.

• The change applies only to that employee's document. The document's own signatory setting and every other assignment are untouched.
• The new signatory receives all future notifications for that document, and becomes the person UZIO expects to sign it.
• Change Signatory is not available once the document is Completed.

After the document is completed

• If Notify me when the recipient(s) submit(s) the document was ticked at assignment, the confirmation email goes out.
• The employee's Your Action Needed item clears, and both of you can download the signed PDF.
• The signed PDF carries every value at its placed position, the Document ID on every page, and the Audit Trail page at the end, with timestamps and IP addresses.
• Clicking the document's status shows its Document History.

For what the finished document contains, see Configuring Documents for Signature.

Common problems

The signatory has left the company and the document is stuck

Use Change Signatory to point the document at whoever should own it. That is the only way through — nobody else can sign while the original signatory is named, including your Employer Administrator.

Why can't I sign this document?

A signatory is set on it and it is not you. Either ask that person to sign, or use Change Signatory to nominate someone else — yourself included. Having full access to the document is not enough on its own.

I left the signatory blank on the document. Who is it?

Nobody in particular. Any employer user with access to the Documents module can sign, as can your Employer Administrator. If one named person should own it, use Change Signatory on the assigned copy, and set an Employer Signatory on the document itself so future assignments route correctly.

I chose Reporting Manager, but the employee has no manager on record

No signatory was fixed for that copy at assignment, so any employer user with Documents access — or your Administrator — can sign it. Set the Reporting Manager on the employee's profile so future assignments route properly, and use Change Signatory if you want to name someone for the copy that is already out.

Can I change the signatory after the document is completed?

No. Once the document is Completed the signature is final and Change Signatory is no longer offered.

Does changing the signatory on one employee affect the others?

No. It applies to that employee's document only.

What does the employee see while it is waiting for me?

It shows as Pending with Employer in their My Documents, with nothing required from them. When you sign, it moves to Completed and they can download it.

The employee's entries look wrong and I am about to sign

Do not sign. The employee's entries are locked to you and you cannot correct them. Contact the employee so the document can be reissued — signing makes it final.

Still stuck?

Please reach out to us at support@uzio.com or call +1-571-601-1752. Include the document name, the Document ID, the employee's name or ID, who you expected to be the signatory, and what the document's status shows. Do not attach signed documents.

Related articles

• Configuring Documents for Signature: setting up the document and choosing the signatory
• Managing the Document Library: categories, assigning, and tracking
• Assigning the I-9 Signatory: the same pattern on Form I-9
• Managing Users and Roles: who has Documents access