How to get an employment contract signed online
A new hire's first impression of your company is often its paperwork. A contract that arrives as an email attachment to print, sign, scan and send back says one thing; a link they sign on their phone in five minutes says another. Here's what belongs in the employment contract, which other forms can travel with it, and how to send the set so it's signed in the right order.
Updated November 5, 2026 · 3 min read
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What the contract usually covers
- Job title, start date, place of work and who the employee reports to.
- Pay, pay frequency, overtime status and any bonus or commission plan.
- Hours, paid time off and benefits, or a pointer to the policies that set them.
- Whether employment is at will, and any notice period either side must give.
- Confidentiality, ownership of work, and any non-compete or non-solicitation terms. Several states limit or ban non-competes, so have these checked.
- Signatures for the employee and someone authorized to sign for the company.
Many US employers send an offer letter instead of a full contract. Use a contract when the role has a fixed term, a notice period, a commission plan or restrictive covenants worth spelling out.
Send the contract and the first-day forms together
- 1
Build the envelope
Start a new envelope and upload the contract, then the documents you want back before day one, such as the handbook acknowledgment and a direct deposit form. They're signed in one sitting and arrive as one PDF.
- 2
Put the people in order
In Recipients & order, add the new hire as Needs to sign, then the manager or owner who signs for the company, and keep In order. Add HR as Receives a copy so the finished set lands in their inbox too.
- 3
Place the fields
Give the new hire Initials beside the restrictive covenants, then Signature and Date signed. On the direct deposit form, Text fields for the bank details and a Required switch on each.
- 4
Lock it with a code
Bank details and pay are private. Under Private notes & access codes, choose Emailed code, so the documents open only after the new hire types a one-time code sent to their inbox.
- 5
Give a deadline and send
Set Sign by to the date your offer stands until, add a friendly note, and click Send for signature. If the new hire reads Spanish more comfortably, set Emails and signing page in to Español for them.
Not every HR form works this way
Form I-9 has its own federal rules for electronic signatures and for checking documents, so handle it in a system built for it or on paper. Some states also require particular notices to be delivered in a specific way. See can you e-sign an I-9.
Hiring more than one person
Save the contract as a template with roles called Employee and Company, and set the emailed code and a one-week sign-by date under Sending defaults, so every send starts the same way. For a seasonal crew starting on the same day, bulk send the template from a CSV, with each person's name, title and pay rate printed into their own copy.
Once everyone has signed, each person gets the signed PDF with a certificate of completion. Keep the company's copy with the personnel file, along with the certificate, for as long as your record-keeping rules require.
Questions? Answers.
Is an employment contract signed electronically valid?
Generally, yes. The federal ESIGN Act says a contract can't be denied legal effect because it was signed electronically, and employment contracts aren't on its list of exceptions. State rules on specific HR notices still apply.
Who should sign first, the employee or the employer?
Usually the employee, then the company countersigns. The company then signs only the version the employee accepted, and both get the fully signed copy at the end.
Can a new hire sign before they have a company email?
Yes. Send it to their personal email. They sign from the link on any phone or computer, without an account.
What if the candidate wants to negotiate?
They can use Request changes on the signing page to tell you what they'd like changed. That closes the copy, and you send a revised contract once you've agreed.