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A freelancer's field guide to signing, sending, and tracking documents electronically, no printer required.
9 min read
Published on September 22, 2026
You've just landed a new client, the contract lands in your inbox, and printing it out to sign feels like a relic from a different decade. Learning how to sign electronically means you can review, sign, and return an agreement without the back-and-forth of printing, signing by hand, and scanning, no printer or scanner required. This guide walks through exactly how to sign a document electronically, whether you're the one signing or the one requesting a signature, plus how to handle the process from your phone when you're between client meetings. For a broader look at getting contracts signed and organized as a freelancer or small business, check out this guide to contract signing for small businesses. By the end, you'll know how to e sign a document without needing a printer or scanner and how to send a document to be signed electronically when you're the one asking for a signature.
Send contracts and get them e-signed
Signing electronically means adding your legal consent to a document online instead of printing it, signing by hand, and scanning it back in. An electronic signature, often shortened to e-sign, can be a typed name, a drawn signature made with your finger or mouse, or an uploaded image of your handwritten signature. Each of these formats is commonly accepted for everyday business agreements like contracts, proposals, and NDAs (non-disclosure agreements, which protect confidential information shared between parties). People often use "electronic signature" and "digital signature" interchangeably, but they're not quite the same thing; we'll break down that distinction later in the FAQ. For now, if you want a broader walkthrough of the format options, this guide on how to esign a document covers the basics in more depth.
Before you sign anything online, a quick checklist saves you from starting over halfway through. Most freelancers already have everything they need without buying new software.
Once you have your checklist ready, the actual signing process is designed to be quick and straightforward. Here's the core workflow, broken into four steps you can follow the first time and every time after.
Skip the printer and open the file directly in a signing tool or app, whether that's a browser-based e-signature platform, a PDF viewer with signature features, or a mobile app. If the document arrived as an email attachment, you can usually upload it straight from your inbox; this guide on how to sign a document sent by email walks through that exact scenario.
The first time you sign, you'll build your signature by typing your name in a script font, drawing it with your finger or mouse, or uploading a photo of your handwritten signature. Most tools save this signature so you can reuse it on future documents without recreating it each time.
Drag your signature field to the correct spot on the page, then resize it so it fits naturally next to any date or initial fields. Scroll through each page first. Multi-page contracts often need initials on each page, not just a final signature.
Once each field is filled in, export the signed file as a PDF and send it back to whoever requested it, either as an email attachment or through the signing tool's built-in delivery option.
Send contracts and get them e-signed
Sending a document for signature works almost like signing one yourself, just in reverse. Upload the file to your signing tool, then mark where you need a signature, initials, or a date so the recipient knows exactly where to click when the document lands in their inbox.
Enter the signer's name and email address carefully since the request routes based on that information alone. If more than one person needs to sign, most tools let you set a signing order so, for example, your client signs first and a co-founder signs second, with each person notified only once it's their turn.
Once the request goes out, status tracking shows you when the document has been opened and when it's been signed, so you know when to follow up instead of guessing or sending an awkward check-in email too early.
Freelancers rarely sit at a desk when a contract needs a signature. Most e-signature tools work just as well through a mobile browser or dedicated app, so you can sign from a coffee shop or between client meetings without waiting to get back to your laptop. If you want a closer look at the mobile-only workflow, this guide on how to sign a document on your phone for free covers app options and setup in more detail.
A touchscreen actually makes signing easier in one way: drawing your signature with a finger or stylus feels more natural than dragging a mouse. And if you already have a signature on paper, snapping a quick photo and uploading it works just as well as drawing one from scratch.
Different signature formats suit different documents. A quick comparison makes it easier to pick the right one for the job instead of defaulting to whatever comes up first.
| Format | Use case | Tradeoff |
|---|---|---|
| Typed signature | Quick internal approvals, low-stakes forms | Quick to create, but feels the least personal |
| Drawn signature (touchscreen) | Client-facing contracts and proposals | Looks closest to a handwritten signature, but takes a bit more effort with a mouse |
| Uploaded image signature | Reusing an existing signature across many documents | Consistent look every time, but requires a clean scan or photo to start |
| Cloud-based e-signature platform | Contracts that need proof of who signed and when | Adds tracking and an audit trail on top of any of the formats above |
For a one-off form, a typed or drawn signature usually gets the job done. For anything you'll sign or send repeatedly, a cloud-based platform layered on top gives you a record of the entire process.
Say a freelance graphic designer just wrapped a discovery call for a $3,000 branding project and wants the client's signature locked in before the excitement fades. Instead of exporting a signed PDF from one app and chasing down the invoice in another, she drafts the agreement using Bonsai contracts, picks from the profession-specific template library, and sends it straight to the client's inbox. The client opens a secure link on their phone, signs with a finger, and the agreement is done, no printer, no scanner, no separate e-signature subscription to manage.
Bonsai's contract tool covers the same signing fundamentals this guide walks through, with a few additions built for people juggling multiple clients at once. Signed documents are stored encrypted, with a full audit trail that logs signer identity, IP address, and timestamps, so there's a record of exactly who signed and when. If a project needs sign-off from more than one person, say a client and a business partner, Bonsai supports multi-signer workflows so each person gets notified in turn instead of one messy email thread.
Contracts in Bonsai are also linked to invoices, so once that branding agreement is signed, the freelancer can generate the invoice from the same record instead of retyping line items into a separate tool. And because Bonsai integrates with Zoom, meeting transcripts from a client kickoff call can sync directly to that client's record as notes, keeping the signed contract and the conversation that led to it in the same place. For freelancers comparing signing tools, that combination of e-signatures, audit trails, and connected invoicing is worth weighing against standalone signature apps, which may offer a different combination of features depending on the plan.
Open the email attachment directly in an e-signature tool or a PDF viewer that supports signature fields, rather than printing it out. Create or upload your signature, place it on the correct line, add any required initials or dates, then save the file and send it back as a reply attachment or through the tool's delivery option.
Most modern email providers let you preview PDF attachments without downloading them first, which speeds up the process further. If the document has multiple pages, scroll through the entire file before signing since contracts often require initials on each page in addition to a final signature on the last one.
An electronic signature is any electronic mark showing consent, such as a typed name, a drawn signature, or an uploaded image of a handwritten signature. A digital signature is a more specific, technical type of electronic signature that uses encryption to verify the signer's identity and detect if the document was altered after signing.
In practice, most day-to-day business agreements like contracts, proposals, and NDAs only need a standard electronic signature. Digital signatures show up more often in regulated industries like finance, healthcare, or government contracting, where the added encryption and identity verification carry specific legal or compliance weight.
Upload the file to an e-signature tool, then mark where the recipient needs to sign, initial, or add a date. Enter the recipient's name and email address carefully, since the signing request routes based on that information, and send it off.
If more than one person needs to sign, set a signing order so each signer is notified only once it's their turn, which keeps the process organized instead of triggering a confusing group email thread. Once the request is sent, most tools show status updates for when the document has been opened and signed, so there's no need to guess whether it's time to follow up.
Yes. Electronic signing tools are built specifically to remove the printer and scanner from the process. You can type your name, draw your signature with a finger or mouse, or upload a photo of a signature you already have on paper, all without touching a physical printer.
This is one of the main advantages of signing electronically over the traditional print-sign-scan routine. A signature created once on a phone, tablet, or laptop can typically be saved and reused across future documents, so there's no need to recreate it or dig up a scanner every time a new contract arrives.
Bonsai lets freelancers and small businesses draft contracts from a profession-specific template library, send them for signature through a secure link, and collect e-signatures without a separate signing app. Clients can sign from any device, and signed documents are stored encrypted with a full audit trail that logs signer identity, IP address, and timestamps.
Because contracts in Bonsai are linked to invoices, an accepted agreement can generate the invoice directly from the same record instead of requiring the details to be re-entered elsewhere. Bonsai also integrates with Zoom, so meeting transcripts from a client call can sync to that client's record as notes, so the signed contract and the notes from that conversation sit together on the client's record.
Signing electronically comes down to the same handful of steps whether you're the one signing, the one requesting a signature, or working from your phone between client calls: upload the document, create or place a signature, and track it through to a signed copy. Once you've got that workflow down, the bigger question becomes which tool handles contracts, tracking, and invoicing together instead of leaving you to juggle separate apps for each step. Bonsai's contract tools are worth a look if you want e-signatures, audit trails, and invoicing connected to the same client record.
