Transaction Signatures

At every stage of transaction submission or approval the system provides a mechanism to electronically sign an exact replica of the transaction in PDF format. While it is not necessary to sign transactions, signatures provide a powerful, automated means of certifying and validating what transaction data a user had actually submitted or approved prior to moving to the next phase of pending or finalization. In this respect, transaction signing is typically implemented for critical or highly visible transactions. Refer to the “Working with Transaction Signatures” topic in the CGI Advantage System Administration Guide for more information on setting up Transaction Signatures.

The transaction signing feature is only available for user initiated actions and not for processes that submit transactions automatically, such as, System Maintenance Utility or similar batch processes.

Once a transaction rule is evaluated and the transaction qualifies for signature then the complete transaction is exported to a PDF file. This PDF transaction is an exact replica of the transaction with respect to the field values, their layout and positioning. The PDF transaction is shown to the user in a pop-up panel on the same window. This panel has a legal declaration and a password field. The user will have to accept the legal declaration and enter his/her system password before signing the transaction. Once the User signs the transaction, it is moved to next phase depending upon the action performed.

Every time a user signs a transaction, a Transaction Signature History entry is created. Unlike the other additions to transactions (comments, attachments, collaboration, and additional transaction information) signatures are not an action directly taken by a user on the Transaction Signature History but rather an action is taken on the transaction that requires a signature to move onto the next transaction phase.

The following transaction actions remove the last signature entry from the Transaction Signature History table.

The following transaction actions remove the complete signature history for the transaction from the Transaction Signature History table.

Once signed, the Digital Signature icon in the Smart Menu of the transaction includes a red dot at the top of the icon. If you click the Digital Signature icon, you are transitioned to the Transaction Signature History page.

Gives reference back to the transaction and version for the signature.

Field Name	Field Description
User ID	Set by the system at the time the signature was added to the User ID that applied the signature.
Action	Set by the system to the transaction action chosen by the user that is applying the signature: Submit, Approve, Bypass Approvals.
Approval Level	When the Approve action triggered the signature upon the final approval for the transaction, the system records that approval level.
Signature Type	Advantage supports two types of signatures: Digital e-signature - A digital signature stamp appears on the generated PDF and is stored on the Signature History page. Non digital e-signature - PDF is generated and stored on the Signature History page. DocuSign e-signature - The PDF file is generated by Advantage and the signing process is done by DocuSign.
Reason	This field is tied to the Action.
Signature Timestamp	Set by the system to the time and date the signature was applied.

View – This action opens the PDF generated and saved at the time of signature.
Sign - Although no actions appear on the Digital Signature History page, there is the Sign action that appears in the PDF display page. Also, there is a field for entering your current application password before the Sign action is taken.

Important Note: You must add Advantage root certificate to the trust store on your machine so that your Signature appears valid in the PDF viewer for all users. Follow the steps in the "Set Up Your Signature Certificate" topic for details on how to do this on your machine. This only has to be performed one time on your machine, and all future signatures added from your machine will appear valid.