A contract is one step away from becoming officially active when the parties involved agree with the terms and obligations of the contract and finalize the language. The contract only becomes active after the parties sign the contract document.

Zoho Contracts integrates with leading E-Signature Services like Zoho Sign, making this crucial stage of the contract lifecycle quick and effortless. This eliminates the hassle of email, print, scan, and fax cycles, and drastically improves the turn around time.

Signature Process in Zoho Contracts

1. The contract owner sends the contract for signature using the configured E-Sign Service. 
2. The signers of the contract receive a signature request email from the respective E-Sign Service. 
3. The signers access the contract document from the email, and either sign or decline the contract. 
4. The signer can also print and physically sign the contract document. The print and physical sign option is only available for sequential signing order that has only one signer in a particular level. (Applicable only when using Zoho Sign.)
5. Zoho Contracts notifies the contract owner when a signer signs or declines the contract and updates the status of the contract accordingly. 
6. If the contract owner selected On Execution in the Contract Effective Date field at the time of contract creation, then the contract becomes active when all the signers sign the contract. 
7. If the contract owner entered a specific date in the Contract Effective Date field at the time of contract creation, then the contract becomes active on the specified date after all the signers sign the contract. 

Note: A contract owner needs a user account in the respective E-Sign service, such as Zoho Sign to send the contract for signature. However, the counterparty do not need a E-Sign service account to sign the contract.