User guide

Getting started

How accounts work

GewapeSign accounts belong to an organization. To start a new organization, create an account at app.gewapesign.com/signup with your work email: you become its owner, and your first 5 documents are free. The owner (or an admin) then invites staff by work email. If your organization already uses GewapeSign, ask its owner to invite you instead of creating a new account.

Accepting an invitation

1. Open the invitation email and choose the link in it.
2. Sign in. Use the account that matches the email address the invitation was sent to; if you are signed in as someone else, the invitation page says so.
3. Choose Accept. To refuse, choose Decline.

If the organization has reached its member limit, the page tells you to contact the organization administrator before you accept.

Signing in

Go to app.gewapesign.com. You can sign in three ways:

• Email and password. Enter both and choose Sign In. Forgot it? Choose Forgot your password?, enter your email and we send a reset link.
• Gewape ID. Choose Gewape ID to sign in with your Gewape account.
• Passkey. Choose Passkey and confirm with your fingerprint, face or device screen lock. You add passkeys under Security.

If two-factor authentication is on, the sign-in form asks for the 6-digit code from your authenticator app after your password. Lost your phone? Choose Use a backup code instead and enter one of your recovery codes.

Note If the app asks you to confirm your email first, open the confirmation link we sent, or choose Resend confirmation.

Finding your way around

The sidebar on the left holds everything:

• Documents, Templates and Inbox for your day-to-day work. The number next to Inbox counts documents sent to you that you have not opened yet.
• Team settings for the team you are working in.
• Organization settings and Insights for the organization.
• Profile and Security for your own account.
• Overview, Contracts, Renewals & declines, Integrations, Plan & billing and Developers, covered later in this guide.

The foot of the sidebar shows your data region (Kigali, Rwanda) and a theme button that cycles through Auto, Light and Dark. Auto follows your device setting.

Switching team or organization

The tile at the top of the sidebar shows the team you are in, its organization and your role. Select it to open the workspace menu, which lists every organization you belong to with its teams. Choose a team to switch to its documents, or Organization settings under an organization. Sign out is at the bottom of this menu.

The command bar

Press ⌘ K on a Mac or Ctrl K on Windows, or select Search or run a command in the header. Type to filter, use the arrow keys to move, Enter to run and Esc to close. It lists the main GewapeSign screens and the contracts in the Contracts list.

On a phone

The app works on small screens. The sidebar becomes a menu behind the button at the top left, the header keeps Search and + New, and the document editor splits into tabs (Pages, Recipients, Fields, Settings) so you can place fields with a tap.

Sending a document

Sending has four parts: upload the file, add recipients, place their fields, then send. Your work is saved as a draft, so you can stop at any point and come back.

Upload a document

1. Select New document in the header, or Upload document on the Documents page.
2. Drop the file on the upload box or choose Choose file. You can upload a PDF of up to 50 MB; when the upload box says PDF or Word (.docx), you can upload a Word file too and it is converted to PDF.
3. The editor opens with your document. Its title is the file name; change it in the bar at the top.

You can also drop a PDF anywhere on the Documents page. If you are inside a folder, the document is created in that folder.

Add more files to the same envelope

A document can hold several PDFs that are signed together. In the editor's Documents section, choose Add PDF. Each file can be renamed, moved up or down, swapped with Replace, or removed while the document is still a draft.

Add recipients and choose their roles

1. In the editor panel, open the Recipients tab.
2. Choose Add recipient, then enter an email and a name. Choose Add myself if you also need to sign.
3. Pick each person's role:
   • Needs to sign: signs the fields you place for them.
   • Needs to approve: approves the document.
   • Needs to view: must open and view it.
   • Receives copy: gets a copy (CC) and does nothing else.
   • Can prepare: an assistant who can fill in fields before the others sign.

Where your plan offers it, each recipient also has an authentication setting. Inherit authentication uses the document's setting (see Settings); you can instead require an account, a passkey, two-factor authentication or a password for that person, or choose None (override document setting).

Set a signing order

By default everyone receives the document at the same time. To make people sign one after another, tick Enable signing order and use the up and down arrows to put recipients in order. You can also tick Allow signers to dictate the next signer, which lets each signer choose who signs after them.

Once a recipient has signed or started, they are locked and can no longer be changed.

Place fields

1. Open the Fields tab.
2. Under Field for, pick the recipient. Each recipient has their own color on the page.
3. Under Field type, pick a type, then click the page where it should go. You can also drag a type onto the page.
4. Select a placed field to move it, resize it or open its settings. Delete removes it and the arrow keys nudge it (hold Shift for bigger steps). Esc cancels.

The field types are Signature, Initials, Name, Email, Date, Text, Number, Radio, Checkbox and Dropdown. A field's settings let you add a label and placeholder, mark it Required field or Read only, set font size and alignment, and, depending on the type, add options, a default value, a character limit, a number format or a minimum and maximum.

Fields only belong to people who sign, approve or prepare. Every signer needs at least one signature field before you can send.

Detect fields with AI

Instead of placing fields by hand, add your recipients first, then choose Detect with AI on the Fields tab. GewapeSign finds the signature blocks in your PDF and places fields for your recipients in the order they are listed. It reports how many blocks it found and how many fields it added, and skips places that already have a field. Check the result and adjust anything it got wrong. Detection runs in Rwanda; your document is not sent outside Gewape.

Document settings

The Settings tab holds the options for this document. Your team's defaults are filled in for you (see Preferences).

• General: title, Language (used for emails and the signing page), Visibility (who in your team can see it: Everyone, Managers and above or Admins only) and External ID, your own reference.
• Signing: which signature types are allowed (Draw, Type, Upload; at least one), Date format, Time zone and a Redirect URL where recipients go after signing.
• Distribution: Email, or None (share links manually); the sender, reply-to address, subject and message; and Email settings, the list of emails GewapeSign sends for this document (signing requests, completed copies, notices to you as the owner).
• Expiry and reminders: Signing link expires after, First reminder after (or Off) and Then repeat every. Reminders go to recipients who have not finished.
• Security: Access authentication (recipients must authenticate before they can view the document) and, where available, Action authentication (they must authenticate again before they sign).

Attach links

To give recipients supporting material, open the ⋯ menu in the editor and choose Attachments. Add a label and a URL for each link. Attachments appear on the document page.

Preview and save

Choose Preview to see the fields as recipients will. The bar shows Unsaved changes or All changes saved; choose Save or press ⌘ S (Ctrl S on Windows). Leaving a draft is safe: it stays in the Draft tab.

Send

1. Choose Send. The Send document dialog lists the recipients and anything that still needs fixing, such as a signer without a signature field.
2. Pick the Distribution method. Email sends each recipient an email with their own signing link. None sends no emails and gives you the links instead.
3. For email, you can choose the Email sender (if your organization has its own sending addresses), a Reply-to email, a subject and a message. The message can include {signer.name}, {signer.email} and {document.name}, which are filled in for each recipient.
4. Choose Send. You land on the document's page, where you can follow its progress.

Sharing signing links yourself

With distribution set to None, the Signing links dialog shows one link per recipient with a copy button. Send each link to the right person through your own channel. Each link belongs to one recipient, so do not forward it to anyone else.

Tracking documents

The Documents page

Documents lists everything in your current team. The tabs filter by status and show a count:

• Inbox: documents waiting for you to sign.
• Pending: sent and waiting on someone.
• Completed: everyone has finished.
• Draft: not sent yet.
• All: everything.

Use Search documents, the period filter (All time, Last 7 days, Last 14 days, Last 30 days) and, in a team with several members, the sender filter. Each row shows who sent it, when, how many recipients have finished, and each recipient's state: Not sent, Waiting, Opened, Signed (or Approved, Viewed), Rejected or Expired.

The button on each row does the obvious next thing: Edit a draft, Sign or Approve when it is your turn, Download a completed document, or View.

Your inbox

Inbox in the sidebar collects documents other people have sent you, from every team. Filter by Pending, Completed, Rejected or Cancelled, search by title, and choose Sign, Approve or View to open the signing page.

Folders

1. Choose New folder, give it a name and choose Create.
2. Open a folder to work inside it; documents you upload there land in it.
3. Use a folder's menu to Pin it to the front, Move it into another folder, change its name or visibility under Settings, or Delete it.

Deleting a folder deletes its subfolders and moves the documents inside to the top level. To move documents, tick them and choose Move to folder, or use Move to folder in a document's menu.

The document page

Select a document's title to open its page. It shows a preview of every page, the recipients with their state (and the reason, if someone rejected it), the document details, any attachments and the recent activity.

Document actions

The ⋯ menu on a row or on the document page holds:

• Edit: open the editor (not for completed, rejected or cancelled documents).
• Download: the completed, signed PDF. Download original: the file as uploaded.
• Duplicate: a new draft copy, with or without recipients and fields.
• Save as template: a new template from this document.
• Move to folder.
• Resend: send the signing request again (see below).
• Share: a link that shows a signing card for the document, for when you want to show it was signed.
• Cancel document and Delete.

Reminders and resending

Automatic reminders follow the document's Expiry and reminders settings. To nudge someone now, choose Resend on a pending document, tick the recipients who still need to act and choose Send reminder. Their signing links are renewed.

Cancel or delete a document

1. On a pending document, choose Cancel document.
2. Optionally add a reason; it is shared with the recipients.
3. Choose Cancel document to confirm, or Keep document.

Recipients who have not signed can no longer open a cancelled document. This cannot be undone.

Delete works differently by status. A draft is removed permanently. A pending document is removed permanently and its recipients are told by email; you must type delete to confirm. A completed document is removed from your list, but recipients keep their copies. You can also tick several documents and use the bulk Cancel or Delete buttons. If someone else sent you a document, the menu offers Hide instead, which removes it from your list only.

Certificate and audit log

On the document page, choose Audit log to see every event: the time, who did it, what happened, the network address and the browser. Download audit log saves it as a file. When the document is completed or rejected, Download certificate saves the completion certificate.

Your team can choose to include the certificate and audit log inside the downloaded PDF (see Preferences).

Templates

A template saves a document with its recipients' roles, fields and settings, so documents you send often take seconds.

Create a template

1. Open Templates and choose New template.
2. Drop one or more files (PDF, or Word where the box offers it) and give the template a title.
3. Choose Create and edit. The editor opens: add recipients (for a template, they can be placeholders), place fields and set the options as for a document. Choose Save.

You can also turn any document into a template with Save as template.

In the editor's Settings tab, Template type decides who can use it: Private (only your team), Organisation (every team in the organization) or Public (shown on your team's public profile when a direct link is enabled). The Templates page has matching filters, folders and a search box.

Use a template

1. Choose Use on the template's row, or Use template on its page.
2. In Create document from template, enter the email and name of each recipient.
3. Tick Send document to recipients right away to send immediately, or leave it unticked to create a draft you can check first.
4. To use the template's fields on a different file, tick Upload a custom document instead of the template file and choose the replacement.
5. Choose Create and send or Create as draft.

Direct links

A direct link lets anyone with the link fill in and sign a template themselves; a new document is created for each person who uses it.

1. Open the template's menu and choose Direct link.
2. Choose which recipient the person using the link becomes, or Create a new recipient for the link.
3. Choose Create direct link, then copy the link.

You can switch the link off and on again, or choose Remove direct link; it stops working immediately, and documents already created from it are kept.

Bulk send from a CSV file

To send the same template to many people, each getting their own document:

1. Open the template's menu and choose Bulk Send via CSV.
2. Choose Download Template CSV. It has an email and a name column for each recipient in the template (recipient_1_email, recipient_1_name and so on) and one example row.
3. Fill in one row per document. Email is required for each recipient; name is optional. Blank values use the template's defaults.
4. Choose Upload CSV, then tick Send documents to recipients immediately if you want them sent rather than created as drafts.
5. Choose Upload and Process.

The file can be up to 4 MB with at most 100 rows per upload. If something is wrong, such as a missing column or an invalid email in a given row, the dialog says exactly what to fix. The documents are created in the background and you receive an email when the job is done. Bulk send is available on your own team's templates.

For signers

This chapter is for the people you send documents to. You can share it with them.

Signing a document

1. Open the link in the email you received. You do not need an account.
2. Read the document. Your fields are highlighted.
3. Fill in each field and add your signature: draw it, type it or upload an image, as the sender allows.
4. Choose Complete when every field is done.

If the sender asked for extra checks, you may need to sign in or confirm your identity before you can view or sign the document.

Rejecting a document

If something in the document is wrong, use Reject and give a reason. The sender sees your reason on the document page.

Getting your copy

When everyone has signed, each person receives the completed document and its completion certificate by email, as long as the sender has those emails switched on.

If you also have an account

Documents sent to your email address also appear in your Inbox and under the Inbox tab of Documents, with a Sign, Approve or View button.

Your team and organization

An organization holds one or more teams. Documents and templates belong to a team; people belong to the organization and are given access to teams. Each person has a role: Admin, Manager or Member. Admins and managers can manage members and settings; only admins can delete the organization or a team and see plan and billing details. You can only manage people at or below your own role.

Invite people to the organization

1. Go to Organization settings and open Members.
2. Choose Invite member.
3. Enter each person's work email and pick their Organization Role. Add more rows for more people.
4. Choose Invite. Each person gets an invitation email.

To invite many people at once, open the Bulk Import tab, choose Template to download the CSV format (email address and role), fill it in and upload it. The rows appear in the invite form for you to check before you choose Invite.

The Pending tab lists invitations not yet accepted; you can Resend or Remove them. On the Active tab, use a member's menu to Update role or Remove them.

Teams

1. In Organization settings, open Teams and choose Create team.
2. Enter a Team Name and a Team URL.
3. Tick Allow all organization members to access this team if everyone should see it, then create it.

To add people to a team, go to Team settings, open Members, choose Add members, select people from the organization and set each person's team role. The same page lets you give all organization members access by default with Enable access, or remove that with Disable access.

Groups

Groups save you adding people one at a time. In Organization settings open Groups, choose Create group, give it a name, an organization role and its members. Then, in Team settings under Groups, choose Add groups to give a whole group access to that team with a team role.

Organization and team details

General in Organization settings holds the organization's name, URL and avatar. General in Team settings holds the team's name, URL and avatar, and a Team email: a shared address you can add (it is verified by email) to view documents sent to that address and send as that identity. Admins also find Delete organization and Delete team here; deleting a team can transfer its documents to another team first.

Preferences: defaults, branding and emails

Under Preferences, organization settings apply to every team, and each team can keep them or set its own.

• Document: default visibility, language, date format, time zone, allowed signature types and default recipients added to every new document.
• Branding: turn on Enable Custom Branding, then add a logo (JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 5 MB), your website, brand details shown at the bottom of emails, brand colors and border radius for the signing pages.
• Email: the reply-to address, which emails are sent by default for new documents and templates, and how the signing invitation reads.
• Reminders: the default Default Envelope Expiration and Default Signing Reminders.
• Certificates: whether the signing certificate and the audit log are included in the downloaded document.

Choose Reset to defaults on any of these pages to start again.

Depending on your plan, Organization settings may also show Email Domains, to send email from your own domain, and SSO, to give members a single sign-on portal.

Public profile

In Team settings, Public Profile turns on a public page for your team with a short bio, and lists templates that have a direct link, so people can find and sign them themselves.

Insights

Insights in the sidebar shows usage for the organization over a period you choose: documents created over time, the status breakdown, which templates are used most and how many documents each team sent.

Your account

Your account settings have two tabs: Profile and Security.

Profile and signature

1. Open Profile in the sidebar.
2. Change your avatar, your Full name or your Signature. Draw it, type it, or upload an image with Choose image.
3. Choose Update profile.

Your email address cannot be changed here.

Password

On Security, enter your current password and the new one twice, then choose Update password. If two-factor authentication is on, you also enter a code. Your other devices are signed out when you change it. If you sign in with Gewape ID only, your password and two-factor settings are managed there instead.

Two-factor authentication

1. On Security, choose Enable two-factor authentication.
2. Scan the QR code with an authenticator app, or enter the key shown under it.
3. Type the 6-digit Code from the app and choose Enable.
4. Your recovery codes appear. Copy or download them, keep them somewhere safe, then choose I've saved them.

To turn it off, enter a code from your app or a recovery code.

Recovery codes

Each recovery code works once and lets you sign in if you lose your authenticator app. To see them again, choose View recovery codes and enter a current code.

Passkeys

1. On Security, open Passkeys and choose Add passkey.
2. Name it (for example, the device) and choose Continue.
3. Confirm with your fingerprint, face or screen lock when your browser asks.

You can rename or remove passkeys on the same page.

Sessions and activity

Active sessions lists the devices and browsers signed in to your account. Choose Sign out next to one you do not recognize, or Sign out all other sessions. Recent activity lists sign-ins and security changes. Linked accounts shows other ways you sign in, such as Gewape ID, and lets you unlink them.

Delete your account

Delete account on the Profile tab removes your account and everything in it, including completed documents, and any organization you own. Turn two-factor authentication off first, then type your email address to confirm. This cannot be undone, so download what you need to keep.

Contracts, renewals and safeguards

Besides documents you send by hand, GewapeSign can create contracts automatically from your billing system, through the API. These screens show that work. If your workspace does not use it, they say so and stay empty.

Overview

Overview shows contracts moving through four lanes: Collecting (payments grouped per customer, entity and day until the hold window closes), Awaiting customer, Awaiting countersign (the customer has signed and your authorized signatory has not) and Executed. Next to them are a live event stream, service levels over the last 30 days and a count of your team's documents by status.

Dry run and kill switch

Two switches on Overview control what automatic actions may do. Only the workspace owner or an admin can change them.

• Dry run: destructive commands, such as voiding an invoice or scheduling a termination, are recorded but never sent to your systems.
• Kill switch: every destructive command is halted and approvals are paused.

Turning a safeguard on takes effect immediately. Turning one off asks you to confirm.

Renewals and declines

Renewals & declines has three parts:

• The Decline queue: when a customer declines a renewal contract, it lands here with their reason and what would happen on approval. Nothing is canceled until someone decides. Choose Approve cancellation or Keep services, contact customer, add an optional note for the audit record, and confirm. Physical services always need approval and are never canceled automatically. While the kill switch is on, approvals are paused.
• Renewing in the next 30 days: services coming up for renewal and whether a renewal contract exists.
• The Command outbox: approved actions before any system receives them, marked as recorded only in dry run or queued when live.

Contracts

Contracts lists contracts created through the API, filtered by All, Awaiting, Declined and Executed. Open one to see its signers, its SHA-256 fingerprints and its timeline. From there you can Send reminder, Void it with a reason, or, once executed, Download signed PDF and the Completion certificate.

Integrations

Integrations shows what is connected: the systems sending events, the API keys each system uses and when they were last used, your webhook endpoints with their latest delivery, and the automations with when each last ran. Only the workspace owner or an admin can see API keys.

Plan and usage

Plan & billing is for the workspace owner and admins. It shows:

• your current plan, seats in use (and invitations outstanding) and any trial end date;
• this month's usage: seats, documents sent, API calls and storage, with documents created, completed, signers and webhooks delivered;
• a table of the last six months;
• the accepted ways to pay an invoice.

Choose Compare plans to see what each plan includes, or see gewapesign.com/pricing. Owners and admins pick a plan, the number of seats and a billing period (monthly or yearly), and pay by card on a secure payment page that shows the price, including VAT for your location, before you confirm. Plans renew automatically. Card receipts are then listed on this page, and Manage card and invoices lets you update your card, change seats or cancel. For Enterprise plans, contact sales@gewapecloud.com.

Proof and verification

The seal on a completed document

Every completed document is sealed. Open it in a PDF reader that shows signatures, such as Adobe Acrobat Reader, and look at the signature panel: if anyone changed the file after signing, the seal shows as broken.

The completion certificate

The certificate lists each signer, the time of each step and the document's SHA-256 fingerprint. Together with the audit log, it records who signed, when, from which network address and with which email or login.

Independent timestamp proof

GewapeSign also produces a timestamp proof for documents: a proof.json file that shows the PDF existed in exactly that form no later than the stated time. Anyone can check it without contacting Gewape:

1. Go to gewapesign.com/verify.
2. Drop the signed PDF and its proof file on the page.
3. Read the result. Everything is checked in your browser; the files are not uploaded anywhere.

The same page offers an offline verifier for full checks. Proof files are available through the API. The proof shows a document has not changed; on its own it does not identify who signed, which is what the audit trail and certificate are for. More in Help.

Developers

Your systems can create and send contracts, receive webhooks when they are signed, and download signed PDFs, certificates and proofs through the GewapeSign API. Developers in the sidebar is where you create API keys (with a Live and a Sandbox environment; sandbox documents are never emailed to signers) and webhook endpoints. Teams also have API Tokens and Webhooks under Team settings. The full reference is at developers.gewapesign.com.

Getting help

• Support: support.gewapecloud.com
• Sales and plan changes: sales@gewapecloud.com
• Service status: status.gewapesign.com
• Quick answers for signers: Help

When you contact support about a document, include its title and the document ID shown on its audit log page.

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