The tolerated pain: a digital document takes a detour through paper
Almost every document a business signs today starts life on a computer. A quote, an employment contract, a supplier agreement, a purchase order, a leave form or a client mandate is drafted in Word or generated by a system. Then, at the moment it needs a signature, it leaves the digital world. Someone prints it, signs it with a pen, walks it to the next signatory, scans it on the office multifunction printer, renames the scan and emails it back. If the other party is outside the business, they do the same in reverse.
Each round trip takes only minutes of work, but it can take days of elapsed time. Signatories are out of the office, the scanner is busy, the scan is crooked or missing a page, the wrong version was printed, and the email with the signed copy sits unread. Meanwhile, a deal is not closed, a new employee cannot start, a supplier cannot deliver and a payment cannot be released.
This is a different problem from paper forms captured twice, where information written on paper is retyped into a system. Here the content is already digital; only the signature forces the paper detour. It is also a specific form of the delay Mellorca described in the cost of work waiting for approval.
Why businesses tolerate it
- Belief that wet ink is required. Many owners assume an electronic signature is not legally valid in South Africa.
- Habit and comfort. Senior people are used to signing on paper and see no reason to change.
- Counterparties ask for it. Some customers or suppliers send documents expecting a printed, signed and scanned return.
- Tools seem complex or costly. E-signature services are seen as an enterprise purchase.
- The delay is not measured. Nobody records how long documents take to come back signed.
Operational symptoms
- Contracts and agreements take days to return even when everyone agrees on the content.
- Documents wait for a director who is travelling or working from home.
- Scans are illegible, incomplete or saved under meaningless names, so they must be redone or are hard to find later.
- Staff are unsure which version was signed, and unsigned drafts circulate alongside signed copies.
- Printing, paper and scanner use stay high in an office that considers itself paperless.
- Nobody can quickly see which documents are still awaiting signature, or from whom.
How the pain becomes money
- Labour cost. Paid time spent printing, collecting signatures, scanning, renaming, emailing and chasing.
- Turnaround cost. Days added to sales contracts, onboarding and supplier agreements delay revenue, start dates and deliveries.
- Revenue loss. A customer who is ready to buy can change their mind, or a competitor can close first, while paperwork travels.
- Error and dispute risk. Signing the wrong version, missing a page or losing the signed copy can create disagreements about what was agreed.
- Direct costs. Printing, paper, toner, scanning equipment and, sometimes, couriers.
A transparent cost model
The figures below are illustrative assumptions. Replace them with your own volumes, timings and rates.
| Document type | Per month | Staff minutes per document (print, sign, scan, file, chase) | Typical elapsed days on paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer contracts and quote acceptances | 40 | 25 | 3 |
| Employment and HR documents | 30 | 20 | 2 |
| Supplier agreements and purchase orders | 50 | 15 | 2 |
| Internal approval forms | 80 | 10 | 1 |
Staff time: (40 × 25) + (30 × 20) + (50 × 15) + (80 × 10) = 3,150 minutes a month, or about 52 hours. Over a year, that is roughly 630 hours. At an illustrative loaded cost of R260 an hour, about R164,000 a year.
The elapsed days matter as much as the labour. If customer contracts take three days to return on paper and could return the same day electronically, each signed deal starts earlier. What that is worth depends on your margins and cash cycle, so estimate it with your own figures rather than a generic benchmark.
Illustrative example. A Cape Town recruitment agency placed contract staff with clients each week. Every placement needed a signed client agreement and a signed worker contract, and both were printed, signed, scanned and emailed. Placements regularly slipped a day or two while paperwork caught up, particularly when clients' signatories worked remotely. The agency moved both documents to electronic signing from its document library, with signing order set for the agency director and the client. Signed copies were saved automatically, and the team could see which placements were still waiting.
What South African law says
The Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 (ECTA) is the starting point. Section 13 states that an electronic signature is not without legal force and effect merely because it is in electronic form. Where the parties to an electronic transaction require a signature but have not agreed on the type, the requirement is met if a method is used to identify the person and indicate their approval, and the method is as reliable as appropriate for the purpose. Where a law itself requires a signature without specifying the type, section 13 requires an advanced electronic signature, a more rigorous category defined in the Act.
The Act also excludes certain transactions from these provisions. Its schedule lists, among others, agreements for the alienation of immovable property and long-term leases of immovable property for more than 20 years under the Alienation of Land Act, the execution, retention and presentation of wills or codicils, and the execution of bills of exchange. For the everyday commercial agreements, HR documents and internal approvals that make up most signing volume, electronic signatures are widely usable, but businesses should confirm specific document types with their legal adviser.
When it becomes commercially urgent
- deals, hires or supplier agreements are regularly delayed by paperwork;
- key signatories often work away from the office;
- a dispute has arisen over which version of a document was signed;
- signing volume is rising with growth;
- you are already paying for software that includes signing features you have not switched on.
What better looks like
Documents should be signed where they are stored, by the right people in the right order, with an audit trail and the signed copy filed automatically.
Microsoft's documentation for eSignature in Microsoft 365, for example, describes sending documents stored in SharePoint for signature to people inside and outside the organisation, with a digital audit trail and signing activities logged in the Purview audit log. Its guidance on creating requests notes that up to 10 recipients can be added, that a signing order can be enforced, and that signature, initials and date fields are placed on the document. The service uses simple electronic signatures, requires pay-as-you-go billing to be set up, and integrates with Adobe Acrobat Sign and Docusign, which save signed copies back to SharePoint. These details illustrate the questions to ask of any provider: what type of signature it produces, how the audit trail works, where signed copies are stored and how it is billed.
Signing is often the final step of an approval. Mellorca's article on why approval processes become bottlenecks covers how to design the approval itself.
Practical steps
- List the documents the business signs each month, with volumes and who signs.
- Record how long each type takes to return signed today.
- Confirm with your legal adviser which document types need an advanced electronic signature or are excluded under ECTA.
- Start with the highest-volume, lowest-risk documents, such as internal approvals and HR forms.
- Set up templates with signature fields and signing order, and store signed copies in one controlled location.
- Track turnaround time after the change and extend to customer and supplier agreements.
Mellorca's business automation service helps businesses connect signing to the documents and approvals around it.
Bottom line
Printing a digital document so that it can be signed and scanned back is a costly detour. The business pays in staff time, but more in days of delay on revenue, hiring and supply. South African law recognises electronic signatures for most everyday business documents, with clear exceptions. Moving routine signing to an electronic process with an audit trail removes most of the labour and shortens turnaround from days to hours.
Sources and further reading
- Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002 (Act No. 25 of 2002) - 13. Signature - Acts Online (last verified 10 October 2026)
- https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201409/a25-02.pdf (last verified 10 October 2026)
- Overview of eSignature (last verified 10 October 2026)
- Create a signature request from a PDF in eSignature (last verified 10 October 2026)
Related Mellorca reading
- Creating the Same Documents by Hand: The Labour Cost of Repeat Paperwork
- Approving Every Small Transaction: The Management Cost of Unnecessary Sign-Offs
- From Inbox to System by Hand: The Labour Cost of Retyping Emails