It used to be that once a contract was ink written, the parties to sign and the persons overseeing the process had to be physically present in one place. That is one of the main disadvantages of paper-based or hard-copy contracting. Thus, at the onset of the digital transformation, it became fitting that there be electronic contracting. Writing, reading and signing of contracts had to happen digitally.
At present, e-contracts are much more prevalent than hard-copy contracts. Subsequently, see below the main advantages for companies turning to e-contracts over traditional or hard copy contracts.
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Saves time
Negotiating, writing, proofreading, reading, and signing traditional contracts consumes a lot of time. For instance, it may take a few hours or a day to craft the agreement and a few days for your client to receive the physical copy of the contract for viewing.
However, with eContracts, it becomes easy to prepare using an existing agreement template with only a few changes made on a document. Once done preparing the contract, you immediately send it electronically or digitally to be accessed, viewed and signed via a tablet, smartphone or laptop. Since there is no need for parties to meet in a location physically, the process saves time.
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Significantly reduces errors
Hard copy documents are notorious for entertaining discrepancies or errors, which can be due to doctoring or honest mistakes by the creator. For example, a human error may occur in traditional contracting because there is a provision of inaccurate data/information or there was no extensive proofreading.
The doctoring or manipulation of traditional contracts often happens once signatures and initials are present. The doctrine of the agreement can be done either by the recipient or the sender.
On the contrary, electronic contracting reduces errors, mainly typographical mistakes. With digital contracts, you can ensure that the signatures, initials and other client or company information are consistent in the agreement. In case there are manipulations of the contract, tracking is possible.
Furthermore, glaring errors are eliminated since you can use contract templates already prepared by your lawyers.
Read: How to Add Signature In Outlook
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Lowers cost of operation
When your company relies on working with traditional contracts, it incurs expenses on various office equipment and supplies. Your business will need paper, ink refilling, printing and photocopying equipment, filling and storage.
But, when the company adopts eContracting, the costs associated with traditional contracting immediately disappear. There is no printing or posting/mailing of contracts involved.
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Enhanced security
Creating, submitting, and signing paper documents is prone to manipulation or tampering. Changing terms and conditions and forging signatures is common. That is why the creator of a traditional contract prefers the existence of several copies and signing processes overseen by a notary.
Incorporating electronic or digital signing capabilities or signatures reduces or eliminates the ability to manipulate or forge an original contract or document. An electronic record may have features enabling:
- Access limitation to the information that may be required, including signatures and initials.
- Monitoring contract changes. Therefore, all parties are alerted if someone has tampered with the agreement or attempted to make changes.
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Improves customer satisfaction
Your business or company must prioritize enhancing customer satisfaction. When you deal with electronic contracts and documents, there is no need for your clients or customers to interact with physical copies. That can be inconvenient because of the need to mail hard copy contracts to a client, or the client must travel to your business location to get a copy of the agreement for reading and signing.
Also, creating a digital contract involves simple template editing, which does not take much time.
The electronic program you use for electronic contracting comes with an autofill capability, allowing the parties to provide a signature once for automatic filling out the entire document. Sometimes, for a purchase to be completed, a customer only has to click on the button labeled “I agree” or fill out an electronic signature.
There are various benefits of using electronic contracts. As a company or an individual, shifting to e-contracts minimizes your expenses, improves the security of your documents, saves time, reduces contract discrepancies, and enhances customer satisfaction. That is why you should prefer electronic contracting.
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