Signatures - e-courier?

Tax Topics
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I did try to search this topic prior to posting.
I am considering in switching to e-courier for signatures - any thoughts?
thanks

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I love the e-courier electric signature features, and use it all the time.

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Works great.

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I used e-Courier for about 3 yrs. This year I let my subscription lapse. With the price increase, it was getting too costly for my small home based business. My invoice included the basic subscription, secure e-signature, and secure deposit box link. I’ll be returning to Adobe Sign this year for document signature, and Sync.com as a document dropbox. I’ve been licensing both of these programs for several years as well, so I’ve had built-in redundancies and have resorted to using these with those clients that didn’t want to use e-Courier.

I recently heard from one tax practitioner who said that Revenue Quebec gave him flack due to the lack of an actual signature on the form needing signing despite submitting the authentication page with the document. Seems like e-Courier needs to do a better job selling their product to Revenue Quebec. Haven’t heard about any CRA complaints yet.

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I still recommend SignNow.com, as long as you’re not worried about those files residing on a U.S. server. I try to keep most of my client data on Canadian soil, but I can’t find a better e-signing service, and I assess the risk of a data breach to be low (although not negligible).

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Hi Everyone,

As part of my due diligence in choosing e-signature for 2024 tax season, i reached out to e-courier regarding the comment above about issue with Revenue Quebec accepting e courier signatures…
here is his response -

There is not a problem with CRA approval of our electronic signature.

Here’s what one e‑Courier user sent us:

“I just phoned the [CRA] E‑file Helpdesk to get their take on handwritten signatures once again. Amazingly, the person I spoke to just now had more knowledge about this subject than some of the agents I’ve spoken to in the past when I’ve asked about this topic. The response was very positive, affirming that as long as the signature (typed or handwritten) was received by a software company specializing in e‑signatures, and that the date/timestamp, and IP Address were recorded, it would be accepted.”

Regarding Revenu Quebec, we’ve been trying to reach them directly, but haven’t received any replies. If Revenu Quebec at all operates like CRA, then there is no “selling” to be done there, as we conform to PIPEDA and Government of Canada requirements for electronic signatures.

Here’s CRA’s stance on “approval” of electronic signatures (as received by me in an email from CRA directly):

“… CRA has not and will not provide an official acceptance, acknowledgement, or endorsement of electronic signature solutions in the form of a letter or otherwise for any vendor. There is no certification process for electronic signature solutions and no such public list of approved vendors.”

Nevertheless, you might get an individual CRA clerk who does not know about electronic signatures, and we’ll be happy to help any e‑Courier subscriber if that ever happens.

Here’s what Government of Canada has to say about electronic signatures:

[From https://www.canada.ca/en/government/system/digital-government/online-security-privacy/government-canada-guidance-using-electronic-signatures.html ]

"2.1. E‑signature laws
Jurisdictions throughout the world have adopted laws that recognize the validity of electronic documents and e‑signatures. Although frameworks and definitions vary by jurisdiction, their principles are largely the same. Appendix A lists a number of these sources and their associated definitions.

In Canada, Part 2 of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) provides a regime that establishes electronic equivalents to paper‑based documents and signatures at the federal level. Part 2 of PIPEDA defines an e‑signature as “a signature that consists of one or more letters, characters, numbers or other symbols in digital form incorporated in, attached to or associated with an electronic document.” Essentially, an e‑signature can be virtually any form of electronic representation that can be linked or attached to an electronic document or transaction, including:

  • user authentication to an internal application to approve something, such as when a supervisor logs into an application to approve a leave request
  • using a stylus on a tablet touchscreen to write a signature by hand and capture it in electronic form
  • a typed name or signature block in an email
  • user authentication to access a website, coupled with a mouse click on some form of acknowledgment button to capture intent
  • a scanned hand‑written signature on an electronic document
  • a sound such as a recorded voice command (for example, a verbal confirmation in response to a question)"
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