Purchasing today, a deputy tomorrow
Several people at the client company may sign — who is currently responsible is decided there, not in your software.
← AlpviewSign contracts the way your industry works —
PDLSign
Signature service for staffing companies
Sign contracts the way your industry works —
not the way a form wants it.
PDL Sign brings the signing process into your ERP: staffing and employment contracts are prepared there, signed by the right people — by delivered link or together on site — and returned as a sealed PDF with its audit page.
Built by Alpview IT Service UG
Inside the ERPno second portal for your dispatch desk
Link or on sitea delivered link or together on a tablet
Sealedone PDF with an audit page, changes stay detectable
- Transaction
- AÜV-2026-0451 · staffing contract
- Client company
- Muster Personaldienstleistungen GmbH
- Signing person
- M. Schulte · purchasing, selected from the authorized-signer list
- Rule
- two signatures, one from management level — satisfied
Electronically sealed
This English page is a translation for information. The German version is the authoritative one: the service limits are tied to German legal terms (Textform, § 12 AÜG, § 14 (4) TzBfG), and the wording on the seal is legally approved in German only.
Why standard e-signature fails here
The client company is not a single person.
Common signature platforms address one named recipient. The core process of temporary staffing needs the opposite.
People are added continuously
A new contact must not break the process: they request admission, dispatch confirms, the signature continues — reminder periods pause in the meantime.
Contract year-end in bulk
Hundreds of similar contracts at once: select once from the authorized-signer list, sign them all in one pass — each contract sealed and verifiable on its own.
Internally, not just anyone signs either
Administration may prepare. The authorized person must sign.
What holds for the client company holds for you too: whoever creates a contract is rarely the person allowed to sign it. PDL Sign separates the two — and your ERP defines who is eligible at all.
Preparing without signing rights
Administration creates the contract in the ERP and starts the signature process without being authorized to sign.
Your ERP defines the circle
Along with the transaction, your system hands over the intended signer, the further permitted signatories and the counterparty.
Deputies without a detour
If the intended person is unavailable, another person released by the ERP can take over before signing — selected from the circle handed over, not typed in freely.
How it runs
Three steps: out of the ERP, back into the ERP.
Prepare the transaction
Create the contract in the ERP, define the signers and start the signature process. Your system hands over document, transaction type, authorized signers and counterparty through the documented interface. Whoever creates the transaction does not have to be authorized to sign.
Collect the signatures
PDL Sign controls the order: first the internal signature — supplied by your ERP or collected by PDL Sign —, then the other side. So the external party never receives an incomplete contract. Signing happens by delivered link or together on site; reminders and escalation run automatically.
Seal and return
After the last signature, the final PDF is created with its audit page and a certificate-based, AATL-trusted seal. Your ERP retrieves result and events automatically — the contract lands where it originated.
Two routes
Sign wherever the contract happens to be.
Whether someone sits on the other side of the country or across the desk changes nothing about the contract — only the route to the signature.
Not on site? A link is enough.
The signing person receives a personal link at their business mailbox and signs on their own device. PDL Sign controls who is next in line and keeps reminding on its own.
- ERP
- signer
- done
Someone sitting across from you? A tablet is enough.
Administration prepares the contract in the ERP. A QR code opens the transaction on the tablet at your branch. The authorized signer and then the other side sign by hand, with finger or stylus, separated by an explicit handover step.
- ERP
- QR code
- tablet
- both sides
- done
Capabilities
Built around the dispatch desk.
Groups & hierarchy rules
Two signatures, one of them from management level? Rules are handed over per contract, frozen, and checked on every signature.
Internal first, then external
The external party only receives the transaction once the required internal signature is in place. Nobody has to manage the order.
Deputies without breaking the process
The link may be passed on inside the client company — but only people on the list can sign. Reassignment by the dispatch desk at any time.
Batches
Up to 300 contracts per batch, one selection from the authorized group, an individual seal and audit page per contract.
Brand profiles
Signature page and emails carry your name, logo and colour — a separate profile per group company, applied automatically.
Automatically back into the ERP
The finished, sealed document returns with status and audit trail through the same interface the transaction originated from.
The result
A document that speaks for itself.
Sealed
After the last signature the final PDF is sealed technically — one document made of contract, signatures and audit page.
Changes stay detectable
Adobe Acrobat Reader rates a completed document as valid and trustworthy. If it is altered afterwards, the check fails visibly — and it runs in the reader, without access to our service.
Traceable
The co-sealed audit page shows in human-readable form who signed when, in which role and under which rule. The full technical audit trail stays retrievable for ten years.
What sits behind it technically
- sealing in PAdES format
- certificate-based, AATL-trusted
- signing keys in dedicated cryptographic hardware, not exportable
- co-signed timestamp from an external timestamping service
- audit trail retained for ten years, machine-readable on request
The seal
Die SES bedarf keines Zertifikats der Unterzeichnenden. Um dennoch den höchstmöglichen Qualitätsstandards zu entsprechen, wählt PDL Sign auch für die einfache elektronische Signatur immer ein zertifiziertes Firmensiegel. Unsere Kunden können sich auf die Unverfälschtheit der Dokumente verlassen. Jedes finale PDF wird durch das zertifizierte Alpview Firmensiegel abgesichert. Das Siegel dient hier als technischer Schutzschild, um zu beweisen, dass das Dokument nach dem Export aus der Plattform nicht mehr manipuliert wurde.
The seal is Alpview's seal, not the signature of the person. It secures the integrity of the document, not the attribution of the signing person. Who signed is evidenced by the audit page.
Where it sits
Why not simply use a general signature platform?
There is nothing wrong with broad signature platforms — they solve a different problem. The difference is not in the feature count but in the cut.
| General signature platform | PDL Sign |
|---|---|
| A separate application | part of the contract process in the ERP |
| Cross-industry workflow | designed for the staffing industry |
| Addresses one named recipient | addresses the circle of authorized signers |
| Signature by link | link or together on site on a tablet |
| Broad signature spectrum for every industry | today Textform, cut to the contract process |
| Usually a licence per user | per completed contract |
You are not paying for a signature suite. You are integrating the contract conclusion your dispatch desk actually needs.
Plain terms
What PDL Sign covers today — and what it does not.
Trust comes from clear limits. The following describes the current scope of the service and appears the same way in our service description:
- A Textform service today: PDL Sign does not produce a qualifizierte elektronische Signatur. If a transaction legally requires the statutory written form, the current scope of service does not cover it.
- Choosing the documents stays with you. Whether a transaction is suitable for Textform is for you or your legal department to decide — not for the service.
- No check of who is sitting at a device. A confirmation code could not achieve that either, because it would go to the same mailbox as the link. Three other things are evidenced: delivery to a business mailbox, the selection of the signing person from the authorized-signer list you maintain, and the complete sequence of events. ID checks, video ident and second factors by SMS or app are deliberately not part of the service.
- No promise of eternal check marks in third-party software — what is owed is standards-compliant, AATL-anchored sealing; the integrity of the document remains verifiable.
- A handwritten stroke on the tablet does not turn this into a higher-grade signature.
Pricing model
You pay for what is completed.
No licence per workstation
No licence per dispatcher, none per branch, none per signer. Billing is per completed contract — per sealed document, with any number of signatures inside it, regardless of how many your rule requires.
Usage-based and predictable
A batch counts per contract it contains. Cancelled, aborted and unfinished transactions cost nothing. No envelope quotas.
Getting started
Test environment, documented interface and a walkthrough with your dispatch desk — in the initial call we clarify document types, volume and the connection to your ERP. Together with your software vendor if you wish.
Frequent questions
Answered briefly.
What does the recipient see in a PDF reader?
Adobe Acrobat Reader rates the seal of a completed document as valid and trustworthy — the certificate chain is anchored in the Adobe Approved Trust List (AATL). The check runs in the reader itself; access to our service is not required for it.
How is the signing person attributed to the transaction?
The link goes to a business mailbox that appears on your authorized-signer list. Before signing, the person selects themselves from that list — nobody can type in a name, and anyone not on the list can only request admission, which your dispatch desk approves. Every step is recorded with time, IP address and browser signature. For contracts with a named individual, forwarding is blocked. There is no check of who is sitting at the device.
How does PDL Sign connect to our ERP?
Through a documented, versioned interface: create and cancel transactions, hand over signer lists and brand profiles, retrieve events and finished documents. We involve your software vendor directly if you wish.
Where does the data run?
Processing takes place in the European Union; signing keys are held exclusively in dedicated cryptographic hardware and cannot be exported. A data processing agreement under Article 28 GDPR is part of the contract package.
Can an administrator prepare the transaction without being authorized to sign?
Yes. Creating and signing are separated: administration creates the contract in the ERP and starts the signature process; only those your ERP handed over as authorized can sign.
What if the intended signer is unavailable?
The signer intended by the ERP is preselected but not fixed: before signing, another person released by the ERP can take over — selected from the circle handed over, not typed in freely.
Do our staff need user licences?
No. Billing is per completed contract, not per workstation — there are no licences per dispatcher, per branch or per signer.
Can someone sign directly at our branch?
Yes. If the person is with you, going through a mailbox is a detour: a QR code opens the transaction prepared in the ERP on the tablet at your branch. Both sides sign there one after the other, by finger or stylus, separated by an explicit handover step. The stroke appears in the finished document; only its shape is stored.
What if the responsible person at the client company is unavailable?
The invitation link may be passed on inside the client company — but only people on your authorized-signer list can sign. Anyone not on it can request admission, which your dispatch desk approves. For contracts with a named individual, forwarding is blocked.
How does the finished document get back into our ERP?
Your ERP retrieves result and events through the same interface the transaction was created with, so the sealed PDF including its audit page returns automatically to where the contract originated.
Which documents may PDL Sign be used for?
Documents for which Textform is sufficient — the staffing contract under § 12 AÜG is one of them. If a document legally requires the written form, such as a fixed-term agreement under § 14 (4) TzBfG, it does not belong in a Textform service. Which document types qualify is for you or your legal department to assess.
What do AATL and PAdES mean?
PAdES is the format in which the seal is stored inside the PDF. AATL is Adobe's trust list: because our certificate chain is anchored there, the reader rates a completed document as valid and trustworthy without any further setup.
What happens if the client company simply does not sign?
The transaction does not expire. Reminders go out on day 2 and 4, on day 5 your dispatch desk receives a task, after that the service keeps reminding — weekly by default — and reports the pending transaction to you repeatedly. A staffing contract left for three weeks because of holidays or internal coordination does not have to be created again. What expires after 14 days is the individual invitation link; the next reminder brings a fresh one. If a person declines, their reminder run ends immediately and you are notified. Only your dispatch desk can close a transaction.
Next step
Show us one of your contracts.
30 minutes, your document type, your authorization logic — after that you will know whether PDL Sign fits your process.
Request an initial call For ERP and software vendors Alpview for staffing companies