Contracts, Acceptance Certificates and Primary Documents

It is useful to start with documents repeated weekly or monthly: contracts with regular customers, specifications, acceptance certificates, invoices, delivery notes, personnel documents and internal approvals. For each type, the mandatory particulars, signatory, signing deadline and storage location of the final file are defined. Where the parties exchange documents through a service, the exchange terms are stated in the contract or a separate agreement.

The director signs documents within corporate authority. The accountant or another employee uses their own electronic signature within job authority or under a power of attorney. The personal key remains with the signatory. This gives the company a clear list of people who can create legally significant documents on its behalf.

For sales, it is convenient to store the contract, invoice, acceptance certificate or delivery note and payment together. For procurement, the package contains the order, supplier invoice, acceptance document and payment. One transaction file saves accounting time and allows the director to see quickly which document awaits signature, which has already been sent to the counterparty and which document the payment depends on.

For recurring services, it is useful to establish a separate calendar: date the acceptance certificate is prepared, deadline for director signature, deadline for sending it to the client and the date from which accounting expects payment. Such a calendar works better than managers' correspondence because each document has an owner and a specific date. If the client receives the same package every month, templates for the contract, invoice and acceptance certificate reduce manual work and help close the month on a stable schedule.

Service, Signatories and Working Repository

The electronic-document-management service is selected according to the actual document volume. For a small company, contracts, acceptance certificates, QES, search and file export may be sufficient. For high document volumes, employee roles, accounting integration, bulk signing, delivery statuses and the ability to retrieve the complete document set in a readable format are important.

A manager can prepare the contract, a lawyer approve the text, the director sign the final file and the accountant accept it into the records. Each user has their own account. Shared passwords and transfer of a personal QES between employees are replaced by allocating rights within the service and through corporate authority.

Signed files, receipts, timestamps and delivery statuses are stored in the company's separate working repository. A backup remains outside the principal service. If the software provider changes, the company retrieves its documents and signing data and continues working in another system without losing contracts, acceptance certificates or accounting evidence.

Rules for Exchange with a Counterparty

In a contract with a customer or supplier, it is useful to identify the service, official email addresses, permitted signature type and moment when a document is treated as received. For acceptance certificates and notices, the response period is stated separately. This wording directly affects the payment date, acceptance of work and subsequent correspondence.

A company may work with several systems where major clients use different services. The principal criterion remains the ability to retrieve the final file with signature data and retain it in the company's own repository. This is particularly useful for clients in different cities, large numbers of monthly acceptance certificates and remote work by the director.

UBC can prepare electronic-exchange rules, allocate signatory authority and align contracts with the selected working method. The client receives a specific procedure: an employee prepares the document, an authorised person signs it, the counterparty receives the file and the accountant stores the completed package. This structure reduces paper delivery and accelerates receipt of signed documents.

The economics of transition also matter to the owner. If the company sends dozens or hundreds of acceptance certificates each month, electronic exchange reduces courier costs and managers' time. If document volumes are small, a simple service without complex integration may be sufficient.