Export. Send. Download. Rename. Re-upload. Re-reference.
A generic tool lives outside the engagement, so every signed document takes a manual round trip before it becomes a workpaper — and every step is a chance to file the wrong version.
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THE GENERIC ROUND TRIP
THE AUDITFILE® WORKFLOW
THE EVIDENCE
E-SIGNATURES BUILT INTO THE AUDIT PLATFORM
From engagement letter to signed evidence — without leaving the binder.
Send Word, Excel, or PDF documents for signature from inside the engagement — or standalone. Signers authenticate through tokenized email links, consent and identity are captured to the standard the document demands, and the flattened signed PDF files itself back into the binder as a workpaper.
ESIGN/UETA consent capture
Hash-chained audit trail
Signed PDFs filed to the binder
Signature evidence built to the standards auditors, reviewers, and the IRS actually check.
ESIGN / UETA
Versioned consent capture
IRS Publication 1345
Knowledge-based identity verification
Form 8879
E-file authorization support
Tamper-evident
Hash-chained audit trail
7-year retention
Default schedule, with legal hold
BUILT INTO THE ENGAGEMENT
Send from where the work lives.
Pick a document inside an engagement — or send one standalone — and it goes out for signature without an export, an email attachment, or a separate portal.
Start in the binder
Send any Word, Excel, or PDF workpaper for signature from inside the engagement, or send a standalone document when the request has no binder yet.
The source is never touched
The signing copy runs on a separate document engine, so the source workpaper stays exactly as prepared while signers work on their own copy.
Signed PDFs file themselves
When the final signature lands, the flattened signed PDF files itself back into the binder as a workpaper — no download, no rename, no re-upload.
FIELDS & ROUTING
Place every field. Route every signer.
Drag-and-drop field placement puts signature, initials, name, text, and date fields exactly where each signer needs them — then routing order decides who signs, and when.
- Signature
- Initials
- Name
- Text
- Date
Placed per signer
Drop each field onto the page and assign it to a signer. Every signer sees their own fields — and only their own fields.
Multiple signers, routed in order
Add as many signers as the document needs and set the routing order — each signer receives the document when the signer before them finishes.
Firm countersigners
Internal firm countersigners sign authenticated, inside AuditFile® — no email link required for your own partners and staff.
IDENTITY & CONSENT
Know who signed. Prove what they agreed to.
Every signature carries the identity and consent evidence behind it — captured at signing, not reconstructed later.
✓
Tokenized email links
External signers authenticate through tokenized email links. AuditFile® stores only a SHA-256 digest of each token — the token itself is never persisted.
✓
Versioned ESIGN/UETA consent
Consent disclosures are versioned, so the exact ESIGN/UETA disclosure a signer saw is reproducible for every signature — word for word.
✓
IP and geolocation at signing
The signer IP address and geolocation are captured at the moment of signing and recorded alongside the signature.
✓
Knowledge-based authentication
Optional KBA meets IRS Publication 1345 for remote identity verification. The IRS three-attempt limit is enforced, and no personal data from verification is ever persisted.
E-FILE AUTHORIZATIONS
Form 8879, handled the way the IRS expects.
E-file authorizations run through the same signing workflow, with the PIN mechanics Form 8879 requires built in.
TAXPAYER
Five-digit self-select PIN
The taxpayer enters a five-digit self-select PIN as part of signing, exactly as the e-file authorization requires.
ERO
Part III practitioner-PIN attestation
The ERO completes the Form 8879 Part III practitioner-PIN attestation to finish the authorization.
STORAGE
PINs encrypted at rest
Taxpayer and practitioner PINs are encrypted at rest — collected for the authorization, protected in storage.
TAMPER-EVIDENT BY CONSTRUCTION
Every event chained. Every change detectable.
The trail behind every signature is append-only and hash-chained — built so the record can show, not just say, that nothing was altered.
✓
Append-only, hash-chained
Each event is chained by SHA-256 to the one before it, so any edit, deletion, or reordering breaks the chain — and is detectable.
✓
21 recorded event types
From created to sealed, every step of the agreement is recorded as one of 21 distinct event types.
✓
Certificate of Completion
A branded Certificate of Completion is appended to every signed document, carrying the full agreement history with the document it supports.
RETENTION & CONTROL
Signed evidence that stays exactly as long as it should.
Signed documents and their evidence follow retention controls built for firms — a default schedule, a hold that overrides it, and a purge that is deliberate.
7-year default retention
Every signed document and its evidence is retained for seven years by default.
Legal hold
Place a document under legal hold and it stays put — the retention schedule does not touch it until the hold is released.
Controlled purge
When retention ends, removal is a controlled purge — an explicit, deliberate action, never a silent expiry.
WHY NOT A STANDALONE E-SIGN APP
The signature isn't the hard part. Filing it is.
Any tool can get a PDF signed. Then someone on your team has to download it, rename it, and drag it into the right workpaper — for every letter, on every engagement.
Start and end in the engagement.
AuditFile® e-signatures send from the workpaper and file the flattened signed PDF straight back into the binder — signed evidence lands where the work already lives.
The proof travels with the document.
The branded Certificate of Completion — with the full agreement history — is appended to the signed document itself, so the evidence and the workpaper never separate.
SIGNATURES THAT LIVE IN THE BINDER
Get the engagement letter signed without leaving the engagement.
Send it, route it, capture consent and identity — and find the flattened signed PDF filed in the binder when the last signature lands.