Any party that is not Author to a process can now be assigned one of two new roles:

• Visible Approver
• Hidden Approver

An Approver is a role to a process that allows a party to not sign but approve a document. It is not possible to choose a signing method for approving roles.

By choosing between a visible and hidden Approver, you have the possibility to impact the appearance of the signing process and the finalised signed PDF document, but not the process overview accessible through the E-archive.

How to select the roles in Scrive eSign Online?

When creating a new process in the frontend Scrive New, you can select an approving role in the 'Parties' settings. Make your choice in the field 'Role' for the parties concerned:

Visible Approver

The setting 'Visible Approver' corresponds with the functionality provided by the previous setting  'Approver'.

By choosing this setting, it will be visible to all process parties that one party with the role Approver takes part in this specific process. This kind of visibility extents to

1. the Sign View while the party signs the document,
2. the Verification Page of the signed PDF document, and
3. the Evidence Package embedded in the signed PDF document.

Sign View

A Visible Approver can be identified by a party during signing. In the section 'Parties' following information will be shown:

• First and Last Name of the Approver,
• the Approver's email address, and
• the status of the approving process.

Verification Page

The Verification Page is the last page that is added to a signed PDF document providing information on the signature. A Visible Approver will appear on this page with the following information:

• First and Last Name of the Approver,
• the Approver's email address, and
• timestamp when the document was approved.

Evidence Package

The Evidence Package contains background data on the signed PDF document. This data is embedded as attachments (HTML files that will be opened in your web browser) in the signed file and can be accessed for example via the programme Adobe Acrobat Reader.

In the attachment 'Appendix 3 Evidence Log', information on the Approver will be logged: 'Time', 'CES', 'IP address and User-Agent' and information on the 'Event' as such, i.e. opening and approving the document. This looks like this:

Hidden Approver

By using the setting 'Hidden Approver', information on the Approver will partly be hidden, this means that information on the Approver is not visible during the signing process in Sign View and does show up on the Verification Page.

However, the same information on the Hidden Approver will always be logged in the Evidence Package, so that following information will be contained in the 'Appendix 3 Evidence Log': 'Time', 'CES', 'IP address and User-Agent' and information on the 'Event' as such, i.e. opening and approving the document (see section above for clarification). This behaviour cannot be changed.

For Authors and Administrators using the E-archive

Please note that all information on the events of opening and approving the document will also be visible to the Approver as well as the Author initiating the process through the process overview in the E-archive. As a result this information is also visible to a Scrive Administrator in your user group.