Documents & E-Signatures

Audit Trail & Certificate

What BookYourPTO captures for every signature, the certificate page appended to completed documents, optional cryptographic PDF signing, and who is allowed to view the audit trail.

Audit Trail & Certificate

Every signed document in BookYourPTO carries a complete, tamper-evident record of who signed, when, and from where. This is what makes an electronic signature defensible.

What's captured per signature

For each signature, the system records:

Captured value	Why it's recorded
Consent timestamp	Proves the signer consented at a specific moment
IP address	Network origin of the signing session
User agent	Device/browser used to sign
Signature integrity hash	A cryptographic integrity hash of the signature
Signature image	The drawn signature itself
Signer timezone	So timestamps display in the signer's local time
Geolocation (lat/long)	Physical location at the time of signing

Beyond signatures, every sign, decline, upload, and reminder writes an audit log entry — the full lifecycle of the document is on record.

The certificate page

When a document is completed, a certificate page is appended to the PDF, one entry per signer, containing:

The signer's name and email
An "acknowledged on" timestamp shown in the signer's own timezone
The embedded signature image

Why timestamps use the signer's timezone. A signature dated "9:00 AM" is only meaningful if you know whose 9:00 AM it was. The certificate pins each acknowledgment to the signer's local time so the record isn't ambiguous across regions.

Optional cryptographic PDF signing

Organizations can go a step further and apply cryptographic PDF signing using an organization certificate (P12). This seals the finished PDF so any later modification is detectable by standard PDF readers — not just by BookYourPTO.

Downloading the certified copy

To download a completed document with its certificate page appended, use the with certificate option, which maps to:

GET /api/documents/:id/download?withCertificate=true

A plain download (without the flag) returns the document without the appended certificate.

Who can view the audit trail

The audit trail is sensitive — it contains IP addresses and locations — so visibility is restricted:

GET /api/documents/:id/audit-trail   →   ADMINISTRATOR / EXECUTIVE only

Why admin/exec only. The audit trail exposes IP addresses and geolocation for every signer. Limiting it to administrators and executives keeps that personal metadata out of peer view while preserving it for compliance.

Roles & permissions

Role	View audit trail	Download with certificate
EMPLOYEE	No	Their own completed documents
DEPARTMENT_HEAD	No	As scoped
ADMINISTRATOR	Yes	Yes
EXECUTIVE	Yes	Yes

Troubleshooting

Error / symptom	Cause	Fix
403 when opening the audit trail	Audit trail is admin/exec only	Ask an administrator or executive to retrieve it
Downloaded PDF has no certificate page	Downloaded without the certificate flag	Use the download with certificate option (`?withCertificate=true`)
Certificate timestamp looks "wrong"	It's shown in the signer's timezone, not yours	This is by design — the certificate pins to the signer's local time
Verification code (DOC-XXXXXX) not present	Document isn't fully completed yet	The code and certificate are generated only once all signers finish

E-Signatures

The full send-for-signature flow — recipients, parallel vs sequential signing, drag-and-drop field placement, the signer experience, and how a document is completed and certified.

Templates & Bulk Send

Reusable signing templates with signer roles, CSV-driven bulk send to up to 500 recipients, plan template limits, and how per-recipient signing copies are materialized.