Paperless
On this pageThe Printed Signature
  1. The Printed Signature
  2. The Digital Certificate
  3. Imported Decisions
  4. Downloading the Decision

Signing Decisions

Decision signing in a nutshell — printed signatures, the digital certificate, imported decisions, and downloading the PDF.

A decision is created in three steps: Drafting, Signing, and Publish. This guide covers the Signing step in detail.

The Printed Signature

The printed signature is the image of a signature that is placed on the decision document, for example the signature of the chair of the examination board.

  1. In the Signing step, open Select signature and choose the signature the decision should carry.
  2. If the list shows No signatures available, nobody in your scope has uploaded a signature yet. You can add one yourself in the Signatures resource management, or ask an administrator to do so (see Teams and Roles).

The Digital Certificate

In addition to the printed signature, the decision is signed digitally with a certificate:

  1. Choose the certificate in the Digital certificate field. Only in rare cases, if your office does not need a digital signature, can you select Not specified.
  2. Enter the Passphrase of the certificate.

Then click Sign this draft. The decision now shows the signature as Printed signature together with the name and caption that were configured for it, and Digitally signed by followed by the name from the certificate.

Imported Decisions

If a decision comes from another system or was prepared outside Paperless, you can use Import decision in the Decision tab to import it. Depending on what the import contains, you see one of two notices:

  • This decision is already fully signed and can be published later without any changes. — the import includes both the printed signature and the digital signature. Go directly to publishing.
  • This decision has been signed (signature) but not yet digitally signed. It is to be digitally signed by the system in a further step. — the printed signature is present. Signing by the system is available as an option but is always disabled due to technical limitations.

Imported decisions do not have an editable summary, because the text was not created in Paperless.

Downloading the Decision

  • While the decision is still a draft, Show draft opens the current PDF so you can check the text before signing.
  • Once the decision is signed, Download decision gives you the final PDF.

Students see the same options in their own view once the decision is available to them. See Downloads and the Audit Trail.