Some of our main goals at Gather is to make your life easier, save you time and money, and help you help more families. With our newest AutoForms feature we do all of that, and more! This newest addition to the app is yet another way to streamline your business, and reap all the benefits of switching from paper and pen to online.
In this article we will cover the updated way of printing and signing your contracts, the new steps of printing and signing all documents with your families present, and how you will create individual signature packets to send to your families for e-signatures. For our e-signature option we have integrated with a company called HelloSign. You can learn more about them and how it works by clicking here.
The first step of this process is you uploading all the documents and forms you would like to use in Gather, and our support team will quickly map those in for you and enable them for autofill and e-signature. If you haven't done this yet, click on the chat icon in the bottom right of your account to get that process started, and someone from the team will be happy to help.
Once your forms and docs are mapped in and ready to go, let's walk through the steps of collecting your signatures!
Table of Contents:
Sign Contracts
Once the family contract has been finalized and you're ready to either print it out for signatures or send it via email to sign, you'll use the new AutoForms feature to accomplish this process.
There are two ways to navigate to the contract signature portion:
From the case page click on the AutoForms icon in the top right corner on the page, and click on "Create New Signature Packet".
From the Contract page on a case click on "Sign Contract" at the bottom of the page.
3. Both of these options will then drop you into the first page of the AutoForms feature.
4. The contract will always be the first document you'll have the ability to select from in your Document Library list. Once the contract is selected for final signatures it will be locked. You can select the contract to be signed by itself, but we suggest adding more documents alongside it if applicable and create an entire signature packet for printing or sending all at once.
5. Now you will have two options to choose from here:
Print & Sign - print the contract and have the family sign it in person.
Sign Digitally - send the contract to the family via email for a signature.
6. Print & Sign -
Select the "Print & Sign" option and then click on "Next Step".
The next screen will give you a total of the contract at the top and the percentage collected against it, and below that there are two sections where you'll select the funeral home and the family signers.
Under the "Funeral Home Signatures" box on the left click on "Who will sign contract?". Here you will select the funeral home signer responsible for approval.
You can also click on "+ Invite Team Member" if you would like to add a brand new staff member directly from this page.
Under the "Family Signatures" box on the right click on "Who will sign contract?". Here you will select the family signer(s) responsible for approval.
You can also click on "+ Invite New Helper" if you would like to add a brand new family helper to the case, directly from this page. Additionally, you have the option to just add them as a signer without giving them access to the case page. For that option you'll click on the "+ Add Signer without inviting as helper".
Once your signers are selected, click on "Generate Docs" to prepare them for signatures.
Next page will take you through a quick summary overview before finalizing printing. Here you will be able to click on the pencil icon in the edit box of the doc, on the left hand side of the screen. This will allow you to go back and make any changes to the signers attached if needed. On the right hand side you will see a visual display of what the contract will look like with the selected signers on there.
Next step is to click on the "Download Unsigned Documents" button on the bottom left on the page. This will create a download on your computer or mobile device, and then you will be able to print this out for signing immediately.
The last page that you will navigate on will be the printed document status. Here you will click the "Mark Contract As Signed" button once it has been signed by all parties. Additionally, you can always come back to this page to download the unsigned documents again if need be.
Lastly, you will click on the "Upload Signed Document" button to upload the signed document to store on this case page. The family will have access to this upload as well for their own records.
7. Sign Digitally -
Select the "Sign Digitally" option and then click on "Next Step".
The next screen will give you a total of the contract at the top and the percentage collected against it, and below that there are two sections where you'll select the funeral home and the family signers.
Under the "Funeral Home Signatures" box on the left click on "Who will sign contract?". Here you will select the funeral home signer responsible for approval.
You can also click on "+ Invite Team Member" if you would like to add a brand new staff member directly from this page.
Under the "Family Signatures" box on the right click on "Who will sign contract?". Here you will select the family signer(s) responsible for approval.
You can also click on "+ Invite New Helper" if you would like to add a brand new family helper to the case, directly from this page. Additionally, you have the option to just add them as a signer without giving them access to the case page. For that option you'll click on the "+ Add Signer without inviting as helper" (Note: You will be required to add a signer with an email address for the e-signature option).
Once your signers are selected, click on "Generate Docs" to prepare for e-signatures.
Next page will take you through a quick summary overview before finalizing sending. Here you will be able to click on the pencil icon in the edit box of the doc, on the left hand side of the screen. This will allow you to go back and make any changes to the signers attached if needed. On the right hand side you will see a visual display of what the contract will look like with the selected signers on there.
Next step is to click on the "Send E-Sign Documents" button on the bottom left of the page. That's it! Your contract is on its way immediately via email.
The last page that you will navigate on will be the sent document status. On the left hand side you will see the contract that was sent, by whom, on what date, and what time. On the right hand side you will see the signers and their signature status. Once the contract is viewed and/or signed, you will see that updated here in real time, as well as receive e-mail notifications about it.
Once everyone has signed the contract, you will have the option to click on the "Download Signed Packet" button to download the pages for documentation. The family will have access to this download as well for their own records.
8. After the contract is either signed by Print & Sign or Digitally Signed, you will always be able to come back to this case page to view those records. You can click on the AutoForms icon in the top right corner of the case page and you will see all your sent documents for this particular case, under the "Packets" tab of this drop down menu.
9. Each packet will be shown individually, and list all the documents that were sent under the "Documents" section and the signers will be listed under the "Signatures" section. If the packet is a Print & Sign you'll be able to "Download Unsigned Documents" directly from this drop down menu from the Packets section. If the packet is Digitally Signed, you'll be able to "Download Signed Packet" under the Signatures section.
10. The second tab of this AutoForms menu is the "Case Files" tab. Here you will be able to upload any additional documents that you wish to share with the family to keep together in one place.
Print and Sign Documents
When you are ready to put together all documents for your families to sign in person, you will create a new packet for Print & Sign.
On the case page navigate to the "AutoForms" icon in the top right corner, and click on "Create Signature Packet" button.
Here you will select which document(s) you will include for printing and signing for your family. You can scroll through this list to select the documents one by one, you can also search for a specific document in the search filter at the top of the list. Each documents has a three dot menu on the right hand side of it which allows you to download this blank document if you need to (Note: The contract three dot more menu will give you the option to view or edit the contract and will navigate you to that page directly).
4. If you need to manage this list or add new documents to it, click on the "Manage Document Library" icon on the top right corner of this list. You may also navigate here from your main dashboard by clicking on the "Document Library" on your main left hand menu.
5. Once your documents are selected, click on the "Print & Sign" option and then click on "Next Step".
6. The next step will take you through mapping and filling out all of your selected forms, and assigning signatures to them as well. It's very important to always make sure you have as much of the Death Certificate filled out as possible. All the information that is added under that task, if it pertains to the fields that exist on your forms, will fill in those fields for you automatically. All the other fields will be easily filled out by typing in that information and/or using check boxes of answering certain questions.
7. For the Print & Sign option there is no need to select signers on the document since we will be printing the document out for signing in person. Once all the document form data is good to go you'll click on the "Generate Docs" button on the bottom right of the document view.
8. Next page will take you through a quick summary overview before finalizing printing. Here you will be able to click on the pencil icon in the edit box of the doc, on the left hand side of the screen. This will allow you to go back and make any changes to the document information if needed. On the right hand side you will see a visual display of what the documents will look like with the selected signers on there.
9. Next step is to click on the "Download Unsigned Documents" button on the bottom left corner of the page. This will create a download on your computer or mobile device, and then you will be able to print this out for signing immediately.
10. The last page that you will navigate on will be the printed document status. Here you will click the "Mark Documents As Signed" button once it has been signed by all parties. Additionally, you can always come back to this page to download the unsigned documents again if need be.
11. Lastly, you will click on the "Upload Signed Document" button to upload the signed document to store on this case page. The family will have access to this upload as well for their own records.
12. After the contract is signed, you will always be able to come back to this case page to view those records. You can click on the AutoForms icon in the top right corner of the case page and you will see all your sent documents here under the "Packets" tab of this drop down menu.
13. Each packet will be shown individually, and list all the documents that were sent under the "Documents" tab and the signers will be listed under the "Signatures" tab. You'll also be able to "Download Unsigned Documents" directly from this drop down menu as well.
14. The final section of this AutoForms menu is the "Case Files" tab. Here you will be able to upload any additional documents that you wish to share with the family, as well as keep together in one place with this specific case.
Digitally Sign Documents
When you are ready to put together all documents for your families to sign via e-signature, you will create a new packet to "Sign Digitally". This will allow you to send one document packet to multiple people, and they will receive an email via HelloSign that will allow them to legally sign and date the documents for you.
On the case page navigate to the "AutoForms" icon in the top right corner, and click on the "Create Signature Packet" button.
Here you will select which document(s) you will include for e-sign for your family. Only the forms marked as "eSign Enabled" will allow you to email them for signatures. You can scroll through this list to select the documents one by one, you can also search for a specific document in the search filter at the top of the list. Each documents has a three dot menu on the right hand side of it which allows you to download this blank document if you need to (Note: The contract three dot more menu will give you the option to view or edit the contract and will navigate you to that page directly).
4. If you need to manage this list or add new documents to it, click on the "Manage Document Library" icon on the top right corner of this list. You may also navigate there from your main dashboard by clicking on the "Document Library" on the left hand menu (Note: Please reach out to the support team when you upload a new document for e-signature. We will need to map it for you so it will work with our HelloSign integration. To reach out, you can use the chat icon on the bottom right corner of your account or call us directly at 208-908-0488).
5, Once your documents are selected, click on the "Sign Digitally" option and then click on "Next Step".
6. The next step will take you through mapping and filling out all of your selected forms, and assigning signatures to them as well. It's very important to always make sure you have as much of the Death Certificate filled out as possible. All the information that is added under that task, if it pertains to the fields that exist on your forms, will then fill out for you automatically. All the other fields will be easily filled out by typing in that information and/or using check boxes for answering certain questions.
7. After you have completed the "Form Data" section of the documents, we can click on the "Signature" tab to select the signers. If any document requires at least one signature, you must assign a person to that field before you can move on to generating the packet (Note: If there is additional info that is tied to the signer such as name, phone number, etc., you'll have the ability to fill it out prior to sending the documents. If the info is left blank, the signer will have the ability to fill it out once they receive the email for signatures).
8. Once all the document form data is good to go you'll click on the "Generate Docs" button on the bottom right of the document view.
9. Next page will take you through a quick summary overview before finalizing sending. Here you will be able to click on the pencil icon in the edit box of the doc, on the left hand side of the screen. This will allow you to go back and make any changes to the document information if needed. On the right hand side you will see a visual display of what the documents will look like with the selected signers on there.
10. Next step is to click on the "Send E-Sign Documents" button on the bottom left corner of the page. That's it! Your signature packet is on its way immediately via email.
11. The last page that you will navigate on after that will be the sent document status. On the left hand side you will see the documents that were sent, by whom, on what date, and what time. On the right hand side you will see the signers and their sign status. Once the documents are viewed and/or signed, you will see that updated here in real time.
12. Once everyone has signed the contract, you will have the option to click on the "Download Signed Packet" button to download the forms for documentation.
13. After the documents are signed, you will always be able to come back to this case page to view those records. You can click on the AutoForms icon in the top right corner of the case page and you will see all your sent documents here under the "Packets" tab of this drop down menu.
14. Each packet will be shown individually, and list all the documents that were sent under the "Documents" section and the signers will be listed under the "Signatures" section. You'll also be able to "Download Signed Packet" directly from this drop down menu as well.
15. The second tab of this AutoForms menu is the "Case Files" tab. Here you will be able to upload any additional documents that you wish to share with the family, and keep together in one place.
HelloSign
When you send the document packets via e-signature, all signers included on those documents will receive an email from Gather, using our HelloSign integration.
The email that is sent will display that the signatures have been requested in the subject line, and will also include which case it is for and will clearly state that the email is sent via HelloSign by Gather.
Next you will click on the "Review & Sign" button in the body of that email message.
This will bring up a new browser tab for you on the desktop or mobile device that you're on, and you'll see the "Get Started" button in the top right corner of the HelloSign document screen.
Any field, checkboxes, or signatures that you have been assigned for will be marked as required for you to fill in before legally signing and finalizing the documents. For those signatures HelloSign gives you a few options to: draw it in, type it in, upload an image, or use a smartphone to fill them out and sign. Once you select your preferred method, you will add your signature, and click on "Insert" to confirm. You can always come back to a filled out field to edit or clear to re-do your actions as needed.
Once everything looks good, click on "Continue" to review the documents. If the documents are filled out and signed correctly, you'll click on the "I Agree" button in the top right corner of the page.
You'll see your confirmation page next and now you have officially signed those documents! All signers on the document will receive an email update letting everyone know who has signed the documents in real time.
Once all authorized parties have signed the necessary documents, everyone will receive an email with that confirmation. This final confirmation email will include an attachment of all the signed documents, so everyone will have the opportunity to download it for their records.
Now you're all set! You have created your contract with the family, received payment for it, and collected all necessary signatures for the case.
If you have any further questions or get stuck during this process, please feel free to click on the chat icon on the bottom right of your screen and we are happy to help!