Category / Section
Qualified Electronic Signature (QES)
Published:
3 mins read
Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) provides the highest level of assurance for electronically signed documents and is fully compliant with eIDAS regulations across the European Union. It ensures robust identity verification through certified Trust Service Providers (TSPs) such as Evrotrust, making signed documents legally binding and highly secure.
By enabling QES in your BoldSign Business Profile, the feature becomes available for use when creating documents and templates. QES is available to users on Business or higher-tier plans and is billed at $3 per verification attempt under the Pay-As-You-Go model.
Enable QES in Business Profile
- Expand the
Settings
menu and select theBusiness Profile
option to go the Business profile page. - On the Business Profile page, under the Settings tab, scroll down and you will see the
Qualified electronic signature (QES)
option.
- By default, the Qualified electronic signature (QES) feature is disabled for all users. If you attempt to enable it without having purchased the required add-on, a dialog box will appear. If the add-on is available in your account, the feature will be enabled automatically.
- Click the
Contact Support
button in the dialog box, and you will be redirected to the Contact Us page where you can fill out the form and submit it. - The support team will review your request and enable the feature afterward.
- After enabling the QES option, a
Number of verification attempts
text box will be displayed.
- Set the verification attempts for signing documents, then click the
Save changes
button to apply your settings.
Enable QES while creating a document
- Click on
Create New
and select theCreate New Document
option. - You will be directed to the Prepare document for signing page. Upload files on the
Add file(s)
section and add recipients. - Click the dropdown arrow on the recipients
Settings
and enable theQualified Electronic Signature (QES)
option.
- If the
Pay-As-You-Go QES
option is deactivated, theActivate
link will be displayed next to the QES option. This Activate option is only visible to the Admin of your account. - Click the
Activate
link to activate the QES feature.
- A dialog box will appear. Read the instructions and click the
Enable
button.
- Once activated, you can enable the QES option.
- If the budget limit is exceeded, an
Upgrade
option will be displayed. Click theUpgrade
link and you will be redirected to the subscription page, where you can adjust your QES budget limit as needed.
- Fill in any other required fields and click the
Next
button to proceed to the Configure fields page. - On the configure fields page, drag and drop the required form fields onto the document and send for signature.
- You can also enable the QES option when creating a template.
Limitations for QES configuration
- Only one signer per document can have QES enabled.
- Document size limit is 30MB.
- For multiple signers, QES must be assigned to the last signer with a signing order enabled.
- QES cannot be used if the last signer shares the same signing order as another signer.
- QES is not available for self-signing, reviewers, or group signers.
- The combine audit trail option is not supported when QES is enabled. The audit trail will be downloaded separately, even if the option is enabled.
For detailed instructions on signing the QES document using the Evrotrust app, please refer to this guide: How to sign a QES document?