Qualified Electronic Signature (QES)

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 the Business 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 verification attempts for document signing:

You can configure how many times a signer is allowed to attempt verification during the signing process.

• Minimum attempts (1): The minimum number of verification attempts required before the verification outcome is considered final.
• Maximum attempts (up to 10): The maximum number of retry attempts allowed. Once this limit is reached, the verification process is blocked or fails.
• Click the Save changes button to apply your settings.

Signature providers

This setting controls which countries and QES providers your signers can choose from. When signing a QES-enabled document, the signer selects their country and a provider, verifies their identity with that provider, and completes the qualified signature.

Supported QES providers

Evrotrust is enabled by default. The following providers are also supported and can be enabled from your Business Profile settings.

Evrotrust supported countries

Åland Islands, Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Türkiye, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City.

D-Trust sign-me supported countries

Åland Islands, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United States.

Enable additional QES providers

1. Go to Settings > Business Profile.
2. Select the Settings tab.
3. Ensure that Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) is enabled.
4. Next to Signature providers, click Configure.

5. In the Signature providers dialog, select the countries and providers you want to make available to your signers. Evrotrust is selected by default.

6. Click Enable to close the dialog, then click Save changes on the Business Profile page.

The selected providers then appear as options for signers on all new QES-enabled documents sent from your account.

Enable QES while creating a document

• Click on Create New and select the Create 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 the Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) option.

• If the Pay-As-You-Go QES option is deactivated, the Activate 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 the Upgrade 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.

QES configuration options

QES can be configured in two ways: Single QES or Multiple QES.

Single QES allows only one signer to use QES in the workflow. This can be applied in two scenarios:

• Option 1: A single signer workflow where QES is enabled for that signer.
• Option 2: Multiple signers with signing order enabled, where QES can only be enabled for the last signer in the sequence. Additionally, the last signing order must be unique.

Single QES - Option 1

Single QES - Option 2

Multiple QES allows all signers in the workflow to have QES enabled, provided each signing order contains only one signer.

Multiple QES - Option 1

QES usage restrictions

• The document size must not exceed 30MB when QES is enabled.
• QES cannot be used if any signer shares the same signing order as another signer. Each signer must have a unique signing order when QES is enabled.
• QES is not available for 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 selected.
• The Combine Attachments option is not supported when QES is enabled. Attachments will be downloaded separately, even if the option is selected.
• Collaborative editing is not supported when QES is enabled.
• Configuration fields by signer are not supported when QES is enabled for multiple signers.
• When QES is enabled with multiple signers, only the first signer can access all field types (e.g., Textboxes, Checkboxes). All other signers are limited to Signature, Editable Date, Date Signed, Name, Email, Job Title, and Company fields.

For detailed instructions on signing the QES document using the Evrotrust app, please refer to this guide: How to sign a QES document?

We have also published a video tutorial on this topic. Check out the video below: