Get an offer letter signed online

Offer letter or employment contract?

An offer letter is shorter. It sets out the headline terms: job title, salary, start date, location, reporting line and any conditions. The full contract usually follows, or is attached. In the US, a signed offer letter is often the only employment document a new hire signs apart from tax and benefits forms.

Because an offer letter can itself become a binding contract once accepted, treat it with care. If a term in the letter differs from the later contract, the candidate may argue that the letter governs.

What a good offer letter includes

Keep it short, but do not leave out the terms people argue about later.

• Job title, start date and place of work, including any hybrid or remote arrangement.
• Base salary, pay frequency and any signing bonus, with clawback terms if it is repayable.
• Conditions: references, background checks, right-to-work checks in the UK, Form I-9 verification in the US, or visa approval in the UAE.
• An at-will statement for US roles, where that applies.
• A deadline for acceptance, after which the offer lapses.
• Equity, if offered, described as subject to board approval and the plan rules.

Conditions and checks Sign PDF does not do

Signing the offer is one step. Right-to-work checks in the UK, and the Form I-9 in the US (which must be completed within three business days of the start date), are separate processes with their own rules about how documents are seen and recorded. Sign PDF does not check identity documents or run background screening, so keep those in your HR or payroll system.

In the UAE, the offer letter is often the document a candidate signs before the employer applies for a work permit, and MOHRE has its own standard offer format for mainland roles. Check whether the ministry form, your own letter, or both are needed for the role.

Setting a deadline and following up

Offers go stale. Set the document's expiry date to match the acceptance deadline in the letter, so the link stops working when the offer lapses and nobody signs a week late. Automatic reminders, on the Full plan, nudge a candidate who has not opened the email.

If the candidate declines, they can give a reason in Sign PDF. That is more useful than silence, and it ends the process cleanly.

Mistakes that cost hires

Sending the offer as an attachment and asking the candidate to 'print, sign and scan' loses people, especially those job hunting from a phone. The other common slip is a salary figure that does not match what was agreed on the call, which turns an acceptance into a negotiation.

Recruiters sometimes send the offer on the agency's behalf. Make sure the employer, not the agency, is the party making the offer, and that an authorised person at the employer signs it.

How it works in Sign PDF

Upload the letter. Sign PDF finds the 'Accepted by' line and places the candidate's signature and date beside it, and puts the employer's signature where the letter is signed off. Add a free text box if you want the candidate to confirm their start date.

The candidate signs in their phone browser after confirming a six-digit code from their email. You get the completed PDF with a certificate showing when they opened it, agreed to sign electronically and signed, in UTC. That timestamp is often what settles a dispute about whether an offer was accepted before it was withdrawn.