What was the best part about using HelloSign?
HelloSign is a best of breed online electronic signature software as as service. It's the very best on the market in my opinion by far, and there are some awesome other similar services out there. The reason this is my favorite is because of it's transparent pricing and their free plan along with the integration to Google tools. That combination of this much value and functionality based on what I already use for my day to day make it a no brainer choice.
My favorite companies are those that don't gouge you at every opportunity and the fact that premium features are included in their free forever plan make this truly awesome. When you're ready to upgrade you can choose to send unlimited documents per month for $13 per month which is on par or slightly lower than industry average so far based on my research of several of these services. And beyond that their business plan at $40 per month is incredibly reasonable considering all of the benefits of using this type of service.
You save on paper, ink, toner, maintenance costs but time even more so. No more drawn out processes where you have to obtain approval, create the document, get a wet signature, scan it, email, and print it again or some such set of events. It eliminates this whole hassle and allows you to do what used to take hours literally in minutes and is for all intents and purposes as legally binding as anything written by a human with a pen so that's tremendous productivity to include in your business and I'm onboard with HelloSign for this reason.
The user interface itself it remarkably simple and easy to learn. I don't think it could be designed any simpler with this much useful functionality built in. It reminds me of the impression I got of Google when I first started using it many years ago. I was drawn to it's minimalist approach because their home page seemed such a nice change from the busy MSN Exlporer or Yahoo home pages by comparison which are much busier. The HelloSign is in my opinion a model for effective design. It allows for maximum usability in the simplest possible form and that makes it enjoyable to use.
As an admin you can view all documents and customize your account team settings. When you upgrade you get access to a lot of pre-made contract templates which can save a lot of time if they suit you. You can brand the paid versions to so that adds a nice professional touch when presenting your invoices. You can CC other people too which is useful in the approvals process and you get alerts when a document has been reviewed or signed. I also like that there are son many usable file types in HelloSign like Excel, Word, PDF and almost twenty in total, I believe. I've read that the customer support is excellent even with your free plan but I've not had a reason to utilize them yet. Definitely a plus though.
What would you change about your experience with HelloSign?
It's rare but I honestly don't dislike anything about this service so far. Though unique field validation is one suggestion I've noticed is possible in other similar software in their market where you can validate email, SIN number, phone number and so on. This goes beyond my requirements at the moment but I'm sure may be helpful to some.
Overall Feedback
I have a small part time client based business so the three invoices available in their free plan works well for me. But imagine how well this service works for schools, for example? I remember the process of contacting their office, making an appointment to visit an adviser who would then begin the process of having me fill out a wide variety of forms, or print them, read and then sign them, scan them, upload them and attach them to email or fax them back. What a huge hassle that was. Multiply that by several thousand and I can hardly believe that was the way it was done and still is I'm sure by way too many organizations, whether it be schools, non-profits, businesses or anyone that needs official documents to be signed and stored somewhere you can access by any internet connected device. Which tracks and logs all of these documents using a credible, lawfully binding audit history. To say this HelloSign is a time saver is actually a massive understatement.