Wet ink vs e-signatures and how to choose the right signing method for your business

You have agreed the deal, the final version of the contract has come back from the other side, and it is sitting in your inbox waiting to be signed. Your office is in one city, the client is in another, and the supplier somewhere else entirely. Someone needs to decide, today, whether this document gets printed, signed in pen and posted, or signed electronically. That decision, and the small set of questions that drive it, is what this guide walks through.

There are really only two methods in play. A wet ink signature is the traditional handwritten signature in pen on paper. An electronic signature is a broader category: typing your name into a PDF, clicking an "I agree" button, drawing a signature with a mouse or stylus, or signing through a dedicated platform that records an audit trail can all count, depending on the document.

Both can be legally valid in Australia. So the useful question is not whether e-signatures are legal, because in most cases they are. The narrower question is whether the document in front of you, in the state or territory where it will be relied on, can be executed electronically, and whether the method you use satisfies the identity, reliability and consent requirements the law sets. The answer changes with the document type, who is signing, and which registry or institution has to accept the result. Work through those, and the wet ink or e-signature choice largely makes itself.

What the law requires of an electronic signature

Both the Commonwealth and every state and territory have electronic transactions legislation that allows a signature requirement to be met electronically. The framework is consistent across the country: s 10 of the Electronic Transactions Act 1999 (Cth) (the ETA) and, in NSW, s 9 of the Electronic Transactions Act 2000 (NSW) treat a signature requirement as satisfied where three conditions are met:

• Identity and intention: The method must identify the person signing and indicate their intention in respect of the information in the document.
• Reliability: The method must be as reliable as appropriate for the purpose in all the circumstances, or be proven in fact to have identified the signer and captured their intention. A platform that records timestamps, IP addresses and an audit trail clears this bar more easily than a bare typed name.
• Consent: The person to whom the signature is required to be given must consent to electronic signing, and consent can be inferred from conduct.

The NSW Act states expressly that a transaction is not invalid just because it took place by electronic communications, and the Commonwealth Act takes the same approach, so the framework is permissive rather than grudging. In practice the reliability limb is where arguments start. If the document is high value, or will be relied on years later, choose a method that leaves evidence behind, not a name typed into an empty field.

Who is signing: the company, an agent, or an individual

The law treats the three cases differently, and the difference mostly matters for companies.

For a company, s 127 of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) sets the default way of executing documents, including deeds, without a common seal:

• Two directors sign; or
• A director and the company secretary sign; or
• For a proprietary company with a sole director, that director signs alone if they are also the sole company secretary, or the company has no secretary.

There are then two practical routes, and they carry different consequences:

• Option A: Execute under s 127: The other party gets the benefit of the statutory assumptions in s 129 of the Corporations Act that the document was duly executed, so they do not have to prove the signatories' authority. This is the cleanest path for most business documents.
• Option B: Execute through an agent under s 126: An individual acting with the company's express or implied authority can sign on its behalf, including electronically and including a deed. The trade-off is that the other party may need to satisfy itself about the agent's authority, because the s 129 assumptions do not do the same work.

Both routes now accommodate electronic signing explicitly. s 110A of the Corporations Act allows a person to sign a physical or an electronic form of a document, and s 127(3A) confirms a company can execute a deed electronically, without a witness and without paper, parchment or vellum. Delivery of a deed executed under s 127 is not required for it to take effect. It is also common for signatories to sign separate counterparts and for the signed copies to be assembled afterwards, which works best when the document contains a counterparts clause.

For individuals and partnerships there is no equivalent of s 127. Validity depends on the document and the state law that governs it. In NSW, for example, ss 6C and 38A of the Conveyancing Act 1919 (NSW) allow contracts and deeds to be created in electronic form and electronically signed and attested, while an individual's deed still has to be attested by at least one witness who is not a party to it.

The document type sets the formalities

The type of document does more work than any other factor, because specific formalities override the general permissiveness of the electronic transactions laws:

• Deeds: Electronic execution is now widely available. A company can execute a deed electronically under s 127(3A) of the Corporations Act, and in NSW s 38A of the Conveyancing Act allows a deed to be created in electronic form and electronically signed and attested. Before you sign, confirm the document actually needs to be a deed, because deeds carry stricter formalities than ordinary agreements.
• Wills: Wet ink remains the rule. In NSW, s 6 of the Succession Act 2006 (NSW) requires a will to be in writing, signed by the testator, with the signature made or acknowledged in the presence of two or more witnesses present at the same time, and at least two of those witnesses attesting and signing in the testator's presence. Courts can sometimes cure a defective will, but that is litigation risk, not a signing strategy.
• Enduring powers of attorney and similar appointments: Execution and witnessing rules are strict and vary between states. Many still require physical witnessing by prescribed witnesses, so treat these as wet ink documents unless you have confirmed the local position.
• Statutory declarations and affidavits: Permanent reforms have opened these up. A Commonwealth statutory declaration can now be witnessed in person or remotely by video link under the Statutory Declarations Act 1959 (Cth) as amended in 2023, using an approved witness and the prescribed steps. State rules differ, so check the current position before relying on remote witnessing.

When a witness is needed

The presence of a witness is often the detail that decides the whole method. Traditional in-person witnessing means the witness watches the person sign. Since the pandemic, most jurisdictions have introduced permanent rules allowing certain documents to be witnessed over audio-visual link. NSW is a good example: Part 2B of its Electronic Transactions Act 2000 makes remote witnessing permanent, and s 14G sets out the steps. The witness must observe the signing in real time, be reasonably satisfied the document they sign is the same document or a copy of it, and endorse the document with a statement of the method used.

Remote witnessing is not available for everything, and the rules are document-specific. Before you book a video call to witness a signature, confirm three things:

• The document is one the relevant rules permit to be witnessed remotely.
• The witness falls in the prescribed category for that document, because some documents only accept particular classes of witness.
• You can complete the endorsement requirements, including any statement that must be added to the document.

A signature witnessed in the wrong way can end up treated as not witnessed at all, which is why the steps matter more than the convenience.

What the registry or counterparty will accept

Some documents end up in front of an institution that sets its own rules, whatever the general law allows. Land registries now run electronic lodgement networks for property transactions, with identity verification and client authorisation requirements set out in the platform's participation rules, and the signature on an electronic instrument is handled inside that system. ASIC accepts electronic lodgement of most forms and documents. A bank, a landlord or a major counterparty may also require a particular method as a matter of their own policy. Before you commit to a signing process for a document, find out who needs to accept it at the other end, because their requirements override convenience.

The risk profile and the records you keep

For a routine services agreement or a low-value NDA, a typed name on a PDF is usually fine. For a loan deed, a guarantee or anything that might be relied on in a dispute years later, use a platform that records who signed, when, and the steps in the process, and that produces a signed PDF and a completion certificate you can store. The reliability limb of the electronic transactions test rewards this kind of evidence. Retention matters too: the electronic transactions laws let you keep documents electronically, provided the method reliably preserves the integrity of the information. Keep the final executed version and its audit trail in a central system with version control, and include a counterparts clause in templates where signatories will sign separate copies.

How an Artificer Legal lawyer helps you get the signing decision right

Execution mistakes are cheap to make and expensive to discover, because they usually surface only when the document is relied on: a deed that was never validly attested, a guarantee signed by someone without authority, a will signed with the wrong witnessing method. An Artificer Legal lawyer helps with this decision in three ways. First, by working back from the document to identify the formalities that actually apply, whether it needs to be a deed at all, whether a witness is required and of what category, and whether the state or territory where it will be relied on allows electronic execution and remote witnessing. Second, by stress-testing the proposed method against the value of the deal, so you are not using a bare typed name where the reliability bar is high, or insisting on wet ink where electronic execution is perfectly valid. Third, by building execution machinery into your templates: s 127 signing blocks for companies, authority checks for agents, counterparts clauses, and deed wording where a deed is intended. That turns execution from a last-minute scramble into a settled part of how your business signs documents.

The formalities that apply to your document

The signature itself is rarely the hard part. The effort belongs to identifying the formalities that attach to the document in front of you, because those determine whether your chosen method is valid at all. Three questions mostly settle the choice: who is signing, what type of document is it, and who needs to accept it at the other end? Everything after that is about evidence, and evidence is about records. A wet ink signature on a simple services agreement is not inherently safer than a platform e-signature with an audit trail, and no signing platform makes an e-signed will valid.

To bring it together: electronic signatures are valid under Australian law where the method identifies the signer, indicates their intention, is appropriately reliable and is consented to. Companies can execute documents and deeds electronically under ss 126 and 127 of the Corporations Act, with statutory assumptions protecting the other party and no witness required for a deed executed under s 127. Deeds for individuals can be created and signed electronically in NSW under the Conveyancing Act, but wills still require writing and two witnesses present at the same time, and powers of attorney carry their own strict state rules. Commonwealth statutory declarations can be witnessed remotely by video link, and NSW has permanent audio-visual witnessing rules for the documents those rules cover. Registries and counterparties may impose their own methods, so check who needs to accept the document before you choose how to sign. And when the document is high value, carries special formalities, or will be relied on years from now, a quick check with a lawyer before signing costs far less than proving execution later.