Parallel or sequential signing: which one, and when?

When you send a document to several signers, there are two options — and the wrong one drags out the contract for no reason.

Parallel signing invites every party at once. Each of them signs when they get to it, and the document is done once the last one has signed.

Sequential signing invites the next party in line. A signer is only notified once the previous party has signed.

The rule to decide by

The question to ask yourself: does any signer have to sign before the others?

If no, go parallel. A partnership agreement whose terms are already negotiated does not need a fixed order. The document is signed the moment the last signer adds their signature.

If yes, go sequential. The typical cases:

• Internal approval before sending to the client. The department head approves, then a board member, then the client. Send it to everyone at once and the client may sign a version your own manager would have rejected.
• A chain of authority. The board signs in the order the articles of association define.
• Conditional consent. The guarantor signs only after the principal debtor has.

When in doubt, choose parallel. Sequential is slower by its very nature: every step adds one person’s response time.

A common mistake: sequential because it feels more correct

The most frequent error is picking a sequential flow because it feels more correct. In practice it means the fourth signer is invited several days later, without the order of signatures having mattered at all.

A sequential workflow should follow a real dependency between the signers. Without one, the process just takes longer.

Both flows are worth a deadline

Whichever flow you use, the same problem tends to show up: someone forgets to sign.

In Allkiro you can set a deadline on every signing. From the Standard plan upward, reminders go out automatically as the deadline approaches — you do not have to remember who needs chasing. A manual reminder can be sent at any time, from the Mini plan upward. The dashboard also shows who the process is waiting on.

For a sequential flow the deadline matters even more: there, one person who forgets blocks the whole rest of the chain.

How to pick the workflow in Allkiro

You choose the workflow when sending the document, and you can change it later — for example when a contract meant to be parallel turns out to need internal approval first.

In both flows:

• every signature is a qualified eIDAS signature (Smart-ID, Smart-ID+, Mobile-ID or the ID card),
• documents sent for signing are packed into an ASiC-E container together with the signatures,
• every action is recorded in the activity log,
• the signing process can be cancelled until everyone has signed.

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