Practice Better's signature functionality lets you save your signature to pre-sign forms and collect electronic signatures from clients or guardians directly within your forms. This means when you send forms to clients, your signature is already in place, streamlining your workflow.
In this article:
- Saving Your Practitioner Signature
- Managing Your Saved Signature
- Adding Signature Components to Practice Better Forms
- Converting PDF Forms to Practice Better Forms
- Understanding Signature Limitations for PDF Forms
Saving Your Practitioner Signature
Saving your signature to your Practice Better account enables you to automatically pre-sign forms that require your signature. Signatures can only be added to forms created using Practice Better's form builder, not to uploaded PDF documents. Your saved signature also applies to invoices and other documents requiring practitioner authorization.
To create and save your signature:
- Click the Settings (gear) icon and select All Settings & Preferences.
- Go to Forms and Signature.
- Click Add signature in the My Signature section.
- Choose your preferred signature method:
- Type it – select from multiple font styles for a typed signature
- Draw it – use your mouse or touchscreen to draw your signature
- Upload – upload an image file (png, jpg, jpeg, bmp, gif format; max 5MB; max dimensions 1000px × 400px)
- Enter your legal name in the required field.
- Click Save signature.
✅ You're all set! Your saved signature will now automatically appear on forms containing a practitioner signature component when you send them to clients.
Managing Your Saved Signature
Your signature isn't locked in stone – you have complete control to view, edit, or remove it whenever needed. This flexibility ensures your signature stays current if your preferences change or if you need to update it for any reason.
To view or edit your signature:
- Go to the Settings (gear) icon > All Settings & Preferences > Forms and Signature.
- Click View/Edit next to your saved signature.
- Make any desired changes using the same options available when creating your signature (Type it, Draw it, or Upload).
- Click Save signature to confirm your changes.
To remove your signature:
- Go to the Gear icon > All Settings & Preferences > Forms and Signatures.
- Click the More Options menu (3 dots) next to your signature and select Delete.
- Check the confirmation box that says "I confirm that I want to delete my signature" and click Delete to confirm.
⚠️ Important: A saved signature is required to send forms that include practitioner signature components. If you delete your signature, you'll need to add a new one before sending forms that require your signature.
Adding Signature Components to Practice Better Forms
When you build forms directly in Practice Better, adding signatures is straightforward. You can collect signatures from clients, practitioners, or any combination of parties needed for your documentation – including guardians, witnesses, or other authorized signers.
To add a signature component:
- Go to My Practice > Forms & Waivers and open the form you want to edit, or create a new form.
- In the Form Builder, click the Signer component icon in the right toolbar.
- Select who needs to sign by choosing from the dropdown menu:
- My client – for client signatures
- Me (practitioner) – for your signature
- Customize the title displayed in the Signer field. For example, if you require a guardian’s signature, select My Client in the dropdown and type “Parent/Legal Guardian” in the Signer field.
- Customize the acknowledgement text that appears above the signature field (e.g., "By signing below, I agree to the terms...").
- Continue adding signature components for each party that needs to sign. You can include only one practitioner signer element and a maximum of two client signature fields.
📍 Note: Each signature component corresponds to one signer. If you need both practitioner and client signatures on the same form, add two separate Signer components and specify the appropriate signer for each one. When you have a saved signature on file, your signature will automatically appear in the form when sent to clients – no manual signing required on your part.
Converting PDF Forms to Practice Better Forms
While you can't directly convert PDF forms to add signature functionality, you have options for bringing your existing form content into Practice Better's native form builder.
Manual recreation: You can manually rebuild your PDF form in Practice Better by copying and pasting content from your PDF into the form builder. This gives you complete control over the form structure and allows you to add signature components, conditional logic, and other advanced features.
💡Learn more about Creating Forms & Waivers manually in Practice Better →
AI-powered form generation: Practice Better's automated form builder lets you describe your form requirements in plain language, and our AI technology generates the form for you. This can significantly speed up the conversion process for complex forms.
🪄 Learn more about Creating Forms & Waivers with Practice Better’s Automatic Form Builder →
Uploading PDFs as forms or reference documents: If signature collection isn't critical for a particular document, you can still upload PDFs to your Forms & Waivers library. Interactive PDFs can be completed by clients using external PDF software, though this workflow doesn't integrate with Practice Better's signature system.
✅ Learn more about Uploading Existing PDF Forms and Worksheets to Your Practice Better Portal →
Understanding Signature Limitations for PDF Forms
If you've uploaded an existing PDF form to Practice Better, you won't be able to add signature components using our form builder tools. This limitation exists because uploaded PDFs remain as static documents within the platform, and Practice Better's signature components can only be embedded in forms created directly within our form builder.
What happens if you upload a PDF with existing signature fields?
If your PDF already contains interactive signature fields, clients can download the form, fill it out using their own PDF software, and then upload the completed document back to you. However, this workflow falls outside Practice Better's integrated signature system and won't provide the same seamless experience as using native Practice Better forms.
💡 Tip: If you need signature functionality, we recommend recreating your form using Practice Better's form builder or using our AI-powered automated form builder to describe your form requirements and have it generated for you. Learn more about Creating Forms & Waivers with Practice Better’s Automatic Form Builder →
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