Digital Waivers vs Paper Waivers
Why use digital waivers as opposed to paper waivers… it’s a question we’re asked often.
The answer is simple; there are realistically zero benefits to paper waivers; and even the idea that paper is cheaper is not accurate as soon as you account for the manpower, time, inefficiency, storage, ink, repairs & waste that is associated with dealing with paper documents and the physical requirements that go with them. In many cases those costs alone will exceed the cost of our service, and our most popular plans cost less than 10¢ per waiver.
Ditch the Paper and Go eWaiver!
Here’s a Top-10 list of reasons that Digital Waivers are better than paper waivers:
- Simple access to find completed waivers: you and / or your staff would simply login, go to the waiver dashboard and type in a partial name, email or phone and find a waiver.
- There are no storage costs: you don’t need to allocate a room or space to store waivers. Most insurance companies want retention for 3 years, and some clients we work with say they need 7 years of storage.
- Every waiver is saved as a PDF: each time a waiver is completed it is saved as a PDF in your account, giving you a permanent digital document including the signature.
- Multiple minors on a single waiver: Parents, guardians or group leaders can add an unlimited number of minors on each waiver (which would only count as 1 waiver in your usage)
- Collect and use customer data: Our waivers are endlessly customizable allowing you can collect and use whatever participant details you want in your marketing, analytics and other business decisions.
- Add photos or proof of ID to each waiver: photos, images and signatures are permanently saved to the PDF.
- Eliminate the worry of water, mold, fire damage, theft or vandalism
- Save the environment by reducing the need for paper, processing and recycling of ink or toner cartridges.
- No printing & maintenance or administrative costs: ink and paper has gotten very expensive, printers break and require maintenance, and then someone at your business has to organize, sort and file every paper waiver; this is exceptionally time consuming and inefficient.
- Instant access to archives. The scenario is this: someone gets hurt at your venue, location or event, but waits a year before they file a lawsuit against you and you need to produce the waiver 12+ months after it was signed.
- With paper waivers you’ll have to 1: create a filing system to store and archive paper waivers; 2: organize them by date & name; 3: ensure they are legible; and 4: keep them safe.
- With a 100% digital system you would simply go to your dashboard, type a portion of the parent’s last name, email or phone into search field, and locate their waivers, then you can download and forward the PDF to your attorney.
Bonus reasons:
- Each PDF saves with the date, time, IP address, browser and user-agent of the device used to sign to every page for added security.
- You have the option to print each waiver if you want to store a physical copy, giving you the best of both worlds.
Disclaimer: This blog post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For personalized guidance on the use of digital waivers and the legality of digital signatures in your business, we recommend consulting a licensed attorney.