Signed, sealed, still accessible: a Business Central sales order goes out for signature

In our ERP to Accessible Document post, a Business Central sales order, S-ORD101019, became a seven-page PDF tagged for PDF/UA-1 as it rendered. This post takes the same order through the next step: two people sign it, one after the other, the document is sealed, and the signed file is still accessible. Every step is recorded on one timeline, against the original document.

The four-minute video shows the clicks. This post covers what happens at each step, what the evidence contains, and what the signature is and isn't.

The usual route: four tools and no single record

A sales order usually gets signed like this. The document is generated in one tool, emailed, signed in another tool, and the evidence ends up somewhere else: a file share, an audit log, someone's inbox.

That works until someone asks what happened to this order. Who signed, when, after seeing what, and is the signed file the one that was generated? Then the answer is spread across several systems, and each one tells only part of the story.

There's a quieter problem too. A PDF tagged for a screen reader has to stay that way after it's signed. A signature added as an untagged image is invisible to a screen reader.

The REFRACT way: one flow, one record

With REFRACT Platform it's one flow:

1. Generate. The document is generated from the Business Central order, tagged for PDF/UA-1.
2. Invite. The signers are invited in turn.
3. Code. Each signer enters a one-time code, which the signing portal checks.
4. Consent. Each signer acknowledges the consent policy.
5. Sign. Each signer signs.
6. Seal. Once the last signature is in, the document is sealed.
7. Evidence. The certificate of completion and the evidence bundle are generated.

REFRACT Lifecycle records every step against the original document, and the documents and their evidence are stored in your own Azure tenant.

Sending from Business Central

The steps are the same as for any REFRACT document: REFRACT Platform → Process Document, then choose a template. Each template carries its own features. Here we pick Sales Order - Modern eSign, which has both switched on: eSign, and PDF/UA-1 tagging.

Because this template emails people outside the company, a send started by hand asks first. The Confirm Send dialog names the template and the order, and lists who will be invited: two signers, the Project Owner / GC and CRONUS Construction Services LLC. One click on Send generates the accessible document and starts a signing session for the two signers, one after the other. (Sends started automatically don't stop to ask.)

Code, consent, sign

The first signer, the project owner, opens the invitation email and follows the link to the signing portal.

Optionally, another device. The portal offers to continue on another device. A one-time QR code moves the session across, the new device confirms its own one-time code, and the move is recorded in the audit trail. In the video both signers stay on the desktop.

One-time code. A six-digit code is sent to the signer's email address. They enter it, and the signing portal checks it. To be precise about what that proves: the signer has access to the email address the invitation went to. It's a check of email possession, not identity proofing, and the audit trail records it as a code verified by the signing portal.

Consent. Next comes the consent policy: the signer agrees to receive and sign the document and its records electronically, and confirms they can open and keep PDF files on their device. They tick the acknowledgements before they see the signing page. The policy is published and versioned (refract-standard-consent, version 2026.2), and the version each signer saw is recorded.

Declining. At any point a signer can decline. A decline is recorded, the session stops, and no one else is invited.

Signing. The signer reviews the agreement, and the portal takes them to their signature block, then their initials. Once they've signed, the second signer, from CRONUS Construction Services, is invited and goes through the same steps. When the last signature is in, the document is sealed.

Sealed, and verified

Sealing renders a new signed PDF with both signatures in place. In REFRACT Lifecycle the order now shows 2 of 2 Signed, sequential, complete.

Verify Integrity recomputes the fingerprint of everything behind the document and compares each one with the fingerprint recorded when the archive was created:

• the data (payload);
• the template;
• the PDF;
• the asset and archive bundles;
• the signing audit chain.

It also confirms that the signed document was sealed from the document that was rendered. In the video every component is valid, and the overall status is PASS.

Verify Integrity runs inside REFRACT Lifecycle in your own tenant. It isn't a standalone tool you hand to someone outside your organisation.

Still accessible after signing

Signing doesn't undo the accessibility work. Each signature and set of initials is tagged as a figure with its own description, for example: "Signature of JO, Project Owner / GC, signed 18 October 2026, 14:56 UTC". A screen reader announces who signed, in what role, and when, instead of skipping an image.

We checked the signed file with two independent tools:

• PAC 2026: the PDF/UA requirements it checks are fulfilled.
• veraPDF 1.30.3, PDF/UA-1 profile: 106 rules, 68,344 checks passed, 0 failed.

The certificate of completion

When the session completes, REFRACT generates a certificate of completion. For each signer it shows:

• how they were verified;
• the consent statements they accepted;
• the signature and initials they adopted;
• where each mark was applied in the document, with "Matches Adopted Mark: Yes" and each mark cross-checked against the audit chain.

The certificate is a document people read too, so it's accessible as well. PAC 2026 reports its PDF/UA requirements fulfilled, and veraPDF 1.30.3 (PDF/UA-1) passed 29,463 checks with 0 failed.

The accessibility evidence from the generation step is accessible as well. The Section 508 accessibility certificate and the Section 508 accessibility report for this order are tagged PDFs, and PAC 2026 reports the PDF/UA requirements it checks fulfilled for both.

One timeline, one evidence bundle

Every step is on the document's timeline in REFRACT Lifecycle:

• the signing session created;
• each invitation and code;
• each one-time code verified by the signing portal;
• the consent policy presented and acknowledged;
• the document previewed;
• each signature captured;
• the next signer able to sign;
• preview access revoked;
• the document sealed;
• the evidence package generated;
• the "documents ready" notices.

Preview links. At the seal, any outstanding preview links are switched off, so a link from an earlier email no longer opens the document.

Notices. Both signers are told their documents are ready.

The evidence bundle. The Signed Evidence Archive holds the whole chain, from the session being created to its completion: the signed PDF, the certificate and the evidence chain. It's stored in your own Azure tenant.

Sample outputs

Sample outputs from Cronus demo data: the first page of the certificate of completion and the signature page of the sealed order.

What this is, and what it isn't

• Simple electronic signatures. These are simple electronic signatures. They aren't qualified electronic signatures, and the signed PDF isn't a PAdES or long-term-validation signature.
• Not identity proofing. The one-time code shows the signer controls the invited email address.
• Automated checks have limits. PAC and veraPDF cover what a machine can verify. We review the reading experience of each template with a screen reader.

Common questions

Does the signing flow work outside Business Central? Yes. The send happens in REFRACT, so it works the same from Dynamics 365 Sales, the REFRACT Power Platform connector or the REFRACT API.

What happens if someone declines? The decline is recorded on the timeline, the session stops, and no one else is invited.

Where is the evidence kept? In your own Azure tenant, next to the document, and downloadable as one evidence bundle.

Summary

One Business Central order is signed by two people, sealed, and still accessible, with every step on one timeline and the evidence stored in your own tenant.

▶ Watch the 4-minute walkthrough: https://youtu.be/8fbOxD1KSgY ▶ How the document was made accessible: ERP to Accessible Document See more business processes in the REFRACT business process gallery.

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Demo data: Cronus sample company. PAC 2026 and veraPDF are independent tools. We used them to confirm the result, and they aren’t part of REFRACT. The reading order was reviewed with the NVDA screen reader by Akshaya Ramidi, who completed NV Access’s Accessibility Testing with NVDA training. Refract Logic supports NV Access, the makers of NVDA.