eSeal certification in Document Output

• 30/09/2025
• 7 minutes to read

With Continia Document Output, you can have eSeals automatically applied to your PDF documents to ensure that they're authentic and legally valid, and that their integrity is thoroughly protected.

An eSeal – electronic seal – is a type of digital signature that's used for verifying the origin and integrity of electronic documents and the identity of the legal entities that sign and distribute them (businesses or organizations). By cryptographically linking signatures to documents, eSeals ensure that the contents of submitted documents haven't been modified after they were sealed. They also enable you to automatically sign and secure large volumes of documents such as invoices (bulk signing), which saves you considerable amounts of time while increasing the level of security.

In the European Union, eSeals are governed by Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 (also known as the eIDAS Regulation), which makes them legally valid and usable across EU member states. In some member states, the use of eSeals is required by law in certain contexts, and they're generally recommended for confirming document authenticity and integrity within the EU, not least when it comes to digital transactions.

The eSeal certification feature in Document Output enables your organization to have an eIDAS-compliant eSeal automatically applied to PDF documents that are sent to customers. The feature meets certain regulatory requirements in Belgium and France, but users in other countries can also benefit significantly from using it. You can configure the feature either individually for each customer or for all of them at once, and it integrates seamlessly with other document workflows, resulting in a high level of PDF document security with no manual work involved.

Onboarding and terms of service

As part of the Document Output Security module, the eSeal feature is available once you've acquired and activated this module.

In order to be onboarded and have an eSeal generated, your organization must be screened and authenticated through an identity verification process. This is managed by Signatureit (Universign), a trusted and EU-licensed provider of digital security and trust services. To use the eSeal feature, you must therefore enter into an agreement with Universign. The process is generally run by Universign but facilitated by Continia, so please reach out to Continia to initiate it.

Once the Universign agreement is in place, Continia creates a new workspace on the platform, and Universign adds the eSeal certificate to that workspace. Following this, Continia provides you with an eSeal ID and an API key from Universign for system configuration, and you're then ready to enable the eSeal feature in Document Output.

You'll be charged an additional monthly fee for using the Universign service, but this is charged by Continia – not directly by Universign. As regards termination, your organization can cancel the eSeal agreement with three months’ written notice.

To set up and enable the eSeal feature

Before you can enable the eSeal feature, it must first be set up. To set up the feature in Document Output, follow these steps:

1. Activate the Document Output Security module using Continia Solution Management.
2. Search for and select Continia Feature Management.
3. In the list of features, select eSeal Document to open the eSeal Service Setup assisted setup guide.
4. Select Next to start the guide.
5. To use the feature, you must accept the terms and conditions of the eSeal service provider (Universign). To do so, enable the I accept toggle, and then select Next.
6. In the API Key and Seal ID fields, enter the API key and eSeal ID that you received from Continia during onboarding.
7. Select Next > Finish to complete the assisted setup guide.

The eSeal feature has been set up and can now be enabled, either for all existing customers at once or for a selection of individual customers. To enable the eSeal feature in Document Output, follow these steps:

1. To enable the eSeal feature for all existing customers, do as follows:
   1. Search for and select Document Output Customer Cards.
   2. In the action bar of the page that opens, select Update Customers to open the CDO Update Customer Setup.
   3. In the Options FastTab, select Seal PDF Documents.
   4. Select OK to confirm and close the page.

   Note

   This setting won't automatically apply to any new customers you add following the setup. If you want to enable the eSeal feature for such newly added customers, you must do it manually per customer, as described in step 2 below.

2. To enable the eSeal feature for a selected number of customers, do as follows:
   1. Search for and select Customers.
   2. In the list of customers, select the one that you want to enable the eSeal feature for.
   3. In the FactBox on the right, select Document Output > Customer Actions to open the Document Output Customer Card for the selected customer.
   4. On the General FastTab, select Seal PDF Documents to enable the eSeal feature.

The eSeal feature has been enabled, and all PDF documents that are sent to the selected customer(s) will now be automatically sealed using an eIDAS-compliant eSeal.