How to Sign Documents with eParaksts Without Leaving SharePoint

With an eParaksts solution added to SharePoint, you can sign a document right in the library: select the file, choose "Sign" or "Send for Signing", confirm in eParaksts mobile, and the signed file comes back to the same folder. In Latvia that signature counts as handwritten. In 2025 documents were e-signed 18.3 million times in Latvia, 61% of them with eParaksts mobile (LSM, LVRTC data).

eParaksts is Latvia's national electronic signature, run by the state-owned Latvian State Radio and Television Centre (LVRTC). eDOC is the Latvian container format for signed documents.

People look for this. According to Google, "parakstīt dokumentu" (sign a document) is searched about 720 times a month in Latvia, and "edoc" about 4,400 times (Google Ads Keyword Planner, MS Solutions analysis). Our customers ask too: in the past year, signing inside the document system came up in 24 support requests and at least 9 customer enquiries (MS Solutions data).

In this article: why "download, sign, upload" creates chaos, which e-signature counts as handwritten in Latvia, what signing looks like in SharePoint, when to choose eDOC and when PDF, and when Microsoft or foreign tools are enough.

Why "download, sign, upload" creates chaos

The usual way a company signs a contract stored in SharePoint:

1. An employee downloads the contract from SharePoint to their computer.
2. They open eparaksts.lv, upload the file and sign it.
3. They download the signed eDOC file.
4. They email it to the partner and wait.
5. They receive the partner's signed file and upload it back to SharePoint.

Every step creates another copy: in the Downloads folder, in email, on the partner's computer. A week later nobody is sure which file is final and which one is signed. If someone forgets the last step, the signed contract stays in their inbox instead of the company library.

Which e-signature counts as handwritten in Latvia

Section 3(2) of Latvia's Electronic Documents Law is clear: an electronic document counts as signed by hand if it carries a secure electronic signature (likumi.lv). A secure electronic signature is what EU Regulation 910/2014 (eIDAS) calls a qualified electronic signature.

Article 25 of the regulation gives it the same legal effect as a handwritten signature and requires every EU member state to recognise it (EUR-Lex).

eParaksts is a secure electronic signature. LVRTC puts it simply: a document signed with eParaksts has the same legal force as a paper document signed by hand (eparaksts.lv). In Latvia 555,000 people use eParaksts mobile, and 1.3 million residents have an ID card with an active e-signature (LVRTC data, LSM).

Other e-signatures are not invalid. Article 25(1) of eIDAS forbids rejecting an e-signature just because it is not qualified.

But Latvian law treats them as handwritten only if the parties agreed to that in writing beforehand. That agreement must be signed on paper or with a secure e-signature. Dealings with state and municipal institutions need a secure e-signature with a timestamp, or such a prior agreement.

What Microsoft 365 signs with

Microsoft 365 has its own signing tool, eSignature, which works with PDF and Word documents in SharePoint. Microsoft states that it uses simple electronic signatures as defined in eIDAS (Microsoft Learn). It costs USD 2 per request, with up to 10 signers per request, billed through an Azure subscription (Microsoft Learn).

External signers access the document as guests in your Microsoft 365 environment.

So for a contract with a Latvian partner and no prior written agreement, Microsoft's built-in signature does not count as handwritten. eParaksts does.

What signing looks like in SharePoint

With an eParaksts solution, an "eSign" button appears in the SharePoint document library's command bar, with three options.

Sign. You sign the selected files yourself with your own eParaksts. An eParaksts window opens, you confirm in the eParaksts mobile app, and the signed file is saved in the same folder next to the original.

Send for Signing. You pick colleagues from the company directory or type an external partner's email address. Each signer can get a sequence number if they must sign in order, and you can add a note. You choose one of three formats: PDF, eDOC or ASiC-E.

Signers get an email invitation and sign with eParaksts. An external partner does not need an account in your Microsoft 365. When everyone has signed, the finished file returns to the library, and the status shows who has already signed.

Validate. Select one file to see a preview of the document and the list of all signatures, including those it carried before.

One document can be up to 24 MB, and one signing up to 30 MB in total.

Two honest caveats. First, during signing the document is passed to the signing service and to LVRTC's signing platform, so at that moment it does leave your Microsoft 365 environment. The original and the signed file are stored in your SharePoint. Second, this solution signs with eParaksts. Smart-ID is not supported at the moment.

eDOC or PDF: which to choose

PDF suits a single PDF file. The signature sits inside the file, and the recipient opens it in their usual PDF reader. Several files in one signing go into an eDOC or ASiC-E container.

eDOC is the container format common in Latvia. It can hold several files and several signatures, for example a contract with three annexes.

If a partner sends an already signed eDOC, a good solution adds your signature inside the same file, next to the earlier ones. A poor one wraps the partner's eDOC inside a new eDOC, and you end up with a "matryoshka" of signatures at different levels.

ASiC-E is the EU-wide container format (eparaksts.lv). It is useful when the partner is abroad.

You can open and check an eDOC file without extra software on eparaksts.lv, in the "Pārbaudīt vai parakstīt" (check or sign) section, which accepts files of up to 32 MB.

If you sign with an eID card

In May 2026 Latvia's Ministry of Smart Administration and Regional Development (VARAM) and LVRTC warned that from 9 December more than 346,000 eID cards with the "Cosmo 8.1" chip may lose the ability to sign documents. The ministry said it was working on a solution with LVRTC and recommended eParaksts mobile, which the change does not affect (LSM).

You can check your card at reg.eparaksts.lv/eidinfo.

When Microsoft or foreign tools are enough

In our view, a simple Microsoft 365 signature can do for internal approvals and for partners who have already agreed in writing to that kind of signature. For PDFs, Microsoft 365 eSignature can also use Adobe Acrobat Sign and Docusign as the signing service.

Before choosing a foreign tool, check whether it gives a qualified signature and what it costs per user or per request. We will compare them in a separate article.

You need eParaksts when:

• you sign a contract with a Latvian partner without a prior agreement on e-signatures;
• the document is meant for a state or municipal institution;
• the law requires you to keep the original document (Electronic Documents Law, Section 4).

How to start

1. Check where signed contracts end up today. In email, in Downloads, or in the SharePoint library?
2. Agree which documents need a secure e-signature. For example contracts, powers of attorney and documents for institutions.
3. Make sure your signers have eParaksts mobile. Especially those who have signed with an eID card until now.
4. Add signing to your document management. Document management in SharePoint with a register, numbering and approvals, together with eParaksts, means a contract is drafted, approved, signed and stored in one place.

MS Solutions builds document management and other SharePoint solutions right in your Microsoft 365, and eParaksts signing is one part of them. Staff sign where they already work with documents, and the signed contract lands in the same library. See all our solutions here.