Signed, with the evidence attached
Send a contract, a warning or a policy to be signed straight from the employee's file. It comes back as a PDF with a Certificate of Electronic Signature on the last page: who signed, when, from where, and a fingerprint of exactly what they signed. There is no separate signing account and no fee per envelope.
By email, or in the portal
The signer gets a link that expires after 14 days. An employee who already has a portal login signs inside the app instead, which is a stronger identity than a mailed link. The audit trail is the same either way.
The certificate page
The signer's name and email, the date and time in South African time, the IP address, a unique reference, and a SHA-256 fingerprint of the document body. The document itself is never modified.
Sent, viewed, signed, declined
The status shows on the document, on the employee file and on the compliance snapshot, where an unsigned contract is the first thing flagged.
Is an electronic signature valid for an employment contract?
Yes. The Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002 recognises an ordinary electronic signature, meaning data attached to a message that the signer intends as their signature, wherever the law requires a signature. The exception is where a specific statute demands an advanced electronic signature, and employment contracts, warnings, acknowledgements of receipt and policy sign-offs do not. What matters is being able to show who signed, what they signed, and that it has not changed since. That is what the certificate page is for.
A few documents do require an advanced electronic signature from an accredited provider. A suretyship is one, a long-term lease is another. LetterUp does not offer those and will not pretend to, because the platform is scoped to employment documents on purpose.
Send yourself a contract to sign
Do it during the trial, then open the PDF that comes back and read the last page. That is the page you would hand a commissioner.