When you sign a document electronically, the signature itself is only half the story. The other half is the evidence that the signature is real and the document has not been altered. That evidence lives in the Certificate of Completion — the audit-trail record attached to every completed document.

What a Certificate of Completion contains

A good certificate is a self-contained record of the whole signing event. On ToroDocs, it includes:

  • Every signer — name and email, in signing order.
  • A full timeline — when each person opened the document, consented to sign electronically (with the version of the disclosure they agreed to), and signed — each stamped with a UTC timestamp and IP address.
  • Document integrity data — the SHA-256 fingerprint of the sealed file, so anyone can confirm the document has not changed by a single byte.
  • A verification code you can look up publicly at torodocs.com/verify.

In other words, it answers the questions a court or counterparty would ask: Who signed? Did they mean to? When? And is this the exact document they signed?

Why it matters

If a signature is ever disputed, "we emailed a PDF back and forth" is weak. A Certificate of Completion turns your agreement into a defensible record:

  • It proves attribution — the signature is tied to a specific person and email.
  • It documents consent under the ESIGN Act and UETA.
  • It guarantees integrity — combined with the embedded digital signature, any tampering is detectable.

How to verify one

Because ToroDocs publishes a verification page, you (or anyone you share the document with) can confirm authenticity two ways: upload the sealed PDF and match its hash, or enter the verification code from the certificate. If it matches, the document is genuine and unaltered.

The takeaway

A Certificate of Completion is what separates a real e-signature from a picture of a signature. Every document sealed by ToroDocs gets one automatically. See how our sealing works, or try it free.