Penneo core concepts

In order to get the most out of Penneo, we just need to understand a few basic concepts:

Casefiles

Most of what Penneo does, is centered around the concept of the Casefile. The Casefile object is basically a container used to bundle documents and signers. Every signing process starts with a case file.

Documents

These are your raw PDF files, ready to get signed (or not). Documents are ALWAYS linked to an instance of a casefile. They can't exist on their own.

Signers

A signer object represents the person that signs. Apart from the obvious name, a signer can also be assigned and organisation name (that he/she signs on behalf of) and a social security number or VAT identification number to verify his/her identity.

📘

Checking the VAT Identification Number

The VAT Identification Number can only be verified for signers that have a Danish NemID or MitID Erhverv.

In order to put a signature on a document, we need to map them together. This is what Signaturelines are for. They connect Documents with Signers, and in the process assign a role to the signer. Sometimes, you'll even need to make sure that the right people sign the right documents in the right order. That's controlled by the Signatureline as well.

Think of it as the dashed line that people used to sign using a pen.

Sending the casefile

In order for anyone to sign anything, we need to get a link to the casefile into the hands of the people who need to sign it. This can be accomplished in two different ways:

1. Get Penneo to send the link via email.
2. Extract the link and distribute it yourself.

Either way, signing requests define things like recipient email, subject line and body of the email, and optional stuff like success and failure redirect urls.

Archiving and folders

Folders are an easy way to group casefiles together. They also serve as the main way to share casefiles inside an organisation. You'll want to take advantage of folders when building your integration.

Casefile templates

Case files can be very complex and the configuration of the documents and signers (who is going to sign what) is often non-trivial.

Therefore Penneo has an archive of common case file types that can be used directly as templates. When using a template you only specify the documents and the signers of the case file, and their respective types. Then Penneo makes sure that everything is mapped together with the correct signature lines.

Validations

Money laundering regulations require companies to validate the identity of their clients. The validation object can accomplish this, using only a social security number and an electronic ID.

The process and the validation object is very similar to the signing request. And like the signing request, the validation link can be send out via Penneo by email, or you can choose to distribute it to the user in your own system.