--- title: "The signed PDF, Certificate of Completion and audit trail" description: "What you get when a request completes: a sealed, time-stamped signed PDF with the evidence inside, and a Certificate of Completion listing every event." url: https://help.pdfbetter.com/signing/signed-pdf-certificate-audit-trail/ collection: "eSignatures" section: "After signing" updated: 2026-10-18 publisher: "PDFBetter (AI Generated Inc.)" --- # The signed PDF, Certificate of Completion and audit trail > When everyone finishes, each person gets the signed PDF and a Certificate of Completion. Both are digitally sealed and, when the time-stamping service is reachable, independently time-stamped. The signed PDF carries the signing evidence inside it, so changing one byte makes PDF readers flag the file. Do it in PDFBetter: https://pdfbetter.com/app/requests/ ## What you get - **Signed PDF**: the locked document with everyone's entries, flattened, digitally sealed and time-stamped. - **Certificate**: the Certificate of Completion, sealed the same way. - **As sent**: the original you sent, for comparison. All three download from the request in **Sent**. Everyone, including people who got a copy, receives an email with the signed PDF and the certificate attached when they're small enough, plus download links that work for 7 days. Save a copy for your records, or have signed copies [saved to Google Drive automatically](https://help.pdfbetter.com/automation/google-drive-import-save/). ## How the evidence works - **Each signer's own device key.** When a signer opens the request, their browser creates an ECDSA P-256 key that never leaves their device. On finishing, it signs a statement binding the document's SHA-256 fingerprint to exactly what they entered, and PDFBetter's certificate authority certifies the key. - **A locked document.** The version you sent is fingerprinted, and the certificate shows the SHA-256 of the sent and completed PDFs. - **A hash-chained audit trail.** Every step (sent, viewed, consented, signed, declined, reminders, codes) is written to an append-only log where each entry includes the hash of the one before, so later changes are detectable. - **A digital seal and time-stamp.** The completed PDF and certificate are sealed with a PAdES signature from PDFBetter Document Seal and, when the service is reachable, time-stamped under RFC 3161 by an independent time-stamping authority. - **Evidence inside the file.** The signed PDF embeds a signing-evidence file with each signer's statement, device signature, key certificate, entered values and the audit trail, so the PDF alone is enough to check what happened. ## Reading the Certificate of Completion The certificate has three parts. **Integrity** lists the document fingerprints, the seal and the time-stamp. **Recipients** lists each person's role, status, authentication method, IP address, device and **Device signature** key fingerprint. **Event log** lists every event with its time. A line at the end confirms the audit trail is intact against its hash chain. > **Why Acrobat says the seal's identity isn't verified:** The seal certificate comes from PDFBetter's own certificate authority, which isn't on Adobe's trust list yet. Acrobat therefore can't confirm who applied the seal unless you trust that certificate. Change detection still works: if the file is edited after completion, the reader shows it as modified. ## How long it's kept PDFBetter keeps the evidence of a completed request (the sealed PDF, the certificate and the audit trail) for 7 years after completion, even if the sender deletes the document or their account, so everyone who signed can still prove the agreement. Records of requests that were never completed are deleted with the document. See [How long PDFBetter keeps your files](https://help.pdfbetter.com/privacy-security/how-long-files-are-kept/) and [Security](https://pdfbetter.com/security/) for details. ### Does the certificate say no time-stamp? If the time-stamping service couldn't be reached at completion, **Independent time-stamp (RFC 3161)** reads **None**. The seal and the audit trail are still in place. ### Can someone edit the signed PDF? Anyone can change a PDF file, but the seal shows it: PDF readers report the document as modified after signing. ## Related articles - [Are PDFBetter e-signatures legally valid?](https://help.pdfbetter.com/signing/esignature-legality-and-evidence.md): Electronic signatures are generally accepted for most business documents in many countries, but some documents need more. Signature requests give every signer their own device key and a sealed, time-stamped PDF with the evidence built in. Whether that's enough depends on the law that applies to your document. - [Track, remind, cancel or resend a signature request](https://help.pdfbetter.com/signing/track-signature-requests.md): Open Sent in the sidebar and select a request. Each recipient shows Emailed, Opened, Signed or Declined. Use Remind, New link / fix email or Cancel request, and download the Signed PDF and Certificate once it's Completed. - [Request signatures from other people](https://help.pdfbetter.com/signing/request-signatures.md): Open the document and switch to Invite to sign. Add each recipient's name, email and role, choose In order or All at once, place each person's fields, then choose Send, check the title, message, reminders and expiry, and select Send. - [How long PDFBetter keeps your files](https://help.pdfbetter.com/privacy-security/how-long-files-are-kept.md): Guest drafts are deleted 1 hour after they're created. Files uploaded only to run a tool are deleted after 24 hours. Documents in your account stay until you delete them, then they're erased 30 days later. - [Import from and save to Google Drive](https://help.pdfbetter.com/automation/google-drive-import-save.md): Click Connect Google Drive in Settings → Integrations. Then use New → Import from Google Drive to bring files in, and Save to Google Drive (editor Done menu or a document's menu) to send PDFs back. --- Source: https://help.pdfbetter.com/signing/signed-pdf-certificate-audit-trail/ · PDFBetter Help Center · Last checked against the product 2026-10-18. Questions: support@pdfbetter.com