Frequently asked questions
about PortiQ start

To sign electronically with PortiQ start, you need a PortiQ start user account and a quota. A limited quota is included with the purchase of each user account.

No, you can also send signature requests to people without a PortiQ start account. They will receive an email with a link to the document to be signed. Qualified signatures and identifications are deducted from the quota of the workflow starter.

There are three types of users in PortiQ start: the basic user, the advanced user, and the tenant admin.

A basic user can perform simple signatures, check signatures, request signatures from people with and without a PortiQ start user account, create workflows, and create templates.

An advanced user can perform simple, advanced, and qualified signatures, verify signatures, request signatures from people with and without PortiQ start user accounts, create workflows, and create templates.

A tenant admin can do everything an advanced user can do. In addition, a tenant admin can manage users in his/her tenant.

You can perform simple electronic signatures with any type of user. For advanced and qualified signatures, you need an advanced user or tenant admin.

You can request a qualified signature from an advanced user with a basic user account. However, a basic user cannot request a qualified signature from other basic users or external users.

A basic user cannot perform qualified signatures, so you cannot request a QES from a basic user. However, you can request a QES from this person by treating them as an external user.

External users, also known as external email addresses, are people who do not have a PortiQ start account.

External users do not have direct access to PortiQ start but can only use a link to perform the action they requested in the document. External users do not have a quota. Therefore, the signatures and identifications performed by an external user are deducted from the quota of the workflow starter.

When you send a signature request for a qualified signature to an external user, that person is forwarded to sign-me. There, he/she can either log in with an existing sign-me account or register and identify themselves with sign-me. The identification is deducted from your quota.

Quotas determine how many signatures and identifications you are allowed to perform and how many 2-factor authentications via SMS-OTP you can use. Each user type comes with a certain quota. You can purchase additional quotas in the form of add-on packages.

Quotas are used up when you sign electronically, identify yourself with sign-me, or request authentication via SMS-OTP from external persons. Your quota is also used up when you request a signature from an external user (i.e., a person without a PortiQ start user account) and that person signs or identifies themselves for the signature with sign-me.

When you send a signature request to another PortiQ start user, this signature is deducted from the signer’s quota. If you send a signature request to an external email address, the signature and any identification required for a qualified signature will be deducted from your quota.

Yes, you can share your quota with other users. To do this, simply go to “Manage signature quota” in PortiQ and click on “Share quota with other users”.

No, the QES only expire after one year. In addition, a user who purchases an account for one year receives all 60 QES at the beginning of the year.

Your managed signature quota belongs to your account, while the active quota is the quota you are currently using. The active quota may differ from the managed quota if you share another user’s quota.

Additional packages allow you to perform more qualified signatures, identifications, and SMS authentications than the standard quota included with the user types.

No, it is not possible to create a qualified signature with a basic user account.

Only if the session in which they authenticated has expired. This means if the external party opens the download in the same browser in which they authenticated and the browser has not been closed, the server has not been restarted, and no new session has been created (e.g., by logging in).

Yes, different signature levels can be used in a document. However, a simple signature destroys any existing cryptographic signatures in the document. Therefore, simple signatures should only be applied before advanced and qualified signatures, and not vice versa.

Yes, other file formats can also be signed. In these cases, the result of the signature is the original file and a signature file (e.g., CAdES). If the signature is to be part of the file, it must be converted to a PDF file before signing.

Yes, by default we assume a maximum file size of 15MB. However, if you wish to sign larger files, please contact us.

Yes, all advanced and qualified remote signatures created with PortiQ are LTV-capable because they contain a timestamp. Even documents created with PortiQ start without an advanced or qualified signature are sealed with an advanced platform seal and are therefore LTV-capable.

You receive a tenant when you purchase at least one tenant admin. A tenant is a customizable area of PortiQ Start that is managed by the tenant administrator. In the tenant, you can manage your users, configure your signature annotation, and share your entire quota with all your users, among other things.

This message means that your quota for qualified signatures (QES) has been used up. To perform further qualified signatures, you must purchase an additional package.

If you want to test signing as an external user yourself, you must log out of PortiQ start before clicking on the link in the email sent to the external user.