Digital signing is now standard across the solar industry, and there is no reason to insist on wet ink. What matters is that the electronic version does the same job a paper one does: it shows that a specific person agreed to a specific assignment at a specific time.
The legal footing in brief
Australian law generally accepts electronic signatures where the method identifies the person and shows their intention to sign, and where the method is reliable for the purpose. The Clean Energy Regulator publishes a sample assignment form and looks at the substance of the document and the evidence behind it, not whether the signature was drawn with a pen. Because rules and guidance can be updated, confirm the Regulator’s current position if you are building a new process.
What a good digital process captures
- Identity. Who signed: the name, plus an email address or mobile number the platform verified.
- Intent. The signer saw the assignment wording and actively agreed to it, rather than a pre-ticked box on a long contract.
- Date and time. A timestamp from the platform, not a field the installer types.
- Document integrity. The version signed is locked. Edits after signing should be blocked or recorded.
- Retrievability. You can export a clear copy, with the audit trail, years later.
Practical traps
- The form is buried in the contract. If the assignment is one paragraph in a long quote, an auditor and the customer may disagree about whether it was understood. A separate, clearly labelled form is cleaner.
- The installer fills in the form on the customer’s phone and the customer never sees it. That is the same problem as signing for them.
- The system details change after signing. Re-issue and re-sign. See what the form must include.
- A shared email address. If two people sign from the same email, you cannot prove which one did.
From the desk: run a test audit on yourself. Pick a job from last year, open the signed form and see if you can show who signed, when, and what the wording was in under two minutes. If not, fix the process before the Regulator asks.
When the customer cannot sign digitally
Some owners prefer paper, and some cannot use the platform. Offer a printed form, scan it at once and keep the original. Do not push them into a digital process that they do not understand.
What this means for installers
Choose one signing platform, make the assignment a stand-alone form and keep the signed PDF with the photos and serial numbers in the same job record. If something later needs to be cancelled or changed, the cancel assignment page explains the options. Your trader should accept the digital version without conversion. Energy Merchants’ compliance desk accepts digital forms and checks them against the claim before lodgement; see how it works and the resources hub. For the broader process, go to STC trading.