Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) BankID is the highest level of electronic signature under EU eIDAS Regulation 910/2014. QES BankID signatures are legally equivalent to handwritten signatures across all EU Member States, including Norway, making them suitable for the most critical and legally sensitive business agreements. GetAccept now supports QES for BankID signing in Norway, both to meet new regulatory requirements for energy retailers and to provide continuity as BankID Norway retires its legacy signing infrastructure.

GetAccept supports two levels of BankID signing in Norway:

Standard eID BankID (Advanced Electronic Signature): Provides strong identity verification and a legally valid signature suitable for most business agreements. This method meets Advanced Electronic Signature (AdES) requirements under eIDAS and is available on Professional and Enterprise Plus plans.

QES BankID (Qualified Electronic Signature): The highest signature level, legally equivalent to a handwritten signature in all EU Member States. QES signatures are created using a qualified trust service and are visible in Adobe Acrobat document properties without requiring a separate certificate. QES is also available on Professional and Enterprise Plus plans but carries a per-signature fee.

Choose QES BankID for high-value contracts, legal agreements, employment contracts, and any document where the highest legal assurance is required. Use standard eID BankID for routine business documents, proposals, and agreements where Advanced Electronic Signature meets your legal requirements.

Before you can use QES BankID on individual documents, an administrator must enable it for your entire entity.

QES signing is now available as an option when you prepare documents for sending. This setting applies to all users in your entity.

After entity-level enablement, you can choose to use QES BankID on individual contracts.

Once you toggle QES on and send the document, all signers must complete their signatures using QES BankID. The signing workflow cannot be changed after sending.

QES signing has specific technical and workflow requirements that differ from standard eID signing:

Form fields must be pre-filled: Recipients cannot fill in text boxes, dropdowns, date fields, or other form inputs during QES signing. All required data must be entered and saved before you enable QES and send the document. If a recipient needs to provide information, collect it before creating the document or use a standard eID signature method instead.

All signers must use QES: You cannot mix QES and standard eID BankID signatures on the same document. Every signer must complete their signature using QES BankID. If even one signer uses standard eID, the document cannot be sent with QES enabled.

Senders must be added as recipients: If the sender needs to sign, add the sender as a recipient with the Signer role. Do not use the "Sender will sign" option when QES is enabled. The sender must follow the standard recipient signing flow to complete their QES signature.

No role changes after sending: You cannot add new recipients, change roles, or modify the signing order after a QES document is sent. Plan your signer list carefully before enabling QES.

No recipient-gathered input or signature transfer: Norwegian QES is not compatible with recipient-gathered input such as fields, signatures, transfer of signature rights, or signing order. These must be removed from documents or templates in order to select the QES signing method.

When a recipient opens a document set to QES signing, they see a streamlined signing interface optimized for high-security signatures.

The entire QES signing process is more secure and formal than standard signing but is designed to be straightforward for recipients. Recipients do not need a GetAccept account or login to sign.

After all signers complete QES signatures, the document becomes legally binding and immutable. You can verify the QES status and audit trail in two ways:

In Adobe Acrobat: When you download or open the signed PDF in Adobe Acrobat, QES signatures appear in the Signature panel with a "Qualified" or "QES" indicator. This confirms the document was signed at the highest legal level and has not been tampered with since signing.

In GetAccept's Signature Certificate: Open the signed document in GetAccept. The certificate (automatically generated and sent to all parties) displays: signer names and titles, exact signing timestamps, IP addresses, complete event timeline, and QES verification status. This certificate serves as the audit trail for compliance and legal purposes.

QES BankID carries a per-signature fee in addition to your GetAccept subscription. The cost varies depending on your plan and the number of signatures used. For pricing details specific to your entity, navigate to Settings → Subscription and Billing or contact your GetAccept account team.

Standard eID BankID (Advanced Electronic Signature) is included in your Professional and Enterprise Plus subscription at no additional per-signature cost.

Norwegian QES pricing: The QES add-on for Norway has no recurring cost, but each signature is charged at 15 NOK. This per-signature cost covers both the BankID signature and QES. The previous legacy BankID signature fee of 2 NOK per signature is being replaced by this new pricing as part of the migration to QES.

QES BankID is available in Norway and other EU Member States with qualified trust service infrastructure. The available QES methods depend on the recipient's location and their bank or eID provider. During signing, recipients see a dropdown of all QES methods available in their country.

For a complete list of supported eID methods by country, see Supported eID by country.

Pre-fill all required data: Before enabling QES, verify that every form field, pricing table, date field, and text input is complete and accurate. Recipients cannot modify any content during QES signing, so incomplete documents will fail the signing flow.

Test with a sample recipient: If this is your first QES document, send a test version to a colleague in Norway or an EU country with QES infrastructure. Walk through the entire signing process to confirm all details are correct and no fields are missing.

Confirm recipient locations: Ensure all signers are in countries that support QES. If a signer is in a region without QES infrastructure, use standard eID BankID instead.

Document your QES use cases: Use QES for contracts that genuinely require the highest legal assurance: employment agreements, large-value service contracts, NDAs with strong legal implications, and vendor master agreements. Using QES for every document increases costs unnecessarily.

Communicate the process to recipients: Briefly mention in your email that the document requires QES signing and may take slightly longer than standard signatures due to bank/eID authentication. This sets expectations and reduces support questions.

Two separate changes affect BankID signing in Norway, and they apply to different customer groups.

Regulatory enforcement (energy sector only): Norwegian energy retailers must collect verified customer consent using a Qualified Electronic Signature that meets eIDAS "High." This applies from 1 April, 2026.

BankID technology sunset (all Norwegian BankID customers): BankID is discontinuing its legacy signing infrastructure and replacing it with a new QES-based signing platform. After 1 April, 2026, the legacy "login-as-signature" method will no longer be supported. Customers who do not migrate to QES will not be able to sign with BankID, but can still use handwritten or typed signatures.

Norwegian QES uses a Norwegian-qualified trust service provider, meets eIDAS "High," and is different from both the standard BankID signing previously offered in Norway and the QES integrations GetAccept uses in other countries.

Frequently asked questions about Norwegian QES

Is BankID QES required by law for everyone? No. Regulatory enforcement applies only to the energy sector. Other Norwegian customers must migrate for technical reasons, not legal ones.

What happens if a non-energy customer doesn't enable QES? They won't be able to sign with BankID once the legacy infrastructure is removed, but can still use handwritten or typed signatures.

Does this affect partners or the API? Partners using BankID in Norway should be informed. The API supports QES, so partners can migrate using the same approach as the core app.