Qualified Electronic Signature (QES) is the highest level of signature under Regulation nº 910/2014 (eIDAS). According to eIDAS Section 4, Article 25, a qualified electronic signature carries the equivalent legal effect of a handwritten signature and must be recognized across all EU Member States.
QES is the most advanced way of digitally signing, providing full EU compliance and passing the EU's signature validation services. It is used for workflows requiring personal identity verification, such as Swedish annual reports or Polish employment contracts. GetAccept supports PAdES-LT and Enveloped XAdES LT to ensure these high-assurance standards.
Note: QES is available as a yearly add-on for Enterprise customers. Please contact your account manager to activate this feature.
Critical rules for QES documents
QES requires strict document integrity to maintain its qualified status. To use QES, you must follow these technical restrictions:
No recipient input fields: Recipients cannot fill out text fields, checkboxes, or radio buttons when using QES. You must ensure all input fields are populated before the first signer signs.
All signers must use QES: You cannot mix QES with standard signing methods on the same document; all parties must sign with QES.
Sender signing: To sign the document yourself, you must toggle OFF "Sender will sign this document" and instead add yourself as the first recipient in the signing order.
Avoid eID combination: We do not recommend using standard eID in combination with QES.
Activate QES for your entity
Administrators must enable QES in the entity settings before users can apply it to documents.
Go to Settings and select Signing under Document Settings.
Toggle on Enable QES signing.
Click Save.
QES when sending a document
Once the feature is enabled for your organization, you must activate it for each specific document during the send-out process.
Create a new document draft and add your recipients.
In the document summary or recipient list, locate the Sign with QES toggle.
Switch the toggle ON to apply Qualified signing to the entire document.
How the signing process works
The recipient flow is similar to standard signing but includes extra validation steps.
Preparation: After clicking "Sign now," GetAccept prepares the PDF for 5–10 seconds.
Country Selection: The recipient selects their country to see nearly 30 available QES options.
Verification: The signer completes the process either within the GetAccept modal (e.g., scanning a QR code) or via a redirect to an external provider page.
Note: The final signed PDF will not contain a separate signing certificate. Because QES is embedded directly in the file, it is verified through the document's own digital signature properties in tools like Adobe Acrobat.
Available QES Methods
These are the different QES methods that we offer
Name of method | Supported countries |
Austrian Handy-Signatur | Austria |
Belgian ID card | Belgium |
Croatian ID Card | Croatia |
Denmark MitID | Denmark |
Estonian ID card | Estonia |
Estonian Mobile-ID | Estonia |
Smart-ID | Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania |
Evrotrust | EU-wide |
D-Trust sign-me | EU-wide |
Finnish ID card | Finland, Åland Islands |
CertEurope USB token | France |
Yes.com | Germany |
Audkenni* | Iceland |
SPID | Italy |
Latvian ID card | Latvia |
Latvian eParaksts Mobile | Latvia |
Lithuanian Mobile-ID | Lithuania |
Lithuanian ID card | Lithuania |
SimplySign | Poland |
Chave Movel | Portugal |
certSIGN USB token | Romania |
CertSIGN WebSign | Romania |
Halcom | Slovenia |
Uanataca | Spain |
Swedish BankID | Sweden |
Freja eID Sign | Sweden |
Swisscom | Switzerland |
* Not supported right away, but can be added on demand