Timestamp

A timestamp is the part of an electronic signature record that answers the question of when. Every time someone opens, views, or signs a document, the signing platform records the precise moment, usually down to the second and tied to a recognized clock such as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). That moment is then locked into the audit trail alongside who acted and what they did.

Timestamps matter because the order and timing of events can be just as important as the signatures themselves. A trustworthy timestamp shows that an offer was accepted before a deadline, that a disclosure was viewed before someone agreed to it, or that one party signed after another. Without a reliable record of when, a signed document is much weaker as evidence.

A timestamp is most useful when it cannot be quietly changed after the fact. On sign.pink, the time of each event is written into a tamper-evident audit trail, so altering a document or backdating a signature would break the seal and be detectable. This is what turns when into something that supports non-repudiation, meaning a signer cannot credibly claim later that they did not sign at that time.

It helps to know the difference between a plain timestamp and a qualified timestamp. A plain timestamp is the time recorded by the signing service. A qualified electronic timestamp, defined under the EU eIDAS regulation (Regulation (EU) No 910/2014), is issued by a qualified trust service provider and carries a legal presumption of the accuracy of the date and time in the EU. For most everyday agreements, a clear timestamp inside the audit trail is enough; qualified timestamps are typically paired with higher-assurance signatures such as advanced (AES) and qualified (QES) electronic signatures.

Examples

• A freelance contract shows the client signed at 14:32 UTC on March 3 and the freelancer countersigned at 09:11 UTC the next morning, establishing the order of agreement.
• An audit trail records that a tenant viewed the lease at 18:04, then signed at 18:09, proving they had access to the document before agreeing.
• A timestamp confirms a bid was submitted at 16:58, two minutes before a 17:00 deadline, settling a dispute over whether it arrived on time.