We studied the ten most competitive PDF annotating and digital signing products and found that these are the core features required by customers:‍

PDF annotation

• Add notes and comments
• Highlight text
• Have changes you make automatically save to where the original PDF was saved
• Merge multiple files into one PDF
• Split one PDF into multiple files
• Reorder pages
• Delete pages
• Rotate pages (e.g. from portrait to landscape)
  

Collaboration and digital signing

• Send to others to view
• Send to others to comment
• Request a signature
• Request a form be filled out
• Receive a notification when a signee has missed the deadline to sign
• Receive a notification when the document has been signed
  

Where SuiteFiles shines is that all of those features are built into our document management system integrated with Xero and Xero Practice Manager (XPM). 

PDFs in SuiteFiles

With SuiteFiles, you can build custom branded PDFs which pull client details from XPM. Once the PDFs are ready for review, you can share notes and feedback without having to rely on separate applications. Our PDF annotator keeps all of these functions in the same app and saves your PDF alongside related files (e.g. in a FY2022 folder for a specific client).

In SuiteFiles, you can communicate internally and externally across PDFs using tools you’re familiar with. Create ‘sticky notes’ to record notes on the fly and ‘stick’ them to the relevant parts of your PDF. Take your pick of mark-up tools with highlighters, free form drawing and shapes to mark areas to revisit later or call others’ attention to. 

Let’s hear about the PDF annotator in action! Shelly from Winstone France Limited wrote “the PDF annotator is more intuitive and much more seamless than what we had been using in the past to highlight and add notes. Not being restricted to highlighting only text but having freeform highlighting for use on images is a great addition.” She added that now that her practice is using SuiteFiles, other PDF annotator software seems cumbersome in comparison.

SuiteFiles allows you to easily track progress by storing feedback within the PDF you’re working on instead of collecting notes from email threads or in-person chats. You can stay on top of changes by accessing a dated log of every annotation made.

Every change you and others make to a PDF will be automatically saved in SuiteFiles, removing the time it takes to manually save PDFs and achieve version control. Your final PDF can later be found by anyone in your business through SuiteFiles’ search feature.

Signing in SuiteFiles

Customise the signing process to suit your preferences. Our signing fields are resizable and come with text editors to ensure the digital signatures you use are aligned with the conventions of your organisation. When you’re ready to send to your client, their email address will be preloaded in SuiteFiles from our XPM integration.

Your clients can use the in-PDF thumbnails to scan the pages you’ve sent them. Then, as your clients go through the signing process, they’ll be able to see your highlights and sticky notes calling out areas for them to be aware of and providing extra context. We’ve also incorporated clickable checkboxes to confirm your clients have read and understood important sections of your PDF. 

SuiteFiles’ digital signing is secure, doesn’t require your clients to have SuiteFiles login details and automatically saves signed PDFs in the right folder for you.

See more about PDF annotation, document signing and other SuiteFiles features at suitefiles.com/features.

Pricing

Our $10 per month per user Simply Suite plan comes with web access, basic Xero functionality, secure storage, on-demand training and the ability to view PDFs.  

Our $25 Semi-Suite plan adds in automated Xero functionality, PDF annotation, backups to 500GB, email management and Outlook integration. 

On top of everything else, the $45 Super Suite plan gets you merging of PDFs, the ability to convert Word documents to PDF, full backups, digital signing, SuiteFiles Connect (client portals for collaboration) and an annual Customer Success check in to get the most out of SuiteFiles.  

See our full pricing at suitefiles.com/pricing.