When someone picks up IT equipment (a laptop, phone, monitor), you need something you can point to later that says: they received it. Paper handover forms go missing, scanned PDFs end up scattered around, and tracking who signed what becomes a headache.

With Better Desk, you can send a handover document for digital signature during the handover. After it’s signed, the finished document is added to the related asset in TOPdesk so everything stays in one place.

This guide shows you how to set up a flow that automatically asks for a signature when an asset is handed over.

Before you start

A Better Desk account with an organization set up
At least one asset in TOPdesk that's synced over
The Better Desk app on your phone (iOS or Android)
Admin or owner permissions

Step 1: Create a Document Flow

A document flow is basically a form that your team fills out on their phone. You define the fields, and they do the rest on-site.

Head to Dashboard > Document Flows
Hit New Flow
Give it a name like "Laptop Handover" and optionally a description
Leave it on Draft for now — you can publish once everything's set up

Document Flows overview page — The Document Flows page — hit New Flow to get started.

Step 2: Add the Form Fields

Now add the fields your technicians will fill in during the handover. Here's what a typical setup looks like:

Field Type	Purpose	Example
Person Search	Look up the employee who's getting the device	"Recipient"
Asset Search	Pick the TOPdesk asset being handed over	"Asset"
Text	Extra notes, condition of the device, etc.	"Remarks"
Signature	The employee signs here	"Employee Signature"
Signature	The IT tech signs here	"Technician Signature"

Flow builder with fields configured — A typical handover flow: person search, asset search, remarks, and two signature fields.

Configuring the Signature Field

The signature field has a few settings worth knowing about:

Signee Type — Who's signing?
- Logged-in user — whoever is using the app right now (usually the IT tech)
- Recipient — someone else, tied to a person-search field in the same flow
Title — The label that shows up in the signature popup (e.g., "Employee Signature")
Linked Person Field — If you picked "Recipient" above, this tells Better Desk which person-search field to pull the signer's identity from.

You can have multiple signature fields in one flow — one for the employee and one for the technician, for instance.

Signature field configuration panel — Configuring a signature field — choose the signee type and link it to a person search field.

Step 3: Set Up Actions

This is the part that ties everything together. Under the Actions tab, you tell Better Desk what to do after someone submits the form:

Generate Document

Pick or create an HTML template for the handover document
Drop in {{variable}} placeholders for things like name, date, and asset details
Signatures get embedded in the PDF automatically
You can also include profile photos next to the signatures

Email

Send the PDF to the recipient, the person who submitted it, or any email address you want
Set the recipient type to Signer and it'll grab the email from the signature data

Save to TOPdesk

Attaches the signed PDF straight to the asset in TOPdesk
It knows which asset from the asset-search field in the form

All of this runs in the background. The technician hits submit, and the rest just happens — PDF gets generated, email goes out, file lands in TOPdesk.

Actions pipeline configuration — The actions pipeline — generate, email, save to TOPdesk. All automatic.

Step 4: Publish the Flow

Once you're happy with the fields and actions, flip the status to Published. It'll show up in the mobile app right away.

The Mobile Experience

Here's what it looks like from the technician's side:

Open the flow from Documents in the Better Desk app
Find the recipient — just start typing a name
Pick the asset — scan the barcode or search by name/serial number
Add a note if needed ("Small scratch on lid" — that kind of thing)
Tap the signature button — opens a full-screen canvas to sign on

Signing

We put some thought into making the signing experience feel right:

Landscape mode — The phone unlocks rotation so people can sign sideways, which just feels more natural
Pen thickness — Thin, medium, or thick — pick what works
Confirm before saving — You see a preview first and can redo it if it looks off
Who's signing — The name and photo show up so there's no confusion about whose turn it is

Mobile app showing the handover flow and signature process — The complete mobile experience — fill in the form, capture signatures, and submit.

What gets saved

A signature captures more than just the drawing:

Data Point	Purpose
Signature image (PNG)	Goes into the PDF
Stroke data	The raw pen coordinates, in case you ever need to verify it
Timestamp	When it was signed, down to the second
Signer identity	Name and email of whoever signed
GPS coordinates	Where they were standing when they signed
Device info	Phone model and OS, for the audit trail

Put together, you've got a solid trail: who signed, when, where, and on what device.

Step 5: Review Submissions

Once forms start coming in, you can check them in the dashboard:

Go to Document Flows and open your flow
Switch to the Submissions tab
Click into any submission for the full picture

You'll see:

Everything they filled in
The signatures
GPS location on a map
Device and IP info
The generated PDF
Whether each action ran (generated, emailed, saved to TOPdesk)

If something went wrong with the PDF, you can hit regenerate right from the submission detail page.

Submission detail view in the dashboard — A submission in the dashboard — field values, signatures, GPS, and pipeline status.

Tips

Get both people to sign

Have the recipient and the technician both sign. If there's ever a dispute, you've got both sides covered.

Link signatures to person fields

Set the signee type to "Recipient" and link it to a person-search field. That way Better Desk can email the signed PDF to the right person and pull their photo into the document.

Put asset details in your template

Add the serial number, model, and asset tag to the document template. Makes it clear exactly which device the signature is for.

Make all signatures required

You can block submission until all signature fields are filled in. Prevents half-finished handovers from slipping through.

The TOPdesk connection

The whole thing plugs into TOPdesk without any changes on that side:

Assets sync over from TOPdesk, so your technicians are searching real inventory
People come from Entra ID or TOPdesk person data
Signed PDFs get uploaded as attachments on the TOPdesk asset
Nothing to configure in TOPdesk — Better Desk just works alongside it

That's it

The whole setup takes maybe 10 minutes:

Create a flow with person, asset, and signature fields
Set up who signs and how they're identified
Add actions: generate PDF, email, save to TOPdesk
Publish and you're good to go

From that point on, every handover gets a proper record — signature, timestamp, GPS, device info — all attached to the right asset in TOPdesk.

How to Request Digital Signatures for Assets via Better Desk