# Flowsign for councils and government agencies Sealed records, single sign-on, a workspace for every team and no user caps on Enterprise. Why Flowsign suits councils and government agencies. Source: https://flowsign.app/blog/flowsign-for-councils-and-government Published: 29 October 2026 Every package is signed in order and comes back sealed, with a record of every step. ![Wellington's CBD and Oriental Bay seen from Mt Victoria on a sunny day, with hills beyond the harbour](https://flowsign.app/marketing/places/wellington-from-mt-victoria.webp) *Wellington and its harbour from Mt Victoria. Photo: Kristina D.C. Hoeppner, CC BY-SA 2.0.* ## Who signed, when, and has it changed? When the last person signs, Flowsign seals every signed document and the certificate of completion. The audit trail is part of the certificate, so it's sealed too. - **Every step on record.** Each view, consent, signature and delivery is recorded with a timestamp, IP address and device. - **Any edit shows.** Change a sealed PDF after signing and Adobe Acrobat shows the seal as broken. - **A fingerprint for each document.** It's taken at send and checked again before sealing and on every download. The certificate shows it as sent and as sealed. - **Search and export.** Filter the audit trail report by date, event, member or origin, then export it to CSV or PDF. ![The audit trail report listing events with the time, user, event and target, below the search and filter controls](https://flowsign.app/marketing/screens/reports-audit-trail.png) *Each event in the audit trail, with who did it and when.* The audit trail and certificate come with every plan, Free included. That helps with record-keeping and audit: when a grant file is called in for review, its record is one download away. The [audit trail page](https://flowsign.app/features/audit-trail) has the detail. ## Security your IT team can sign off on Council paperwork is full of personal information. Who can reach it matters as much as the signature. - **Encrypted.** Documents are protected with TLS in transit and AES-256 at rest. - **Sealed and timestamped.** The seal is a SHA-256 signature with an independent RFC 3161 timestamp. Sealed files are written once and never overwritten. - **Kept apart.** Every organisation is isolated, so one customer's documents can never be returned to another. - **Signer checks.** Ask for a password before the documents open, or an SMS code, which is available on request. - **Single sign-on.** On Enterprise, staff sign in with SAML single sign-on (such as Microsoft Entra ID), and SCIM manages users automatically. Flowsign is hosted in Australia. Enterprise customers can ask for a dedicated database in New Zealand (AWS Auckland), and [where Flowsign is hosted](https://flowsign.app/blog/flowsign-hosting-australia-and-new-zealand) has more on that. The [trust centre](https://flowsign.app/trust) has the full security detail. The [security page](https://flowsign.app/resources/security) answers the usual procurement questions. ## Every team in its own space A council is rarely one team. Building consents, HR, procurement and community grants all send their own paperwork. Business and Enterprise have no user caps, so everyone who sends or approves signs in as themselves. No shared logins. - **A workspace for each team.** Each one holds its own packages, templates, contacts and members. Extra workspaces are on Enterprise. - **Roles that fit.** Start from Admin, Sender and Viewer, or clone one into a custom role. Roles are on Team and up. - **Set one workspace at a time.** Someone can be an Admin in grants and a Viewer in HR. ![A workspace's Members tab listing each member with their role in that workspace](https://flowsign.app/blog/settings-workspaces-members-tab.png) *Each workspace lists its members and the role each one holds there.* The [workspaces page](https://flowsign.app/features/workspaces) shows how they fit together. ## The same consent, with different details Most council paperwork repeats. The same consent, permit or contractor agreement goes out every week with different names and numbers. - **Templates** save the documents, roles and fields. Merge fields fill in the applicant, reference and amount at send. - **Workflows** let the answers decide which documents go out and who signs. - **Dynamic documents** change the wording inside a document, like a condition that only applies to some consents. Take a contractor agreement. Working on site? Above the manager's delegation? One workflow adds the health and safety documents and brings in a second approver only when it applies. Templates are on every plan, workflows on Business and Enterprise, and dynamic documents on Enterprise. [Templates, workflows and dynamic documents](https://flowsign.app/blog/templates-workflows-and-dynamic-documents) walks through all three. ![Christchurch's rebuilt city centre from above, with the Port Hills on the horizon](https://flowsign.app/marketing/places/christchurch-city-centre.webp) *Christchurch's rebuilt city centre.* ## Just a link, or a tablet at the counter Applicants and contractors open a link and sign on their own phone or computer. No account to create and no app to install. Someone standing at the front counter? Hand them a tablet and sign it in person. It's sealed and recorded the same way as one sent by email. Turn on signing order and each person gets it in turn, from the applicant through to the delegated manager. Video: [Signing a document](https://flowsign.app/videos/signing-a-document) ## Start with the form you send most Pick the one that eats the most of your week. A contractor agreement is a good first try. [Create an account](https://my.flowsign.app/signup), set it up as a template and send it to a colleague. Then open the certificate and see what an auditor would see. Need single sign-on, workspaces or a security review first? [Book a demo](https://flowsign.app/request-demo) and we'll walk your team through it. The [government page](https://flowsign.app/government) and [pricing](https://flowsign.app/pricing) cover the rest.