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cloudprint.com.auOn screen or on paper: what the law accepts

A guide to paperwork on screen

Cloud print: what the law accepts on screen, and what it wants on paper

General information, not legal advice. For Commonwealth law the official place to start is the Attorney-General’s Department’s page on exemptions to the Electronic Transactions Act.

A cloud print service sells paper, yet the Attorney-General’s Department says electronic signatures are “just as valid as traditional paper or ‘wet ink’ signatures for most Commonwealth processes.” This guide, published by Dotto, follows that rule to the places it stops: the laws exempted from it, the company signing under its own Act, the statutory declaration, the NSW witness on a video call and the receipt a business may have to give.

The rule

One sentence of Commonwealth law

The edges of a tall stack of printed sheets, packed tightly side by side.
A stack of printed paper, the thing an electronic transaction stands in for. Photo by wal_172619 on Pixabay

The Electronic Transactions Act 1999 states its general rule about validity in section 8(1):

“For the purposes of a law of the Commonwealth, a transaction is not invalid because it took place wholly or partly by means of one or more electronic communications.”

Electronic Transactions Act 1999 (Cth), s 8(1), compilation of 5 December 2025

Two limits sit inside that sentence. It speaks only for Commonwealth law: the department says the Act “does not apply to processes under state or territory law”, and each state and territory has enacted its own Electronic Transactions Act. And it covers most Commonwealth processes, not all of them.

Where the rule stops

Four places the general rule gives way

  • Named laws. The department lists the ways the Act has been exempted from Commonwealth law, including by “Listing the exempted legislation in the Electronic Transactions Regulations 2020”; its own example is that the Regulations exempt sections of the Act from the Corporations Act 2001.
  • Other laws with their own rules. An exemption “does not necessarily mean that you have to use paper methods”: other rules or laws may allow, restrict or modify electronic methods.
  • The contract itself. The parties to a contract may settle their own way of dealing with paper or electronic steps, and the department says that may override conflicting sections of the Act.
  • Government agencies. Commonwealth entities can set IT, verification or other requirements for signatures required under their legislation.

Five guides

Five guides, five questions

  1. 01
    Writing and signatures under the Electronic Transactions Act

    When an email meets a Commonwealth requirement for writing, when an electronic method meets one for a signature, and which laws the Regulations switch the Act off for.

  2. 02
    Companies signing documents electronically

    The Corporations Act has its own signing rule: a person may sign by hand on a physical form, or by electronic means on an electronic form, if the method meets the Act’s test.

  3. 03
    Statutory declarations signed digitally

    Since 1 January 2024 a Commonwealth statutory declaration may be signed electronically and observed by video link, or made through an approved online platform.

  4. 04
    Witnessing by video in NSW

    NSW law allows legal documents to be witnessed in real time over an audio-visual link, but a copy cannot be certified that way.

  5. 05
    Receipts and proof of purchase

    As compiled at 16 September 2026, the Australian Consumer Law’s line is $75 or more, excluding GST, and its own examples of a proof of transaction include a confirmation or receipt number for an internet transaction.

What still wants paper or presence

Where paper, presence or a check comes first

A selection from the five guides, each as its source states it
The taskWhat the source says
Certifying a true copy in NSWThe department says it “must be done in person by an authorised witness”; the remote witnessing provisions do not allow it over a video link.
The form for a Commonwealth statutory declarationAn approved form must be used: “You cannot create your own form.”
A remotely witnessed NSW document signed by handAny page bearing a physically written signature, mark or endorsement must be part of the “original”.
A process under an exempted Commonwealth lawThe department says to check with the organisation or department whether it accepts electronic processes.

In each guide, the electronic path comes with conditions, set out one law at a time.