PDF Custody Agreements: Not Available in Shelf
PDF custody agreements and e-signatures are not part of Shelf. Here is what asset custody looks like today, and how teams handle signed equipment hand-offs alongside it.
Shelf does not have PDF custody agreements or e-signatures.
We explored a signed-custody flow and chose not to ship it, so it has never been part of Shelf and is not on our near-term roadmap. If you need a signature on a hand-off, the options below cover how teams handle it today.
What custody does today
Custody is an open-ended checkout. It records responsibility for an asset without a return date:
- Assign custody of an asset or a kit to a team member, including non-registered members
- Release custody when the item comes back, returning the asset to available
- Every assignment and release is timestamped and written to the asset's activity log, with the user who made the change
- Custody status is visible on the asset page, filterable in the asset index, and included in workspace exports
That gives you a durable, auditable record of who holds what and when it changed hands. What it does not give you is the custodian's signature or acknowledgement captured inside Shelf.
For time-bound checkouts with defined return dates, use Bookings instead.
Handling signed hand-offs today
If you need a signature for high-value or regulated equipment, the practical approach is to sign outside Shelf and link the record back to the asset:
- Have the custodian sign your agreement in your existing tool (DocuSign, Dropbox Sign, or a countersigned PDF).
- Store the signed document wherever your organization keeps its records.
- Record the link or reference number against the asset — either in a text custom field (for example "Custody agreement ref") or as a note on the asset.
- Assign custody in Shelf as normal. The timestamped custody entry and the reference together give you the chain of responsibility plus the signed document behind it.
This keeps the signed PDF in the document system your organization already relies on, with Shelf holding the custody record and the pointer to it. Custom fields support text, multi-line text, option, boolean, date, number, and amount.
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