Email signature audit: a 15-point checklist to find inconsistent signatures

An email signature audit checks what actually arrives in an outside inbox, not what the template says should arrive. You pick a sample of senders across teams, look at real messages from them, and score each against a 15-point sheet. A perfect template can still produce a messy inbox, because signatures drift at the point where people paste, reply and switch devices.

This page gives you the sheet, a sampling method you can defend, and a table of what the common failures usually mean. No software is needed: a spreadsheet and a free personal mailbox will do. The platform notes follow Google’s help page on user signatures (last updated 1 October 2026) and Microsoft’s page on organization-wide email signatures (page date 7 May 2026), both read on 5 October 2026.

Why an email signature audit looks at received mail

The template is only the intention. The audit looks at the result, and there are two platform reasons to do it from the receiving end.

First, Microsoft’s admin page lists, among the limits of organisation-wide signatures, that users cannot see server-side signatures in their Sent Items folder. A sender who checks their own sent mail will report that nothing was added, even when the rule works. Second, Google says its admin footer is added only to messages sent to recipients outside your organisation unless you tick the box for internal mail. Test messages between colleagues will show nothing.

So create a checking mailbox outside your company, a free personal address will do, and read what arrives there. Microsoft’s page also notes that the signature cannot be inserted directly under the latest reply or forward. That tells you where to look in a long thread: at the end of the message, not beside the newest text.

How to sample for an email signature audit

You cannot check every message from every person, and you do not need to. The aim is to find patterns of drift, not to estimate a percentage.

1. Start from a list of people who send external mail. Take it from HR or the directory, not from memory.
2. Include the mandatory groups first. At least one person from every team, office and department variant, every executive, anyone who joined in the last 90 days, and one shared mailbox.
3. Fill the rest by a rule, not by choice. Sort the list by surname and take every fifth name. People tend to pick the colleagues they know are tidy.
4. Use real messages where you can. Ask the checker’s contacts to forward recent mail, or ask the sampled people to send a message from the device they normally use. Ask for one from a phone as well as a desktop.
5. Keep only the signature. Screenshot the signature area, not the message. Tell staff what you are doing and why before you start.

Five people from different teams will find the common faults. They will not tell you that “12 percent of staff are off-brand”. If you need a number for everyone, make it a full check: for a company of fifty, asking each person to send one test message is a morning’s work.

The 15-point email signature audit sheet

Score each check Pass, Fix or Fail. Fix means a small error someone can correct in minutes. Fail means the signature is wrong enough that a customer would notice.

#	Check	Pass looks like
1	Name	Written the way the person is known to clients, no stray capitals
2	Job title	In the house style, no abbreviations the policy bans
3	Company and department	Correct legal or trading name; department as the variant allows
4	Phone number	One agreed format, and the number is the right kind (direct, team or switchboard)
5	Email address	Matches the sender and, if shown, is a working link
6	Logo version	The current logo, in the right version for light backgrounds
7	Logo quality	Sharp, not stretched, not squashed
8	Colours and fonts	As the template, not those of a pasted Word document
9	Extras	No quotation, slogan, joke or extra image the policy does not allow
10	Website link	Opens the right page; matches the tagging convention if you use one
11	Other links	Social, booking or help links open and are not dead
12	Legal line	Present where required, with the approved wording
13	One signature only	No stacked or doubled signature, no footer repeated
14	Replies and forwards	Appear where the policy says they should
15	Phone and dark mode	Readable on a phone and in dark mode, with the logo still visible

Two notes on the sheet. Check 12 is a presence check, not a legal opinion; whether the wording is right is for your adviser, and this page is general information. Check 14 depends on what you decided in your signature policy, because some companies want a short version on replies and forwards.

Here is a signature that would pass all fifteen, drawn with a locked legal line at the foot.

A signature that would pass the 15 checks. The company and person are made up.

What common failures usually mean

A failed check points to a cause. Fix the cause once and several people improve at the same time.

What you see	Usual cause	Where to look
Old logo	A signature pasted from an old email, or an old image address still in use	Ask for a fresh install of the current signature
Two signatures stacked	A footer rule plus a personal signature that repeats the same details	Remove the repeated text from one of them
A missing phone line	On Microsoft 365, rules skip a line whose directory field is empty	Fill the field in the directory
Image arrives as an attachment	Image added in a way the receiving app treats as a file	See images showing as attachments
Blurry logo	Image scaled down from a small file	See blurry signatures
Different font	Pasted from a document with its own styles	Paste as the template steps say
No footer on a test	Test sent to a colleague, and the footer goes outside only	Re-test to an outside address

If a failure appears in many people at once, suspect the template or the rule. If it appears in one, suspect the person’s paste.

An email signature audit with emailfooter

emailfooter gives you two small helps and one honest gap. The company admin locks the layout, colours and logo, so employees can change only their own details, which removes most of checks 6 to 8 as a source of drift. The analytics page counts copies and installs started, by person, so you can see who never started. It counts recorded events only and cannot see whether a pasted signature is still in use. That is why an email signature audit of received mail is still needed.

Run the email signature audit as a routine

An audit that happens once becomes a clean-up. A repeating audit is a control. Book the first one 30 days after a rollout, using this sheet as the sampling step of the rollout checklist, then twice a year. Record the date, the checker, the sample and the fixes, and keep the old sheets. Over time, they show whether drift is getting better or worse. If the same fault keeps appearing, change the process, not the person. Our guide to company email signatures explains the wider setup, and the brand guidelines template gives you the standard the sheet checks against.

Frequently asked questions

What is an email signature audit?

It is a structured check of real outgoing emails from a sample of staff, scored against a list of requirements such as name, logo, links and legal line. The aim is to find drift from the approved signature.

How often should you run an email signature audit?

Once 30 days after any rollout or redesign, then twice a year. Run an extra one after a rebrand, an office move or a change to legal wording.

How many people should an email signature audit sample?

At least five, from different teams, plus every executive and recent joiner. For a company of about fifty, checking everyone is realistic.

Can I audit company email signatures without software?

Yes. Use a spreadsheet with the 15 checks, a free outside mailbox and screenshots of the signature area. Software helps with scale, not with the method.