printable non-digital signature in infopath form - how to improve user experience?

Question

I have a timesheet in a browser-compatible InfoPath 2010 form, which is being submitted to a SharePoint Enterprise 2010 document library. The timesheet has to be signed by the user and their manager, and printable (including the signatures). It is for internal use, and we are not using digital signatures because they expire. The signature area is set up as follows:

1. If a user checks a checkbox, two fields populate: their username and the current date/time - this is considered the signature
2. User submits the form
3. Workflow kicks off to notify user's supervisor that they need to sign
4. Supervisor receives workflow email
5. Supervisor opens email, follows link to open InfoPath form
6. Supervisor checks supervisor approval checkbox
7. Supervisor updates workflow
8. Supervisor submits form

I'm concerned that the supervisor may forget, or not bother, to update the workflow before submitting the signed form.

Is there a better way to collect the supervisor signature?

Answer 1

What about having the workflow submit the form?

Assuming the (4.) Workflow email is tied to a task list, the email should point the person to the task item, not the InfoPath form.

The form could be displayed (web part) along with the task so the supervisor can see the data. When the task is completed (Ok, Done, whatever), the workflow updates "approval" box on the InfoPath form (actually whatever library / DB table you are using to handle that field). The task (approve this timesheet) is completed and the approval is recorded. If you want printed copies of the form, you could trigger that from the task completion or just make sure they know where the forms are stored.

You would have to create a custom task page/form to include the InfoPath display web part.

Optionally, if you are doing something to automate the form submittals, you could use that to complete the workflow (mark the task complete).

Answer 2

Initially, I was using the out of the box Approval workflow to send the email to the user's supervisor. What I ended up doing was just sending a custom email to the supervisor with a link to the InfoPath form, so that they could click the checkbox within the form, and not using the Approval workflow at all. This streamlined the process for the supervisor.