How to Sign a Letter for a Boss

In a variety of professional settings, there may come a time when you will need to sign a letter for your superior. Maybe the boss is out of the office for a period of time or maybe she simply has too much work piled up to finish signing a stack of letters, and she authorizes you to do the job. Whatever the case, there is a certain etiquette to follow when signing business letters. The instructions below should help you get the job done right.

Instructions

1. Type "Yours faithfully" or "Sincerely," followed by a comma, at the end of the letter on the bottom left-hand side, after a line of space.

2. Leave a line of space after the sign-off greeting and then type "p.p. Superior's Name, Superior's Title." The p.p. represents "per procurationem," a Latin term that means "On behalf of." So if your boss' name is Jane Doe and she is the vice president of marketing, you would type, p.p. Jane Doe, vice president of marketing, all on the same line.

3. Print out the letter, and sign your own name in the space you have left below the sign-off greeting and your superior's name and title.

Tips & Warnings

• Ask your boss if he prefers a certain sign-off, such as "Yours faithfully" or "Yours sincerely," as this is a matter of personal style.

• Do not sign a letter on your boss' behalf without his explicit permission, or you risk being accused of forgery.

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish
• Business Letter Etiquette Article
• Yahoo! Forum About Signing Letters for Superiors