Send the approved version for signature, and keep what comes back
An agreement is finished when both sides have signed the version that was approved. The Signature tab prepares a packet with the signers in order, sends it through the account's own DocuSign or Adobe Acrobat Sign account or takes it out by hand, and when it is signed brings the signed copy and the record of the signing into your library.
A signature packet: who signs, and in what order
On the Signature tab of an agreement, a packet is the version to be signed, the people who sign it and in what order, who gets a copy, a subject and the message they read. Step 1 signs first, and signers who share a step sign side by side. Name at least one signer for each side, up to twelve signers and twelve copies.
Our signers come from Who signs for the company, a list the account owner or a manager keeps of up to fifty people with their titles and the most each signs for, and from the seats on the account. Theirs come from the people of the counterparty in Relationships, or are typed in. Through DocuSign each signer signs where you say: at words in the document, on a page at a position, or wherever they place it. Adobe Acrobat Sign adds each signature block at the end of the document.
- One packet out at a time for an agreement
- A packet that went out is kept as a record
- Up to forty packets on one agreement
Nothing is signed that was not approved
A packet goes out with the newest version of the agreement, and only once that version is approved. Until it is, the packet can be prepared and not sent, and the tab says the version has not been approved, with the way to Approval. A newer version added while a packet is out marks the packet: void it, and send the new version once it is approved.
Sending moves the agreement to Out for signature. A packet that is declined or voided takes it back to In negotiation, and a decline is a task for whoever sent it.
DocuSign or Adobe Acrobat Sign, through your own account
Signing goes through the company's own provider account. On the Signing view the account owner or a manager connects the DocuSign or Adobe Acrobat Sign account of the company, by signing in to the provider and allowing the connection there. Every packet sent through it is sent from that account, and it can be disconnected at any time. Until a provider is available on your account, signatures are recorded by hand.
While a packet is out, the tab shows each signer as sent, opened, signed or declined. The provider tells the account as an envelope moves, DocuSign once the account's DocuSign Connect key is set. When nothing has been heard, the status is asked of the provider every fifteen minutes on the first day and every hour after. Remind the signers reminds those who have not signed, at most once an hour, and Void it stops a packet with the reason, which the signers are told.
- The connection is kept sealed and never shown on a screen
- Ask for the status, when it has not been asked in the last fifteen minutes on the first day or the last hour after
- A DocuSign test account is marked as one, and what is signed there is a test
By hand, or with another tool, as before
A packet can go out by hand instead. Download the version to sign, as the file in your library or as Word, and Mark it out by hand. When it comes back signed, record who signed for each side, when, and whether in wet ink or electronically, with the signed copy from your library, and it is kept as the last version of the agreement.
- The same rule: only the approved version goes out.
- The packet is done once the signature is recorded.
What comes back, and where it is kept
When a provider says an envelope is complete, the provider is asked again before anything is brought in. Then the signed copy and the record of the signing, the certificate of completion from DocuSign or the audit report from Adobe Acrobat Sign, come into your document library as PDFs, joined to the agreement. The agreement is recorded as signed, with each signer and the date from the provider, the signed copy becomes its last version, and it is in effect from the date it states, or the date it was signed.
The history names the provider and the envelope. From then on its end, its notice date and its obligations are on the calendar like those of any other agreement.
Before an agreement is removed or disposed of, every packet of it still out with DocuSign or Adobe Acrobat Sign is voided there, so nobody signs an agreement that is no longer kept, and each void is written to the account's history. When the provider refuses or cannot be reached, nothing is removed until the packet is voided or the person removes it anyway.
Share a version with the people across the table
On the Sharing tab, a member shares one version of an agreement with named people at the counterparty, chosen from Relationships or typed in. Each person reads it, and when it is ticked may also comment, send their redline as a Word file or a PDF, and follow where the agreement stands. They see its title and number, the two parties, its status and its dates, and the one version you chose, to read and to download. Nothing else on your account: no other version, no internal note, no approval and no review, and of the comments only those marked to share.
They open it on a private page of its own, outside the app, with the link we email and a six-digit code we email each time. A code works for fifteen minutes and takes five wrong tries, five codes a day, and a visit lasts two hours. A share lasts thirty days unless you choose another day, a year at most, and an agreement is shared with fifty people at most at once.
- Withdraw anybody at once, and their link and code stop working.
- Shared outside lists everything shared, for the owner and managers, and withdraws everything shared with somebody in one step.
- Every sign-in, reading, download and comment is on the Sharing tab and the history of the agreement.
When they answer
A comment from the other side lands on the agreement as a shared comment, under their name. Their redline becomes a new version of the agreement when its text can be read, read against your playbook like any other, and their file is kept in your library either way. Whoever owns the agreement is told in the bell, and by email at most once an hour for an agreement. Sharing another version tells them by email, and the link they hold opens the new one.
Where it stops
E-signature comes with Agreements on every paid plan, and sharing an agreement outside the company is not part of One Code. Signing through a provider uses the company's own DocuSign or Adobe Acrobat Sign account. The product records who signed, when and how, and keeps the record of the signing that the provider gives; whether a signature binds anybody is for the agreement and the law that governs it to say.
Related
- Agreements NewThe whole lifecycle, from the request to renewal or the end.
- Agreement intake and approvals NewThe approval a version needs before it goes out.
- Agreement playbooks NewTheir redline, read against your positions.
- RelationshipsThe people at the counterparty a packet and a share go to.
- Your libraryWhere the signed copy and the record of the signing are kept.
- Security and privacy NewHow your account and its work are kept.
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