Overview
A signable web form can be created to embed on your website (or sent as a web link), allowing multiple people to easily access your form or document and create an agreement.
A web form can be configured to have one or more participants, multiple counter-signers, and multiple CC'd parties. The signature flow for a web form is:
- Once the first participant completes and verifies their signature/action, an agreement is created
- If the web form allows for multiple participants, all participants complete their actions in the sequential order they are listed.
- After the participants have completed their actions, the counter-signers are notified in the order they are listed.
- Once the agreement is completed, all parties (including CCs) are notified of the completed agreement.
How to enable/disable user access to web forms
Business and enterprise service levels can configure the web form access and signer options.
Web form access and signer options can be enabled or disabled at the account or group level by navigating to Account Settings > Global Settings > Web Forms
Configuration
Web forms are subject to several general settings that cover all agreements in a specific group. However, the practical use of a web form is often different than an agreement sent directly to a known recipient, and the related settings regarding authentication and email options can conflict.
Customers that have enabled Users in Multiple Groups may find it useful to create a new group with customized settings for the web form experience (e.g., Internal web forms that require less stringent authentication).
Availability:
Web forms are available for team and enterprise license plans.
Configuration scope:
The feature can be enabled at the account and group levels.
The controls for this feature can be assessed by navigating to Global Settings > Web Forms
In terms of controls that directly influence web forms, there are several configuration options:
Checking this option exposes the Publish a web form option on the Home page, allowing users to create forms as needed.
CC'd parties can be added to the web form when enabled. Otherwise, the option to add CC'd parties is removed from the creation process.
When enabled, a Download PDF link is exposed in the web form Options, allowing the recipient to download the blank web form as a PDF.
Web forms require that each participant provide their email address so the signature action can be explicitly attributed and validated.
The Require an email address in the signature block setting dictates when the email is collected, within the fields of the web form itself, or in an overlay after the signing process.
When enabled, an Email address field is required for each signer. This field can be an individually placed Email field or the built-in email field included with a Signature Block.
The system automatically places a Signature Block field at the bottom of the last page for every recipient that does not have an Email field on the document.
When the setting is disabled, the web form does not require an email field to be present within the bounds of the form. After committing their signature, the recipient is prompted to provide an email address via an overlay interface.
In all cases, an email address must be collected for each participant.
When Require Signer to verify their email address is enabled, the recipient must verify their signature before the participant's signature is considered completed.
The participant is informed of the requirement to verify their signature via the emailed link:
The audit report clearly indicates that the email was verified:
When Require Signer to verify their email address is disabled, the participant does not need to verify their email to complete their signature process. The agreement assumes a completed status or progresses to the next participant.
The audit report for unverified email addresses indicates that verification was waived:
Unverified signatures are subject to repudiation.
If you disable the email verification for the participant and you require a legally binding signature, ensure that you're using some form of authentication that identifies a unique person (e.g., KBA).
If the first signer includes additional participants, then email verification must be completed before the second participant is notified (regardless of this setting).
When Allow additional participants is enabled, the web form interface exposes an Add Participant link that inserts one additional participant record per click (up to a maximum of 25 additional participants).
When Allow additional participants is disabled, the interface does not permit adding additional participants, and web forms only allow one external signer.
Enabling Allow recipients to save their progress and continue later exposes an option for recipients to save the web form with all of the input fields as if it was an agreement sent to them from the creator of the web form. The recipient can explicitly save their progress using the Options menu. Additionally, the web form automatically prompts the user to save their progress if they attempt to navigate away from the form.
After saving the agreement, an email is delivered to the recipient, and instructions are displayed for the signer to resume filling out the form via the email link:
Subordinate controls allow for adjusting the recipient experience if the use case allows for it:
- Save on opening the web form - When enabled, the recipient is prompted to save the web form as soon as the form is opened. By default, the signer has the option to cancel the saving process. This option is recommended if your web forms are long or complex to avoid potential session timeout issues.
- Enforce Save on open - When enabled, this option removes the option to cancel the prompt to save the web form upon opening.
- Disable Signer reauth on accessing the web form from emailed link - When enabled, the recipient isn't required to authenticate when accessing the saved agreement through the emailed link. Consider enabling this option if your process does not require that every access to the form be authenticated.
- Allow editing the agreement name - When enabled, the recipient can edit the agreement name (as displayed on the Manage page) and subsequent references (reporting, Audit reports, etc.). It's generally recommended not to allow the recipient to freely edit the agreement name unless there is a compelling business need to do so.
More details on the option to save web forms can be found here >
FAQ & Known issues
Only when the web form is in Draft status.
After a web form is created, the name of the web form can not be updated.
The web form creator always receives the completed agreement (unless settings are in place to suppress the notification).
If another party must be notified when the web form agreement is signed, the CC field can be used to ensure that the party is automatically included.
After the web form is published, the counter-signers can only be edited on the Manage page.
Only the email addresses can be edited. The number of counter-signers may not be changed.
If the creator of the web form has been added to the web form counter-signers, that participant may not be edited
Yes.
After a web form is created, you can edit the CC'd parties on the Manage page.
Yes.
Templates in the Acrobat Sign library can be used as the base for a web form by attaching them through the Add Files link.
Digital Signature fields are not supported in web forms.
Attempting to save a web form with a digital signature triggers an error message identifying unsupported field types.
Yes.
Instruction for disabling the email verification process can be found in the Configuration section.
Disabling email verification does not remove the requirement for the signer to supply an email address.
If you disable the signature's email authentication and require a legally binding signature, ensure that you're using some form of authentication that identifies a unique person (e.g., KBA, Password).
Yes.
The URL to a web form is just a URL like any other.
Adding the URL to a web form as a hyperlink does not logically link any agreement generated by the web form to the source agreement.
Data collected on a web form is contained within the transaction ID of the agreement. The data is not populated anywhere else in the Acrobat Sign system, and if the agreement is completely deleted, the data is deleted as well.
Reporting on the web forms pulls the content from the agreement(s) to populate the report but does not save the data in any new locations.
Web forms waiting for an email verification (by clicking the emailed Confirm my email address or Review and sign link) don't display on the Manage page. This is true for both the list of In progress agreements as well as the roll-up summary report:
Web forms that have been saved, but the Review and sign link has not been accessed, can be observed by exporting the form data for the web form.
If the option to Require Signer to verify their email address is disabled, any signature attempt is accepted, and the agreement is exposed on the Manage page accordingly.
The Activity section of the parent web form template records the major events like Creation, Enable/Disable, and replacing participants
