Overview
The Send page is where you configure and send new ad hoc agreements. There are five functional sections to configure:
- The Send from group (UMG enabled accounts only) - The group selector defines the configurable options and available templates for the agreement. Configure this first, as resetting the group will refresh the page and remove any prior configurations.
- Recipients – Recipients are the people that you need to interact with your agreement. There are multiple types of “Recipients”. The available options are dictated by your account administrator.
- Message – Where you define the name of the agreement and a message you want to deliver to the recipients.
- Options – These options help control the agreement
- Password Protect – You can secure your signed documents by providing a password that is applied to the final PDF to prevent unauthorized viewing.
- Completion Deadline – When an agreement has to be signed by a specific date, you can use this option to automatically cancel the agreement after a specified number of days.
- Send Reminder – You can set up reminders on a regular cycle to be sent to the current active recipients.
- Recipient’s Language – The language you choose is used in the recipient’s emails communication and on the e-sign page.
- Files – This is where you select the actual documents you are sending for signature.
Once logged in, select Send or Request e-signatures from the Home screen.
Sending Agreements
Sending documents and collecting signatures and approvals is what Acrobat Sign is all about! Every customer has different requirements regarding who needs to interact with the document and in what order, so there are a number of workflow features available in the Send page interface you should know about.
If you are in an account that has Users in Multiple Groups (UMG) enabled, select the group you want to send the agreement from before configuring the agreement.
- Setting the Group value loads the group-related properties and templates for you to choose from.
- When changing the Group, you will notice the page refresh. Any entered content will be cleared away in this refresh.
If you do not see the Send from dropdown at the top of the page, your account is not UMG enabled.
Define the recipients and the order in which they gain access to interact with the document.
- Configuring agreements with multiple signers is the same process as a single singer, just with more recipients. Add each and configure them as needed.
- Adding the same email in the agreement multiple times (eg; if someone has actions at different stages of the process) is allowed.
In the Recipients section, the very top switch asks you select the basic signature order:
- Complete in Order is selected (as shown above), a sequential signing process is observed from one signing step to the next and recipients are numbered to indicate the exact participation order
- Hybrid signature flows start as a sequential (Complete in Order) workflow
- When Complete in Any Order is enabled, parallel signing can take place and recipients are not numbered to indicate that there is no specific participation order.
To the right of the signature order switch, you will see two links:
- Add Me – Click this link to include yourself as the next recipient in the participation order
- Add Recipient Group – Click this link to create a group of recipients where one needs to participate on behalf of the entire group. For example, create a group for the HR team, where only one person from HR actually needs to sign the agreement.
- Add Electronic Seal - This is an optional configuration, made available if your administrator has configured your user to add electronic seals into your agreement process.
To change the order of the recipients, you can click and drag the recipients to the correct stack order, or you can directly edit the numbers and the stack will adjust accordingly.
Each recipient is created with five elements:
A. Participation Order – When Complete in Order is selected, the participation order provides a clear indication of when each recipient will interact with the agreement.
B. Role – How is the recipient best characterized?
C. Email address – This is the recipient’s identifying email address and is used for all email communication with the recipient, including the request to sign.
D. Authentication Methods – How should the recipient be vetted? Do you want to use authentication?
E. Delivery method - How do you want your recipient to receive links to the agreements (Please Sign, Reminder, and Completed Agreement links). The options are Email and SMS to the recipient's phone number.
F. Require Notarization (optional) - Do you require your signatures to be notarized? This option is only available if your administrator configures the integration.
G. Private Message (optional) – The sender can supply individual instructions to each recipient which appear when the recipient is viewing the agreement.
The Show CC link under the recipient list exposes a field where you can carbon copy (CC) any email address that you want to view the agreement, without them having signing/approval authority.
A “Hybrid” workflow is an instance of the sequential participation order where one or more of the steps includes two or more recipients gaining access to the document at the same time. All of the signers/approvers of the “parallel” step will need to complete their part before the sequential process moves to the next step.
Recipient Groups are useful when you need sign-off from a team or an organization, but not from a specific individual in that group. Any member in the group is authorized to sign or approve on behalf of the entire group.
The Message section contains two fields that can dramatically improve your success.
The Agreement Name field allows you to enter any string that will identify the agreement. This string will populate in the Subject line of the recipients’ email (highlighted in yellow below), and also as the name value on the Manage page. Providing a unique and meaningful agreement name will help your recipients identify your email more readily, and can improve your ability to search for the agreement if needed.
If no agreement name is entered before a document is attached, the agreement name will adopt the file name of the first file attached. This value can be edited until the agreement is sent.
The Agreement Message is a plain text field where you can enter any instructions or comments that are warranted (highlighted in green below). This message appears on the Please Sign email sent to all recipients (unlike the Private Message which only appears for the recipient it is configured for).
Message Templates
Enterprise level customers will have access to Message Templates which are configured by your Administrator. Message templates are directly tied to the Recipient’s Language feature in the Options sections, so when you select “Spanish” from the language drop-down, all of your Spanish templates will become available.
If you have a language selected that has no templates tied to it, the Message Template option will not be visible on your Send page.
The Options section allows you to better control the agreement after it has been sent:
- Password Protect - Require recipients to enter a password to open and view the signed PDF file. This password is defined by the sender and would be communicated out of band. Acrobat Sign does not record this password, so don’t forget it!
- Completion Deadline - Set the number of days after which the agreement expires and can no longer be completed.
- Set Reminder - Set the frequency (daily or weekly) of reminders to be sent until the agreement is completed. Only the current recipients will be notified.
- Recipients' Language - Select the language to be used in emails sent to recipients and during the signing experience.
- This setting also defines the visible Message Templates if your account is configured to use them.
The File section is where you attach the documents to the transaction.
Acrobat Sign will combine all documents into one inclusive PDF agreement for the signature process, and will build that PDF based on the order that the documents are listed. Documents can be rearranged by clicking and dragging one document to a new list location.
Files can be attached from the Acrobat Sign library, Google docs, Box.net, Dropbox, OneDrive, uploaded from your local system using file search, or you can drag and drop a file into the Files box.
File types allowed are: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, JPG, GIF, TIF, PNG, BMP, TXT, RTF, HTML
Preview & Add Signature Fields
Just under the Files list you will see the Preview & Add Signature Fields check box. This option allows you to open the documents that you upload and place form fields as needed on them.
You should place at least the signature fields, but there are many other fields you can use to build complex forms if you like.
If no signature fields are placed, Acrobat Sign will automatically add a new page to accommodate the signatures at the end of the document.
Sending a document to just one recipient is one of the most common agreement workflows and a great way to learn the basic process. All you need is:
- The recipient’s email address
- This email must be different than the email you log in with (you cannot send to yourself)
- A document or file that you want signed
Sending to Multiple Recipients
Sending an agreement to multiple recipients follows the exact same steps with two notable differences:
- You have to include each recipient in their own line of the Recipients section, in the order you want them to sign.
- When placing fields, you have to declare which recipient should have access to that field by double-clicking the field and setting the Recipient value.