User Guide

Configure retention rules in Adobe Acrobat Sign

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Adobe Acrobat Sign Guide

What's New

  1. Pre-Release Notes
  2. Release Notes
  3. Important Notifications

Get Started

  1. Quick start guide for administrators
  2. Quick start guide for users
  3. For Developers
  4. Video tutorial library
  5. FAQ

Administer

  1. Admin Console Overview
  2. User Management
    1. Add, edit, and review active users
      1. Review your active users from the Users tab
      2. Add a User
      3. Add Users in Bulk
      4. Add Users from your Directory
      5. Add Users from MS Azure Active Directory
      6. Migrate users between Admin Console organizations
    2. Admin Console SSO
    3. Create function-focused users
      1. Technical accounts - API driven
      2. Service accounts - Manually driven
    4. Review users who haven't completed verification
    5. Check for users with provisioning errors
    6. Change Name/Email Address
    7. Edit a user's group membership
    8. Edit a user's group membership through the group interface
    9. Promote a user to an admin role
    10. User Identity Types and SSO
    11. Switch User Identity
    12. Authenticate Users with MS Azure
    13. Authenticate Users with Google Federation
    14. Product Profiles
    15. Login Experience 
  3. Group management
    1. Groups overview
    2. Create a group
    3. Edit group settings
    4. Edit group name
    5. Add users to a group
    6. Delete a group
  4. Account/Group Settings
    1. Settings Overview
    2. Global Settings
      1. Account tier and ID
      2. New Recipient Experience
      3. Self Signing Workflows
      4. Send in Bulk
      5. Web Forms
      6. Custom Send Workflows
      7. Power Automate Workflows
      8. Library Documents
      9. Collect form data with agreements
      10. Limited Document Visibility
      11. Attach a PDF copy of the signed agreement 
      12. Include a link in the email
      13. Include an image in the email
      14. Files attached to email will be named as
      15. Attach audit reports to documents
      16. Merge multiple documents into one
      17. Download individual documents
      18. Upload a signed document
      19. Delegation for users in my account
      20. Allow external recipients to delegate
      21. Authority to sign
      22. Authority to send
      23. Power to add Electronic Seals
      24. Set a default time zone
      25. Set a default date format
      26. Users in Multiple Groups (UMG)
        1. Upgrade to use UMG
      27. Group Administrator Permissions
      28. Replace recipient
      29. Audit Report
        1. Overview
        2. Allow unauthenticated access on the transaction verification page
        3. Include reminders
        4. Include view events
        5. Include agreement page/attachment count
      30. Transaction Footer
      31. In Product Messaging and Guidance
      32. Accessible PDFs
      33. PDF/A workflows
      34. Healthcare customer
      35. New request signature experience
      36. New custom workflow experience
      37. New create template experience
    3. Account Setup / Branding Settings
      1. Overview
      2. Add logo
      3. Customize company Hostname/URL    
      4. Add company name
      5. Post agreement URL redirect
    4. Signature Preferences
      1. Well formatted signatures
      2. Allow recipients to sign by
      3. Signers can change their name
      4. Allow recipients to use their saved signature
      5. Custom Terms of Use and Consumer Disclosure
      6. Navigate recipients through form fields
      7. Restart agreement workflow
      8. Decline to sign
      9. Allow Stamps workflows
      10. Require signers to provide their Title or Company
      11. Allow signers to print and place a written signature
      12. Show messages when e-signing
      13. Require signers to use a mobile device to create their signature
      14. Request IP address from signers
      15. Exclude company name and title from participation stamps
      16. Apply Adaptive Signature Draw scaling
    5. Digital Signatures
      1. Overview
      2. Download and sign with Acrobat 
      3. Sign with Cloud Signatures
      4. Bulk digital signatures config
      5. Require digital signatures per recipient
      6. Include metadata for Identity Providers
      7. Restricted Cloud Signatures Providers
    6. Electronic Seals
    7. Digital Identity
      1. Digital Identity Gateway
      2. Identity Check policy
    8. Report Settings
      1. Enable classic Reporting
      2. New report experience
      3. Classic report settings
    9. Security Settings
      1. Single Sign-on settings
      2. Remember-me settings
      3. Login password policy
      4. Login password strength
      5. Web session duration
      6. PDF encryption type
      7. API
      8. User and group info access
      9. Allowed IP Ranges
      10. Account Sharing
      11. Account sharing permissions
      12. Agreement sharing controls
      13. Signer identity verification
      14. Agreement signing password
      15. Document password strength
      16. Block signers by Geolocation
      17. Phone Authentication
      18. Knowledge-Based Authentication (KBA)
      19. Allow page extraction
      20. Document link expiration
      21. Upload a client certificate for webhooks/callbacks
      22. Timestamp
    10. Send Settings
      1. Show Send page after login
      2. Agreement creation experiences
      3. Require recipient name when sending
      4. Lock name values for known users
      5. Allowed recipient roles
      6. Allow e-Witnesses
      7. In-person signing config
      8. Allow in-person signing
      9. Recipient groups
      10. CCs
      11. Required fields
      12. Attaching documents
      13. Field flattening
      14. Modify Agreements
      15. Remove recipients from in-flight agreements
      16. Agreement name
      17. Languages
      18. Private messages
      19. Allowed signature types
      20. Reminders
      21. Signed document password protection
      22. Send Agreement Notification through
      23. Signer identification options
        1. Overview
        2. Signing password
        3. Knowledge-based authentication
        4. Phone authentication
        5. WhatsApp authentication
        6. One-Time Password via Email
        7. Acrobat Sign authentication
        8. Cloud-based digital signature
        9. Digital Identity authentication
        10. Government ID
        11. Signer Identity reports
      24. Populate form fields with identity-verified data
      25. Content Protection
      26. Enable Notarize transactions
      27. Document Expiration
      28. Preview, position signatures, and add fields
      29. Signing order
      30. Add myself
      31. Send only to internal recipients
      32. Download agreement link
      33. Form field borders
      34. Liquid mode
      35. Custom workflow controls
      36. Upload options for the e-sign page
      37. Post-sign confirmation URL redirect
      38. Restrict access to shared agreements
    11. Message Templates
      1. Overview of Message Templates
      2. Creating new Message Templates
      3. Editing Message Templates
      4. Deleting Message Templates
    12. Bio-Pharma Settings
      1. Overview
      2. Enforce identity authentication
      3. Signing reasons
    13. Workflow Integration
    14. Notarization Settings
    15. Payments Integration
    16. Signer Messaging
    17. SAML Settings
      1. SAML Configuration
      2. Install Microsoft Active Directory Federation Service
      3. Install Okta
      4. Install OneLogin
      5. Install Oracle Identity Federation
    18. Data Governance
      1. Data Governance overview
      2. Configure retention rules
      3. Manage retention rules    
    19. Time Stamp Settings
    20. External Archive
    21. Account Languages
    22. Email Settings
      1. Email header/footer images
      2. Permit individual user email footers
      3. Customize the Signature Requested email
      4. Customize the To and CC fields
      5. Enable Linkless Notifications
      6. Customize email templates
    23. Migrating from echosign.com to adobesign.com
    24. Configure Options for Recipients
  5. Guidance for regulatory requirements
    1. Accessibility
      1. Accessibility Compliance
      2. Create accessible forms with Acrobat desktop
      3. Create accessible AcroForms
    2. HIPAA
    3. GDPR
      1. GDPR Overview
      2. Delete a user
      3. Delete a user's agreements    
    4. 21 CFR part 11 and EudraLex Annex 11
      1. 21 CRF part 11 validation pack
      2. 21 CFR and EudraLex Annex 11 handbook
      3. Analysis of shared responsibilities
    5. Healthcare customers
    6. IVES support
    7. "Vaulting" agreements
    8. EU/UK considerations
      1. EU/UK Cross-border transactions and eIDAS
      2. HMLR requirements for deeds signed electronically
      3. The impact of Brexit on e-signature laws in the UK
  6. Download Agreements in Bulk
  7. Claim your domain 
  8. Report Abuse links
  9. System Requirements and Limitations
    1. System requirements
    2. Transaction limits

User profile and configurable features

  1. Address Book
    1. Overview
    2. Delete address book emails
    3. Reusable recipient groups

Send, Sign, and Manage Agreements

  1. Recipient Options
    1. Cancel an email reminder
    2. Options on the e-signing page
      1. Overview of the e-sign page
      2. Open to read the agreement without fields
      3. Decline to sign an agreement
      4. Delegate signing authority
      5. Restart the agreement
      6. Download a PDF of the agreement
      7. View the agreement history
      8. View the agreement messages
      9. Convert from an electronic to a written signature
      10. Convert from a written to an electronic signature 
      11. Navigate the form fields
      12. Clear the data from the form fields
      13. E-sign page magnification and navigation
      14. Change the language used in the agreement tools and information
      15. Review the Legal Notices
      16. Adjust Acrobat Sign Cookie Preferences
  2. Send Agreements  
    1. Send (Compose) page
      1. Overview of landmarks and features
      2. Group selector
      3. Adding files and templates
      4. Agreement name
      5. Global Message
      6. Completion Deadline
      7. Reminders
      8. Password protect the PDF
      9. Signature type
      10. Locale for the recipient
      11. Recipient signature order/flow
      12. Recipient roles
      13. Recipient authentication
      14. Private message for the recipient
      15. Recipient agreement access
      16. CC'd parties
      17. Identity check
    2. Send an agreement only to yourself
    3. Send an agreement to others
    4. Written Signatures
    5. Compose in-person agreement
    6. Recipient signing order
    7. Send in Bulk
      1. Overview of the Send in Bulk feature
      2. Send in Bulk - Configure a parent template
      3. Send in Bulk - Configure the CSV file
      4. Cancel a Send in Bulk transaction
      5. Add reminders to Send in Bulk
      6. Reporting for Send in Bulk
  3. Authoring fields into documents
    1. In-app authoring environment
      1. Automatic field detection
      2. Drag and drop fields using the authoring environment
      3. Assign form fields to recipients
      4. The Prefill role
      5. Apply fields with a reusable field template
      6. Transfer fields to a new library template
      7. Updated authoring environment when sending agreements
    2. Create forms with text tags
      1. Text Tags - Overview
      2. Text tags - Basics and syntax
      3. Text tags - Supported field types
      4. Text tags - Examples
      5. Text tags - Advanced behaviors
      6. Text tags - Calculated fields
      7. Text tags - Troubleshooting
    3. Create forms using Acrobat (AcroForms)
      1. AcroForm creation
      2. Creating accessible PDFs
    4. Fields
      1. Field types
        1. Common field types
        2. E-signature fields
        3. Initials field
        4. Recipient name field
        5. Recipient email field
        6. Date of signing field
        7. Text field
        8. Date field
        9. Number field
        10. Checkbox
        11. Checkbox group
        12. Radio button
        13. Drop-down menu
        14. Link overlay
        15. Payment field
        16. Attachments
        17. Participation stamp
        18. Transaction number
        19. Image
        20. Company
        21. Title
        22. Stamp
      2. Field content appearance
      3. Field validations
      4. Masked fields values
      5. Setting show/hide conditions
      6. Calculated fields 
      7. Verified forms
    5. Authoring FAQ
  4. Sign Agreements
    1. Sign agreements sent to you
    2. Fill & Sign
    3. Self-signing
    4. Host in-person signing
  5. Manage Agreements
    1. Manage page overview
    2. Copy an Agreement
    3. Delegate agreements
    4. Replace Recipients
    5. Limit Document Visibility 
    6. Cancel an Agreement 
    7. Create new reminders
    8. Review reminders
    9. Cancel a reminder
    10. Access Power Automate flows
    11. More Actions...
      1. How search works
      2. View an agreement
      3. Create a template from an agreement
      4. Hide/Unhide agreements from view
      5. Upload a signed agreement
      6. Modify a sent agreement's files and fields
      7. Edit a recipient's authentication method
      8. Add or modify an expiration date
      9. Add a Note to the agreement
      10. Share an individual agreement
      11. Unshare an agreement
      12. Download an individual agreement
      13. Download the individual files of an agreement
      14. Download the Audit Report of an agreement
      15. Download the field content of an agreement
    12. Bulk actions
      1. Hide multiple agreements
      2. Digitally sign multiple agreements
  6. Audit Report
  7. Reporting and Data exports
    1. Overview
    2. Grant users access to reporting
    3. Report charts
      1. Create a new report
      2. Agreement Reports
      3. Transaction Reports
      4. Settings Activity Report
      5. Edit a report
    4. Data Exports 
      1. Create a new data export
      2. Web form data export
      3. Edit a data export
      4. Refresh the data export content
      5. Download the data export
    5. Rename a report/export
    6. Duplicate a report/export
    7. Schedule a report/export
    8. Delete a report/export
    9. Check Transaction Usage

Advanced Agreement Capabilities and Workflows

  1. Webforms 
    1. Create a web form
    2. Edit a web form
    3. Disable/Enable a web form
    4. Hide/Unhide a web form
    5. Find the URL or script code 
    6. Prefill web form fields with URL parameters
    7. Save a web form to complete later
    8. Resize a web form
  2. Reusable Templates (Library templates) 
    1. US Government forms in the Acrobat Sign library
    2. Create a library template
    3. Change a library template's name
    4. Change a library template's type
    5. Change a library template's permission level
    6. Copy, edit, and save a shared template
    7. Download the aggregate field data for a library template
  3. Manage Shared Templates
  4. Transfer ownership of web forms and library templates
  5. Power Automate Workflows 
    1. Overview of the Power Automate integration and included entitlements
    2. Enable the Power Automate integration
    3. In-Context Actions on the Manage page
    4. Track Power Automate usage
    5. Create a new flow (Examples)
    6. Triggers used for flows
    7. Importing flows from outside Acrobat Sign
    8. Manage flows
    9. Edit flows
    10. Share flows
    11. Disable or Enable flows
    12. Delete flows
    13. Useful Templates
      1. Administrator only
        1. Save all completed documents to SharePoint
        2. Save all completed documents to OneDrive for Business
        3. Save all completed documents to Google Drive
        4. Save all completed documents to DropBox
        5. Save all completed documents to Box
      2. Agreement archival
        1. Save your completed documents to SharePoint
        2. Save your completed documents to One Drive for Business
        3. Save your completed documents to Google Drive
        4. Save your completed documents to DropBox
        5. Save your completed documents to Box
      3. Webform agreement archival
        1. Save completed web form documents to SharePoint Library
        2. Save completed web form documents to OneDrive for Business
        3. Save completed   documents to Google Drive
        4. Save completed web form documents to Box
      4. Agreement data extraction
        1. Extract form field data from your signed document and update Excel sheet
      5. Agreement notifications
        1. Send custom email notifications with your agreement contents and signed agreement
        2. Get your Adobe Acrobat Sign notifications in a Teams Channel
        3. Get your Adobe Acrobat Sign notifications in Slack
        4. Get your Adobe Acrobat Sign notifications in Webex
      6. Agreement generation
        1. Generate document from Power App form and Word template, send for signature
        2. Generate agreement from Word template in OneDrive, and get signature
        3. Generate agreement for selected Excel row, send for review and signature
  6. Custom Send workflows
    1. Custom Send Workflow Overview
    2. Creating a new Send Workflow
    3. Edit a Send Workflow
    4. Activate or Deactivate a Send Workflow
    5. Send an agreement with a Send Workflow
  7. Share users and agreements
    1. Share a user
    2. Share agreements

Integrate with other products

  1.  Acrobat Sign integrations overview 
  2. Acrobat Sign for Salesforce
  3. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft
    1. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft 365
    2. Acrobat Sign for Outlook
    3. Acrobat Sign for Word/PowerPoint
    4. Acrobat Sign for Teams
    5. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft PowerApps and Power Automate
    6. Acrobat Sign Connector for Microsoft Search
    7. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft Dynamics 
    8. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft SharePoint 
  4. Other Integrations
    1. Acrobat Sign for ServiceNow
    2. Acrobat Sign for HR ServiceNow
    3. Acrobat Sign for SAP SuccessFactors
    4. Acrobat Sign for Workday
    5. Acrobat Sign for NetSuite
    6. Acrobat Sign for VeevaVault
    7. Acrobat Sign for Coupa BSM Suite
  5. Partner managed integrations
  6. Integration keys
    1. Integration key overview
    2. Obtain access
    3. Create a key
    4. Retrieve a key
    5. Revoke a key

Acrobat Sign Developer

  1. REST APIs 
    1. Methods documentation
    2. SDK/Developer Guide
    3. API FAQ    
  2. Webhooks 
    1. Webhook overview
    2. Configure a new webhook
    3. View or edit a webhook
    4. Deactivate or reactivate a webhook
    5. Delete a webhook
    6. Two-way SSL certificates
    7. Webhooks in the API
  3. Sandbox
    1. Sandbox overview
    2. Link your Production and Sandbox
    3. Sandbox asset types

Support and Troubleshooting

  1. Customer Support Resources 
  2. Enterprise Customer Success Resources 

Define how long agreements and related data are retained before they are automatically deleted.

Retention rules allow administrators to control how long agreements and associated data are stored in Adobe Acrobat Sign after they reach a terminal state. This helps organizations automate data cleanup and align document lifecycle with internal compliance policies.

Before you begin

  • You must be an account-level or group-level administrator to configure retention rules.

Configuration

Availability

  • Acrobat Standard and Acrobat Pro: Not supported.
  • Acrobat Sign Solutions: Supported.
  • Acrobat Sign for Government: Supported.

Configuration scope

Retention rules can be configured at the account and group levels.

Group-level settings override account-level settings.

  • Default behavior - If no retention rule is configured, agreements are retained until they are manually deleted or removed through other processes.
  • Impact on in-flight agreements - Retention rules are applied when an agreement is recorded in a terminal state. Agreements that are already in progress are not affected until they reach a terminal state.

To access this setting

Account-level:

  • Navigate to Account Settings > Data Governance.

Group-level:

  1. Navigate to Admin > Groups.
  2. Select a group.
  3. Select Group Settings > Data Governance.
The Admin menu showing the Data Governance tab

Create a retention rule

  1. Navigate to Data Governance in the Admin menu.

  2. Select the plus (+) icon.

  3. Enter the number of days to retain the agreement after it reaches a terminal state.

    • Minimum: 1 day.
    • Maximum: 5475 days (15 years).

  4. (Optional) Configure retention for audit reports and personal data.

    • Audit and personal data must be retained for at least as long as the agreement.
    Note

    If audit or personal data retention isn't configured, this data is retained until removed through other processes, such as GDPR deletion.

  5. Select Save.

    The Admin menu showing the Data Governance tab with the configuration panel open

When a new rule is created, it becomes the active rule. Previously active rules remain in the list with an end date and continue to govern agreements that were already assigned to them.

Alert

Agreements are permanently deleted when the retention period expires and cannot be recovered.

Configure group-level overrides

Group-level rules override account-level rules for users in the group. If no group-level rule is defined, the account-level rule is applied.

  • Create a rule using the same steps as the account-level configuration.
  • (Optional) Enable Retain all agreements for this group to prevent automatic deletion.
    • Use this option to escape the account-level setting when the group's agreements must be retained.

If a user moves between groups, the retention rule applied is based on the group the user belongs to when the agreement is recorded in a terminal state.

 

The Admin menu showing the Data Governance tab at the group level

How the setting works

When an agreement enters a terminal state:

  • The active retention rule is applied and associated with the agreement.
    • The applied retention rule is associated with the agreement to ensure the correct rule is enforced at the time of deletion.
  • The system calculates the deletion date based on the defined retention period.
  • The agreement is deleted when the retention period expires, provided the rule remains enabled.

Terminal-state processing may be delayed by up to 12 hours during peak times, which can delay when the retention period begins.

To understand how timing affects retention, see the data governance overview page.

Best practices

  • Define retention rules before sending agreements to ensure consistent policy application.
  • Use group-level rules to support different retention requirements across teams.
  • Review rules periodically to confirm they align with current compliance requirements. 

Things to know

  • Retention rules are applied when an agreement is recorded in a terminal state.
  • Only one retention rule is active at a time for newly terminal agreements. When a new rule is created, it becomes the active rule and applies to all agreements that are recorded in a terminal state going forward. Previously active rules continue to apply to agreements that were already assigned to them and do not need to be disabled.
  • The applied rule is based on the group the sending user belongs to at the time the agreement reaches its terminal state.
  • Terminal-state processing may be delayed by up to 12 hours during peak times, delaying the start of retention policies.
  • If no rule is defined, agreements are retained indefinitely.
  • Disabling a rule prevents deletion for all agreements that have adopted that rule and have not yet been deleted.

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