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Cloud-based digital signatures

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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. Adding users
      1. Add a User
      2. Add Users in Bulk
      3. Add Users from your Directory
      4. Add Users from MS Azure Active Directory
    2. Create function-focused users
      1. Technical accounts - API driven
      2. Service accounts - Manually driven
    3. Check for users with provisioning errors
    4. Change Name/Email Address
    5. Edit a user's group membership
    6. Edit a user's group membership through the group interface
    7. Promote a user to an admin role
    8. User Identity Types and SSO
    9. Switch User Identity
    10. Authenticate Users with MS Azure
    11. Authenticate Users with Google Federation
    12. Product Profiles
    13. Login Experience 
  3. 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. In Product Messaging and Guidance
      31. Accessible PDFs
      32. New authoring experience
      33. Healthcare customer
    3. Account Setup
      1. Add logo
      2. Customize company Hostname/URL    
      3. Add company name
      4. 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. Decline to sign
      8. Allow Stamps workflows
      9. Require signers to provide their Title or Company
      10. Allow signers to print and place a written signature
      11. Show messages when e-signing
      12. Require signers to use a mobile device to create their signature
      13. Request IP address from signers
      14. Exclude company name and title from participation stamps
    5. Digital Signatures
      1. Overview
      2. Download and sign with Acrobat
      3. Sign with Cloud Signatures
      4. Include metadata for Identity Providers
      5. Restricted Cloud Signatures Providers
    6. Electronic Seals
    7. Digital Identity
      1. Digital Identity Gateway
      2. Identity Check policy
    8. Report Settings
      1. New report experience
      2. 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. Require recipient name when sending
      3. Lock name values for known users
      4. Allowed recipient roles
      5. Allow e-Witnesses
      6. Recipient groups
      7. Required fields
      8. Attaching documents
      9. Field flattening
      10. Modify Agreements
      11. Agreement name
      12. Languages
      13. Private messages
      14. Allowed signature types
      15. Reminders
      16. Signed document password protection
      17. Send Agreement Notification through
      18. Signer identification options
        1. Overview
        2. Signing password
        3. One-Time Password via Email
        4. Acrobat Sign authentication
        5. Phone authentication
        6. Cloud-based digital signature
        7. Knowledge-based authentication
        8. Government ID
        9. Signer Identity reports
      19. Content Protection
      20. Enable Notarize transactions
      21. Document Expiration
      22. Preview, position signatures, and add fields
      23. Signing order
      24. Liquid mode
      25. Custom workflow controls
      26. Upload options for the e-sign page
      27. Post-sign confirmation URL redirect
    11. 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
    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
  4. 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. Redact a user
      3. Redact 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
  5. Download Agreements in Bulk
  6. Claim your domain 
  7. Report Abuse links

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 page overview
    2. Send an agreement only to yourself
    3. Send an agreement to others
    4. Written Signatures
    5. Recipient signing order
    6. 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
    3. Create forms using Acrobat (AcroForms)
      1. AcroForm creation
      2. Creating accessible PDFs
    4. Fields
      1. Field types
        1. Common field types
        2. In-line Images
        3. Stamp Images
      2. Field content appearance
      3. Field validations
      4. Masked fields values
      5. Setting show/hide conditions
      6. Calculated fields 
    5. Authoring FAQ
  4. Sign Agreements
    1. Sign agreements sent to you
    2. Fill & Sign
    3. Self-signing
  5. Manage Agreements
    1. Manage page overview
    2. Delegate agreements
    3. Replace Recipients
    4. Limit Document Visibility 
    5. Cancel an Agreement 
    6. Create new reminders
    7. Review reminders
    8. Cancel a reminder
    9. Access Power Automate flows
    10. 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
  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. Edit a data export
      3. Refresh the data export content
      4. 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. Transfer ownership of web forms and library templates
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. 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. How to obtain an integration 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

Support and Troubleshooting

  1. Customer Support Resources 
  2. Enterprise Customer Success Resources 

Enable Digital Signatures to apply a digital signature to an agreement. Cloud-based digital signatures can also be used as a method of recipient authentication.

Overview

Cloud-based digital signatures backed by reputable identity providers (IdP) deliver a robust identity verification of the recipient. Identity providers strongly vet a user before issuing a digital signature certificate, and users must authenticate to the IdP before the certificate can be applied as a signature.

Acrobat Sign supports a wide range of signature providers in multiple countries. Administrators can configure their account and groups to accept digital signatures from one or more providers.

Acrobat Sign acts only as a platform for the digital signature to be requested and provided, with no additional costs added. One exception to that standard is Aadhaar, which can provide digital signatures at an additional cost. Acrobat Sign accounts with a VIP license can purchase Aadhaar identity transactions through Adobe and track their consumption in the admin menu.

Availability:

Digital Signatures are available to all tiers of service.

Configuration scope:

The feature can be enabled at the account and group levels.

Tip:

Cloud-based digital signatures can be used in addition to standard authentication methods. The signature field is authored onto the document, not configured by the sender as an authentication method.

The signature process for the recipient

The agreement must be designed with a Digital Signature field to obtain a digital signature.

When the signer selects the Digital Signature field, a secure session is opened to the IdP to authenticate the user before the signature can be applied.

  • If the agreement is sent from a group that has only defined one approved IdP, the session automatically opens to that IdP.
  • If the agreement is sent from a group with multiple IdPs enabled, the signer is presented with a list of those IdPs. Once one is selected, the session opens.

Every IdP has its own unique interface and process for vetting the signer. If the signer does not have a digital signature certificate, creating one will be possible.

Below are four short example videos that describe different vendor solutions:

Configure an agreement to use cloud-based digital signatures by adding a Digital Signature field

The option to enable cloud-based digital signatures is entirely in the hands of the administrator, who must configure the group to allow the option.

Once enabled, senders only need to ensure that a Digital Signature field is authored onto the document to capture the signature. A standard Signature field only collects an electronic signature. No authentication to the digital signature provider is attempted with an electronic signature field.

10 Digital Signature fields are allowed per recipient. If a recipient requires more than 10 signatures, standard electronic signature fields can be used in addition to the digital signature fields.

Author a digital signature field onto the document.

Consumption of premium authentication transactions

Consumption of digital identity transactions occurs when the signer successfully authenticates and applies their signature.

In most cases, the customer's relationship with their IdPs is external to the Acrobat Sign system, so there is no tracking of the consumption rate nor the number of signatures available to the customer within the Acrobat Sign interface.  Customers must contact the IdP directly for this type of information.

VIP customers that have purchased Aadhaar transactions through Adobe can review their total available transactions on the Digital Signatures tab of the admin menu by selecting the Track Usage link:

Aadhaar track usage link

Agreements that are canceled after a signature is applied don't refund the transaction back to the account.

Because transactions are consumed when the signature is applied, it's possible to send more requests for signature than the account has available. If a signer attempts to apply a signature when there are no transactions available to the account, an error is generated, indicating the service isn't available:

Service error

History and Audit Report

Digital signatures are explicitly identified in the agreement history and the audit report. The audit report captures additional information about the specific IdP involved:

Audit report

Best Practices and Considerations

Unless you have a compliance requirement to always capture digital signatures, it's likely a good idea to configure your documents such that internal signers don't apply digital signatures. This will save your internal signers time in the signature process and the company resources in terms of the premium identity transactions from your IdP.  

Configuration

Digital Signatures allow for the independent configuration of groups to leverage if digital signatures are required and from what vendors they should be accepted.

Separate controls exist for external signers if it's determined that they should have different signature requirements.

To enable, navigate to Account Settings > Digital Signatures

Digital Signature tab

Enable signers to import their digital signature from one or more sources:

  • Download and Sign With Acrobat - Allows the signer to use a self-certified signature.
  • Cloud Signatures - Enables the option to use cloud-based digital signatures for your signers, making digital signing possible on mobile devices.
    • If digital signatures are essential to your signing process, enabling the cloud-based option is strongly recommended.

Select the digital signature providers you'll accept.  Only options selected will be available to signers.

You can define a preferred vendor, which sets that vendor as the default.

  • If only one vendor is allowed, the selection process is bypassed during the signature process.
Note:

Aadhaar signatures

Aadhaar signatures are available to enterprise accounts at an additional per-signature cost, which must be configured before use.

Customers needing Aadhaar signatures can contact their Success Manager or Sales contact to discuss volume and start the configuration process.

External signers are defined as any email address, not within your Acrobat Sign account.

  • Internal signers are all of the users defined within your Acrobat Sign account.

If you want to create a different signature experience for external signers vs. internal, you can enable a second set of options that apply only to external signers.

For example, you may want to be more permissive in the signature vendors for external signers or provide different instructions for internal signers on how to obtain a signature.

Cloud signatures from Aadhaar through Acrobat Sign

Customers who manage their users on the Adobe Admin Console and are under a VIP license can purchase cloud signature identity transactions through Adobe. These transactions are used exclusively by the Acrobat Sign product, so consumption tracking is available to admins at any time in the admin menu.

Customers interested in acquiring Aadhaar transactions should contact their sales representative, success manager, or technical account manager to start the process.

Once transactions are purchased, the account is configured to expose the Aadhaar option on the Digital Signatures tab of the admin menu. Admins can enable the Aadhaar option at the account and group levels.

Notification emails are delivered to the administrators on the Admin Console when consumption reaches 75%, 85%, 90%, 95%, and 100% of the total purchase quantity.

Digital signature controls when Aadhaar is enabled

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