Set up a company account

To add or edit your existing header/footers:

Navigate to: Account Settings > Email Settings

Plain Text Global Footer

At the top of the page is the plain text footer. This footer can be configured at the account or group level.

This text is displayed below the page footer image and message content of the Agreement

User Level Footers (Signature Files)

By checking the Allow users to have their own email footers box, you allow each user to optionally include their own personalized footer, much like a signature file in email.

This user footer is in addition to the global footer, and any image footer that may be applied.

Users can set their individual footers by:

• Mouse over the user name in the upper-right corner of the screen to open the menu, and select My Profile
  • The page will refresh and display the User menu with Personal Preferences already expanded
• Select My Email Footer to open the page

The user footer is inserted between the footer image and the global text footer:

If your company has a federated login solution, Acrobat Sign does provide SAML 2 options for user authentication.

• If your account is using the Adobe console to manage user entitlement, instructions on configuring SAML can be found here.
• If your user management is entirely inside the Acrobat Sign interface, please refer to the SAML Guide here.

Configuring SAML requires that you claim your domain names.

Acrobat Sign SAML settings can be found by navigating to: Account > Account Settings > SAML Settings

Authentication to the Acrobat Sign app has multiple settings available so you can configure the security criteria to match your company policy regarding access.

User access security settings can be configured by navigating to: Account > Account Settings > Security Settings

Single Sign-on Settings

You can either allow or deny users in your account the ability to log in to Acrobat Sign by authenticating through other services. It is recommended that you disable either (or both) of these settings if they are not used to keep the log in process to a single simple option for users.

Remember-me Settings

Enable this setting to enable the Remember Me setting when authentication to Acrobat Sign. This setting remembers the authentication to the service (on the local system) for the time frame selected.

Login Password Policy

The options under Login Password Policy set whether users should be required to change their password after a number of months, whether a previous password can be used as their new password, and how many log in attempts can be made before their userID is locked.

Login Password Strength

This setting allows you to adjust the strength or difficulty of the login password set by users in your account.

Allowed IP Ranges

This option allows authentication to the Acrobat Sign application only when the request is coming from the specified IP addresses.

Signer Identity Verification

If your users are signing documents, this option requires them to log in to Acrobat Sign before they can apply their signature. This ensures the individual signing is either the user or someone with the user’s credentials.

This section pertains to the security controls that are in effect while an Agreement is going through the signature process.  These settings can be found by navigating to: Account > Account Settings > Security Settings

PDF Encryption Type

This setting defines the type of encryption applied to the document once it has been sent through Acrobat Sign. This encryption ensures the document can be opened but cannot be edited. Each version of the encryption is compatible with different versions of Acrobat. The recommended option is 128-bit AES to ensure the document can be opened on most systems.

Agreement Signing Password

This setting applies to the Password Authentication option for recipients to access the document during the signature cycle. (Configured on the Send page when initially sending the agreement)

The setting limits how many attempts the recipient has to enter the correct password. Once this limit is exceeded, the Agreement is irrevocably canceled.

Document Password Strength

This setting applies to Agreement Signing passwords, Agreement PDF Encryption, and Identity Report Encryption.

The feature allows you to adjust the strength or difficulty of the password your users need to enter.

Knowledge Based Authentication Difficulty

This option controls the Knowledge Based Authentication (KBA) option for recipients on the Send page.

This limit dictates how many attempts the signer has to pass the KBA in order to access the document. Once the limit is exceeded the agreement is canceled. The difficulty of the KBA is also set here.

• Default - Signers will be presented with 3 questions and will be required to answer them all correctly. If they only answer 2 correctly, they will be presented with 2 more questions and will be required to answer them both correctly.
• Hard - Signers will be presented with 4 questions and will be required to answer them all correctly. If they only answer 3 correctly, they will be presented with 2 more questions and will be required to answer them both correctly.

KBA requires a social security number, so is only viable for recipients in the US.

These settings govern the PDF security of Agreements that have completed the signature cycle, and are fully executed.

Signed Document Password Protection

Find this setting by navigating to: Account > Account Settings > Send Settings

This setting allows, forces or denies Senders the ability to set a password for the signed document. (This is different from the optional password to access an Agreement during the signing process)

If allowed or enforced, the Sender needs to supply the password, and communicate that password to any party that needs to review signed documents. 

You can enable or disable the option for a userID to share the content of their user account to another userID.

Find this setting by navigating to: Account > Account Settings > Security Settings

Account sharing allows one user to view (only) all of the Agreement content of another user.  This is great for managers that need to review the progress of their direct reports. 

All shares that are created are one direction, there is no assumed reverse direction share that takes place.

If Account Sharing is enabled, the recommended option is to allow a user to ask to view another user’s account.

Advanced Account Sharing (enterprise service level only)

For enterprise level customers that need to have a more “hands on” type of sharing that allows direct manipulation of agreements and library templates, Technical Support can enable Advanced Sharing.

Advanced Sharing is a one-way door.  Once it is enabled, it changes the relationships of the shared objects in a way that cannot be reversed.  For this reason, if you feel Advanced Sharing is important to your organization, it is recommended that you contact your Success Manager and have a trial account set up for you to test the functionality and verify it permits everything that you want to accomplish.

Depending on the level of service you have, you will have access to various "roles" that define what type of actions your recipients can perform in the Agreement.  More details on the various role authorities can be found in the knowledge base.

It is recommended that you only enable the roles you know you will need to better streamline the Senders experience.

Recipient Groups function as one signer, but that signer is a group of identified individuals.  All members are notified at one time, and once one of the group members applies their signature, the Agreement moves to the next signer.

Enable this option if you have a need to define a group of signers for one signing event.

Identity Authentication Methods

Various methods of signer verification can be enabled for your users, with this setting. These methods are configured on the Send page as an element of the recipient record.

It is recommended that you only enable the verification methods(s) that your internal policy demands.

• Signing password – Requires the signer to enter a predetermined password to sign the document. The password must be passed to the signer separate from the transaction. If this password is lost or forgotten, it cannot be recovered.
• Knowledge-based authentication – Requires the signer to enter their Social Security Number and random identity questions will be generated by a third-party provider.
• Phone (SMS) - Requires the sender to provide a phone number for the recipient. The recipient will then get an 8-digit code they will enter and authenticate
  • Support contact - Enter your own value to be placed in the "If you have questions, please contact xxxxx" message. e.g.: an email to support, a phone number, a URL
• Acrobat Sign authentication - Allow recipients to authenticate using their Acrobat Sign credentials. Ideal for internal signers
• Government ID authentication - Allow a government-issued document (national ID, driver's license, or passport) to be used as an authenticating document

By default, use the following method

This setting will define the default external recipient authentication method. Only options that have been enabled will be selectable in the drop-down list.

Sender settings

This option either allows or denies the Sender’s ability to change the default authentication method defined. Enable this option only if there are known situations where the Sender has need to elevate the verification process from the default.

Internal Recipient Identity Authentication

Checking this setting allows Senders to set a different method of verification when agreements include recipients that are in your Acrobat Sign account.

The general recommendation is to leave the internal signatures as email verification, providing less authentication friction to your employees that may need to counter-sign a large number of Agreements per day.  By also enabling the Signer Identity Verification feature (Security Settings), you can passively gain password verification without the signer having to explicitly authenticate multiple times.

Enabling Message Templates for your account, allows the user to choose one of the email messages, predefined by you. This can ensure the correct message and information gets to your signers.

To enable message templates, navigate to Account > Account Settings > Message Templates

Enable message templates

Check the option to Enable message templates.

A link will be inserted at the top right of the message field (on the Send page) to allow selection of the template:

Allow senders to edit message content

Either allow or deny users the ability to change the message template delivered to the Send page message field. 

Enable this if you permit customizing Message content situationally.

There is a lot of variability in how customers attach files to their agreements, and that is rooted in how the documents are created, managed and version controlled. 

Customers that have “ad hoc” files, content customized for each transaction, will likely need the ability to upload files from their local system.  However, boilerplate templates that rarely change should ideally be served from one controlled source.

• Allow senders to attach documents from their computers - Unchecking this option removes the My Computer link from the Select Files pop-up on the Send page.
• Allow senders to attach documents from their document library - Unchecking this option removes the Library Documents link from the Select Files pop-up.
• Include documents from the Acrobat Sign shared library - Unchecking this option removes the I-9, W-4 and W-9 documents provided by Acrobat Sign.
• Allow senders to attach documents from Google Drive - Unchecking this option removes the Google Drive link from the Select Files pop-up.
• Allow senders to attach documents from Dropbox - Unchecking this option removes the Dropbox link from the Select Files pop-up.
• Allow senders to attach documents from Box.com - Unchecking this option removes the Box.com link from the Select Files pop-up.
• Allow senders to attach documents from OneDrive - Unchecking this option removes the OneDrive link from the Select Files pop-up.

Reminders are emails sent to the recipients of documents when it is their turn to act. On a Daily or Weekly cycle, a reminder email is sent to the recipient, letting them know the agreement is still waiting for them.

Set a default reminder for agreements created by users in this account

• Check the option to set a default reminder
• Choose the frequency in which you would like the reminder email sent
• The note entered will show in the reminder email sent to each recipient in turn

In certain cases, you may want to expire or cancel documents that aren’t signed after a certain number of days. 

Once an agreement has expired, it cannot be restarted or retrieved and will show up under the Canceled/Declined section of the Manage page.

• Enable document expiration - Check the option to enable document expiration. This will reveal the options you can set for document expiration.
• Allow sender to set or modify expiration settings per document - This opens the expiration option on the Send page, to all users in the account. Additionally, they can then adjust the default expiration set.
• Allow modification of expiration settings after document is sent - Checking this option will allow users to adjust, extend or remove an expiration for an agreement after it has been sent.
• Limit number of days signers will have to sign documents to: - This sets the number of days until the document expires.
• Include internal signers when applying document expiration deadlines - If users in your account will be signing or counter-signing agreements, this option will make the expiration apply to them as well as external signers.
• Include expiration information in email sent to signers - This adds the expiration date of the transaction in the email sent to the signers.

To review or manipulate the users in your account, Log in as an Account admin and navigate to: Account > Users

At the top of the User page, you will see a short summation of the number of licenses your account allows, and the number of active users consuming those licenses. 

If this statement is missing, you have a site license, and can add an unlimited number of users.

The User page has three controls:

1. Create a new user – Opens a pop-up form that will permit you to create a single user, or upload a CSV to create multiple users at one time.
2. Export user list – Clicking the Export icon will generate a CSV file that lists all uses in the account, regardless to their status (Active, Created, Inactive or Pending), as well as their personal (account) values (Name, Email, Title, Company, etc.)
3. Options – The options list filters what is displayed on the page.  By default, only Active users are displayed. You have the option to show All users, or only Inactive users. Further, there are three options for how many users should be shown per page (15, 30 or 50)

To create a single user:

• Log in as an Account Admin, and navigate to Account > User
• Click the “plus” icon to create a new user. The Create pop-up will open.

• Enter the email address, first name and last name for the user you want to create. Make sure all of this information is correct, especially the email address. Once the user is created the email address cannot be changed until the email entered is verified. If there’s an error in the email, it can’t be verified.

Check the View Their Agreements option if you want to setup a share for this user to yours. This will give you visibility of all of the user’s agreements.

You will be returned to the User page.

Click the Options icon and select Show All Users

By showing All Users (vs Only Active Users) you will see the new userID with a Created status.

Once the user sets their password, the userID will convert to an Active status.

Deactivating a single userID

Sometimes the need to deactivate a user may arise. The individual could have left the company and you want to keep that user and related documents secure. As mentioned above, making a user inactive keeps anyone from logging in, sending or signing documents with that userID. 

To convert a userID to Inactive:

• Log in as an Admin and navigate to Account > Users
• Single click the userID you want to inactivate. The possible actions for the user will appear at the top of the user list

• Click the Deactivate User link. This will open the Deactivate User pop-up window

Within the Deactivate User pop-up, you have the option to force a share of all agreements to yourself. This is useful if the user being deactivated has content that you may need to recover at a future date.

To complete the deactivation process, click the Yes button.

The userID will convert to the Inactive status and the password for the userID will be voided, making the userID completely inaccessible.

Reactivating a single userID

Reactivating a userID follows the same process as deactivation:

• Log in as an Admin and navigate to Account > Users
• Click the Options icon and select Show Only Inactive Users

• Find the userID you need to reactivate and single click it to expose the links at the top of the user list

• Click the Reactivate User link

A green banner should appear indicating you have successfully reactivated the userID.

The reactivated userID converts to an Active status, but the password is expired for the user.

An email will automatically be sent to the user requesting that a new password be installed. Once the password is reset, the user will have full access to all of the historic content of the userID.

The user can also use the I forgot my password link on the log in page to reset the password.

There are four levels of authority in Acrobat Sign:

• Users - Anyone that can authenticate to the Acrobat Sign service
• Group Administrators - Has the authority to add users and run reports for the group(S) they are administrators of
• Account Administrators - Has the authority to add users and run reports for all groups and the account as a whole
• Privacy Administrator (Must first be an Account admin) - Has the authority to delete users and agreements via GDPR tools

All users created individually will be basic Users.

If you need to elevate the authority of any userID, you can do so by:

• Log in to Acrobat Sign as an Account admin
• Navigate to Account > Users
• Find the userID you want to promote and select that user to expose the action links at the top of the user list.

• Click the Edit user link.  This will open the Edit pop-up

• Within the Edit pop-up window, you have the option to enable the userID as a Group Admin, Account Admin, or both. Check the appropriate authority option for the userID
  • Account Admins have full authority within Acrobat Sign to edit settings or add users at either the Group or Account level.
  • Group-level Admins only have authority within the group they belong to.
    
• Click Save when done. 

Creating Users in bulk is a process of defining all users in a CSV file, and then uploading that file to 
Acrobat Sign.

Acrobat Sign creates all users and immediately sends them emails to set passwords and activate the userIDs.

To create users in Bulk:

• Log in as an Account Admin, and navigate to Account > User
• Click the “plus” icon to create a new user. The Create pop-up will open
• Click the Create users in bulk tab

• Click the download sample CSV file link.  A CSV file will download to your system.
• Open the sample CSV
• Delete the three rows of example data. Leave the first (header) row
• Enter the values needed for the new userIDs you want to create.
  • When creating new users, the required columns are:
    • Email Address
    • First Name
    • Last Name

• Delete any columns you are not using
• Save the CSV (make sure the saved file is still a CSV and not some other format)
• Click the Browse button, and select your CSV
• Click Import to upload the file

Once the file is imported, Acrobat Sign generates all of the userIDs, and a green banner appears informing you of the number of users created.

To create a new Group:

• Log in as an Account Admin and navigate to Account > Groups

• Click the Add a new group icon, and the Create window will pop-up requesting the name of the group.

• Enter the name of the Group
• Click Save

Once the Save button is clicked, the Group is created and will display in the Group list.

A group may be deleted from view by an account level admin.

To delete a group:

• Select the group by single-clicking it
  • This exposes the context menu at the top of the list
• Click Delete Group
  • The Default group may not  be deleted
  • All users must be removed from the group before it can be deleted.

A list of deleted groups can be viewed by clicking the Options icon and selecting Show Only Deleted Groups:

Once your new group is created, the next step would be to add users to it.  Acrobat Sign provides three methods, depending on how many users need to be moved:

• Move a single User via the User profile
• Move multiple Users using the Bulk Create/Edit Users CSV
• Move multiple Users using the Assign Users to Group tool

Moving a single User via the User profile

To assign a single User to a Group:

• Log in as an Admin and navigate to Account > Users
• Double click the specific userID you want to edit. This opens the User info panel
• Click the User Group drop-down box to expose the options.
• Select the group the User is to be assigned to
• Click Save

Moving multiple Users using Bulk User Edit

The Create Users in Bulk feature can also be used to edit existing users. 

This method tends to be better when you have multiple values you need to change in addition to just the Group setting, but if you are fully restructuring, bulk update may be the way to go.

To update your User Groups via Bulk Update:

• Log in as an Admin, and navigate to Account > Users
• Click the Export user list icon. A CSV will download to your system with the full list of users in your account

• Open the downloaded CSV, and delete any columns you are not going to use
  • In the case of simply assigning users to groups, you only need:
    • Email Address
    • First Name
    • Last Name
    • Group Name
• Delete any rows of Users that you do not need to update
• Save the CSV (Make sure that the format remains CSV)
  

• Click the “plus” icon to create a new user. The Create pop-up will open
• Click the Create users in bulk tab
• Browse to select the CSV file you just saved
• Click Import

Once the Import button is clicked, the users will be updated in the system with the new values on the CSV. A green banner will appear at the top of the page to indicate how many users were updated.

Assign Users to Group from within the Group Settings

When you need to move multiple users to a new group, but the scope of the move isn't large enough to warrant using Bulk User Edit, the best option is to use the Assign Users to Group option within the Group settings.

To access the Assign Users to Group feature:

• Log in as an Account Admin and navigate to Account > Groups
• Double-click the group you want to move users into. This opens the Group level settings
  • You can also single click the group to select it, and then click the Group Settings link

• Click the Users in Group option on the left rail
• Click the Add users to group icon

The Assign Users to this Group window will open, showing all of the Active Users that are not currently assigned to this group.

• Click the Options icon, and select Show All Users

• Double click any User you want to move to the Group. The selected users will populate in the Selected Users field at the bottom of the window.
  • To remove a user from the Selected Users field, click the X next to the email
• Once all users are selected, click the Assign button

Account level Administrators have the authority to define the scope of the Group Administrators authority via three settings:

• Group Administrators can add new users to their groups.
• Group Administrators can edit settings for their groups.
• What report data can group admins see?

These settings are ubiquitous for all group admins, and offer no deeper granularity.  If you disable the ability for Group Admins to add users, that will apply to all Group Admins within the Account.

To adjust the first two settings:

Log in as an Account Admin and navigate to Account > Account Settings > Global Settings > Group Admin Related Settings

Enabling Group Administrators can add new users to their groups will grant any Group Admin the authority to add any user to their group with all normal restrictions applied.

Normal restrictions include situations like:

• The user is in another Group/Account
• The user's email domain is not an approved domain for the account

Enabling Group Administrators can edit settings for their groups allows the Group admin to over-ride the Account level settings for their group.

To edit the What report data can group admins see? setting, navigate to Account > Account Settings > Report Settings

All groups will inherit the account level settings by default.  However, it is possible to over-ride most of the account level settings at the group level.  This is particularly valuable if you have select users in need of special recipient roles, recipient validation methods, or even unique branding.

Account admins will navigate to Account > Groups, and then double click the Group to open the group level settings, or single click the group and select Group Settings from the link options at the top of the list.

If Group level admins have been given the authority to change Group level settings, they only need to click the Group link at the top of the page to open the settings. 

All of the settings presented to group admins are the same as the account level settings and function in the same way.

1. Click the Home tab. Then click Create a reusable template.

The Create a Library Template page displays:

2. In the Template Name field, enter a name for your template. This can be changed later if necessary.

3. Click the Browse button to navigate to the file on your local system to be used to create your reusable template. If you are creating a reusable document, this file and its content will be used. If you are creating a reusable form field layer, the content of the file will not be included in the template.

4. Select the appropriate Template Option, either Create as reusable document, Create as a reusable form field layer, or both.

5. Select the appropriate permissions option for sharing the template. When building and testing a new template, it is recommended that you set the permissions to just yourself, and then expand access once you are satisfied the document is working as intended.

6. Click the Preview or Add Fields button. The Authoring experience displays. 

7. Place the required fields that are for the intended participants by dragging them from the form fields tabs and dropping them onto the document. 

8. When you're done adding fields, click the Save button.

The template will now display under the Library Templates section of your Manage page. If you have shared the template with users in your group or in your organization by granting permission, the template now also displays in the Library Templates section of their Manage pages, and they can use it to send as often as they like.

The access permissions for any template can be edited by the creator of the template. To do so:

• Log in as the template owner
• Navigating to the Manage page
• Find the template to be edited and clicking the edit link

This will open the template in the Authoring environment.

At the top of the right rail, you will see Template Properties.

Click the Template Properties header to expand the section and you will see the available options:

• Template Name – You can readily change the template name at any time.
• Template Type – At any time you can convert the available template to make it available as a document, form field overlay, or both
• Who can use – This setting dictates which users will have access to the template.

When setting up a report, multiple parameters can be set to customize the results. All the parameters described below are available. 

Creation Date

The creation date is the time frame you want the report to encompass. This can be one of the four predetermined time frames (this week, last week, this month, last month) or enter a custom date range.

Users & Groups

This parameter lets you run the report on specific users or groups. One or more can be chosen for either, or you can run the report against all users in the account.

Documents & Workflows

Specific documents can be chosen to include in the report with this option. The documents listed in this field are the library documents used throughout the account. Individual, one-off documents will not be listed here. 

Document Name

Specific documents can be chosen to include in the report with this option. The documents listed in this field are the library documents used throughout the account. Individual, one-off documents will not be listed here. 

Send in Bulk

Enabling this parameter includes Send in Bulk agreements in the resulting report.

Performance Goals

You can set thresholds for performance, using the Performance Goal view. The gauges reflecting performance are displayed in the resulting report.

Benchmark

By default, the benchmark parameter is disabled for reports. Click the report settings link to enable it.

Benchmarking provides an expanded method for keeping track of agreement progress and signing rates. 

Graph Agreements By

Each enabled option (by Date, Sender, Group, Form, Workflow, and Signature Type) provide a different type of graph on the report.

Et Cetera

The parameters in this section are for altering the graphics on the resulting report. Changing these from the default parameters can speed up the report process.

Once you click the Run Report button, the report will be generated based on your parameters. There are multiple actions you can take with your report.

Update Report with Current Data

Clicking this link is like refreshing the page. The new report will include recent transactions and activity.

Save Report

Saving the report allows you to run this report again in the future.

Share Report

Sharing allows you to send the report results to someone else. You just need to enter their email address and a message.

Schedule Report

Setting a schedule for this report will run it with the same parameters at the frequency you define.

Export Report Data

Clicking this link will prompt you to open or save a .CSV file. CSV files can be opened in Excel and all transaction information for the agreements in the report, will be categorized in the various columns.

Printer-Friendly Version

Clicking this link will open a printer-friendly version of the report.

Edit Settings

This link will open and permit editing of the configured parameters for the report.