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Protecting a document with an access code

How to require a code before a recipient can open a document, and how to share it.

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You can require a signer to type a short code before the document will open. Set it while you are building the envelope, on that person's recipient card, and give them the code yourself. An envelope is the bundle you send for signature: the documents, the people and the fields.

Setting one

  1. In the envelope wizard, work through to the Recipients step.
  2. On the card for the person you want to protect, open Advanced. It sits under the role and the email address, and it is closed unless something inside it is already set.
  3. Under Before they can open it, choose Enter an access code I give them.
  4. Type the code into the box that appears. Up to twenty characters, and it is not case sensitive, so there is no need to warn anyone about capitals.

The option is offered for signers. Anyone you added as a viewer or in copy does not get one.

Giving them the code

CecurSign never puts the code in the email carrying the document, and the note under the box says so. If it travelled with the link it would not be a second check at all, because anyone reading that inbox would have both halves.

Ring them, tell them in the meeting, or send it by whatever channel you already use with that client. The code is one you chose, so if they mislay it you can simply say it again.

What the recipient sees

The link opens on a panel headed Authentication Required, naming the company that sent the document and the subject line you wrote. They type the code into the Access Code box and press Continue. The document appears only after that.

If they get it wrong, the panel says so and, once they are down to the last few tries, tells them how many attempts remain. After five failures that link locks for fifteen minutes and shows Too many failed attempts with the time to come back. Waiting clears it; there is nothing you need to reset.

Choosing a good code

  • Short enough to say over the phone and long enough not to be guessed. Something like Oak2291 reads cleanly aloud.
  • Avoid characters that sound alike when spoken, and avoid anything the recipient could infer from the document itself.
  • Use a different code for each client rather than one house code, so that giving it to one person never affects anyone else.

What it adds to the record

The method is written into the envelope's evidence at the moment the person signs, and the certificate of completion prints it against their name in plain words: an access code set by the sender, entered correctly before the document was shown. Where no code was asked for, the certificate says that too, describing the link as a unique single use link with no additional challenge. Neither sentence flatters the other, which is what makes the certificate useful if anyone ever asks how you knew who was at the other end.

When it is worth the extra step

Most documents do not need one. Sending a link to an address only that person reads is the everyday answer, and an access code adds a phone call to every send.

Reach for it when the address is shared, when the document carries salary, fee or health information, or when your own file review procedure asks you to record a second check. Those are exactly the cases where the sentence on the certificate is worth having.