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Sending from a template
Turn a template into a real envelope in a few clicks.
Last updated
There are two ways in, and they end in the same place.
From the envelope wizard. Press Create, then Send for signature, and on the first step press Start from a template. Choose one and its documents, roles and field positions become the envelope you are building, and the wizard moves straight on to Recipients. Fill in who each role belongs to and press Continue to review: because the template has already placed a field for every signer, the Fields step is skipped. It stays in the step bar, ticked, and the review screen counts the fields and offers Edit fields if you want to look at or move any of them. Add a document or a signer the template did not have and the wizard stops at Fields as normal, so nothing goes out with a signer who has nowhere to sign.
From the Templates screen. Open Templates, find the one you want, and choose Use Template from the menu on its card, or Use template on the template's own page. Fill in who each role belongs to, check the subject, and press Create and send. The documents, the field positions and the signing order all come across exactly as you set them, and nothing can be changed on the way. Use this route when the template is finished and the only thing that varies is the people.
The rest of this page describes the second route.
The screen you land on
It is headed Prepare envelope and has two halves. An envelope is the bundle that goes out for signature: the documents, the people and the fields.
Email details is the message your recipients receive. The Subject is pre-filled as Please sign: followed by the template name; change it to something your client will recognise in a busy
inbox. Message (optional) carries any covering note, pre-filled from the template's default
message where you set one, and it is written inside a preview of the email exactly as it will
arrive. Expiry date (optional) sets the day after which nobody can sign, and is pre-filled from
the template's default expiry.
Under the message, Other documents to include holds anything the recipient should read but not sign: your terms of business, a privacy policy, an insurance certificate. If the template carries a document pack, those arrive already listed and you can add one more for this send. Documents you upload are opened through a link that only this recipient can use, and you can see afterwards who opened each one. A link to a page on your own website is opened on your server, so we cannot tell you whether it was read.
Who needs to act lists the roles from the template, in signing order, each wanting an Email and, optionally, a Name. Roles you gave a default address to arrive already filled. Where the template has a role for you, I will fill this role applies your saved signature automatically when the envelope reaches it.
Down the right hand side, Envelope summary counts how many roles are ready, lists the documents that will be included, and shows the expiry, so you can see what you are about to create without scrolling back.
Sending, or not sending yet
- Create and send builds the envelope and emails everyone straight away. The confirmation reads Envelope sent, and where a role of yours signed itself you also see Auto-signed naming the fields it filled.
- Save as draft builds the envelope and stops. It appears in Envelopes as a draft. Open it and press Edit to add a document, move a field or change a recipient before it goes anywhere, or press Send when it is right.
Use the draft route the first time you send from a new template. It is the quickest way to see what your client will receive.
After it has gone
The new envelope behaves like any other. Follow it from Envelopes, chase people with Send Reminder, and withdraw it with Void envelope if you need to. Nothing you do to the envelope touches the template it came from, and editing the template later does not reach back into envelopes already sent.
Sending the same document to many people
Filling one form per client is fine for a handful. For a whole list, use Bulk send, which takes one template and a list of recipients and creates a separate envelope for each of them.
If something is not right
- A role has no email address. The screen says how many of the recipients are ready, and marks the one that is not. Every signing role needs an address before it will send.
- The wrong file is attached. The documents come from the template, so fix it there, or use Save as draft and change the documents on the draft envelope.
- The fields are in the wrong place. Same answer: correct the template, and later sends will be right. See Creating a template.
- You are over your allowance for the period. The send is refused with the figures. See Allowances, and what happens when you reach one.