Setting up the send

The automation step that starts the request. You decide which templates get signed, where the result goes, who gets the mail and how long it is valid.

One template and one target field per row

Each row names a template and the file field the signed PDF belongs in. Every template needs a Signature element on it, or there would be nothing to sign. No field is allowed: the document then hangs off the record without sitting in a particular place.

The address is frozen at send

You usually give it as a variable from the contact field. At send it is held fast. If the record changes later, it stays traceable who was written to, and in case of doubt that is what counts.

The deadline runs from send, not from now

A mail outage should not eat into the recipient's deadline. Counting therefore starts the moment the mail actually goes out, not the moment the step ran.

Send again or only extend

If the step runs again for a request that is already open, a switch decides: with Send again the same link goes out once more, without it only the deadline is extended. For a follow-up you usually want the first.

Changed data means a new draft

The document of a request is created once and does not change afterwards. When the step runs again, for example because the record enters the stage again, it compares the values it puts into the document with those from back then. If they are the same, the open request stays. If something changed, it withdraws the old one, creates a new one with the current data and sends it. Date and time do not count, otherwise following up would produce a new draft every day. Older requests that do not know their data yet are withdrawn by hand in the record's Documents tab.

Step by step

1. In the flow, choose the plus and take Request signature.
2. Set the template and the target field for each row.
3. Enter the recipient as a variable from the contact field.
4. Set the deadline in days and write the text of the mail.
5. Check in a test run that the request appears and the mail reads well.

Why is the step locked?

Because the account has no outgoing mail account yet. Without a sender there would be nothing to send.

Does the link have to be in the text of the mail?

No. The mail places it as a button itself. A second link in the body is a second place to go stale.

What if the target field already holds a document?

It gets replaced. Anyone wanting both takes two fields or lets the second document go to no field.

Can I enter several recipients?

No, a request has exactly one. Two signers need two requests, and then they are two separate entries in the protocol.

I corrected something on the record. How does the recipient get the new draft?

Run the step again, for example by moving the record into the stage again. It notices the changed values, withdraws the old request and sends a new one. You can also withdraw an open request by hand in the record's Documents tab. The old link stops working then.

How do I follow up?

With Wait on the condition that the file exists plus a maximum, then a branch: in the still missing path the same step appears again, with Send again switched on.