Reviewing and sending

Message to signers

An optional note shown in the email each person receives, up to 1,000 characters. For example: “Hi, could you sign this by Friday?” Keep anything confidential out of it.

Who signs when

Shown when there are two or more people:

• Everyone at once: everybody is emailed straight away and can sign in any order. Usually the quickest.
• One after another, in the order listed: each person is emailed only when the one before them has finished. Use it when the order matters, for example when a manager should approve before the customer signs. Change the order in the people panel.

Deadline

Choose No deadline, or 7, 14, 30 or 60 days after sending. We warn you the day before. Once the deadline passes, nobody can sign and the document closes as Expired. Use Duplicate to send a fresh copy if you still need it.

Reminders

Reminders are emailed to anyone who hasn’t signed yet. Choose:

• Gentle: day 2, 5 and 9.
• Weekly: once a week for four weeks.
• Frequent: day 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7, for anything urgent.
• No reminders: you chase people yourself.
• Custom: choose when the first goes, how many days between them, and how many (up to 6, none later than day 60).

Days are counted from when each person is asked, so in a one-after-another document each person gets their own schedule. Reminders are only sent between 8am and 6pm UK time, and you are never reminded about your own part. You can change the schedule after sending, on the document’s page.

Choose Use these settings for new documents to make your signing order, deadline and reminders the starting point for every new document.

Copy in other people

Add up to 10 people (an email, and a name if you like) who should receive the signed PDF when everyone has signed, such as a colleague or an accountant. They can’t sign or change anything and aren’t emailed until it is finished.

Is this document confidential?

Just above the Send button you are asked Is this document confidential? Choose Yes, keep it private for anything sensitive. Each signer then receives two separate emails: one with the link, one with an access code, and neither names the document. See Confidential documents and access codes.

Ready to send?

The Who gets what card lists each person and what will happen to them, for example “Emailed a private link as soon as you send”. The Ready to send? card counts your signers, fields and pages and lists anything that still needs fixing. You can’t send while:

• there is nobody to sign;
• someone still has a placeholder email address;
• a signer has no Signature field;
• a dropdown or radio buttons field has fewer than two options;
• your plan doesn’t allow it (for example the trial has ended, or your Lite documents for the month are used up).

Send now or schedule it

• Send now emails everyone who should be asked now. If you are signing too and have something left to do, the button reads Send and complete my part.
• Schedule send… (the small arrow next to Send) lets you pick a date up to 60 days ahead and a time in UK time, in 15-minute steps. It stays a draft until then, and any changes you make in the meantime go out with it. Choose Cancel schedule on the strip in the editor to stop it. Scheduled drafts show Scheduled in your list.

If a scheduled document can’t go out when the time comes (for example your plan has ended), it stays a draft and you are told why.