External signature settings configuration

An external signature activity can be configured as a part of a FileHold workflow activity. When one or more documents, such as a contract, needs to be signed, they are sent to Adobe Acrobat Sign or DocuSign from a FileHold workflow task. The documents can be sent to multiple recipients including internal and external signers, and CC'd users. A message and an expiration date for the signature can be included in the agreement. The author has the opportunity to correct any errors in the signing fields in the Adobe Acrobat Sign or DocuSign authoring area prior to sending the document. This feature is dependent on the customer contracting directly with Adobe or DocuSign for their e-signature services.

Once the document has been sent to the external signature provider, an email notification is sent with a link to the e-signature service to the recipients. Once the contract is signed, the signed documents are sent to the FileHold server. These signed documents will be checked in as new versions of the originals. The workflow task is automatically completed once the signature is received so there are no additional steps for the sender.

External signature is controlled by a license option “Digital Signature”. If this option is not enabled, then external signatures are not available for use. The message “The external signature feature is a license option. Contact [email protected] to enable this feature” appears if configuration is attempted.

Only one external signature service can be configured at a time. If at some point a customer wishes to switch from one electronic signature provider to another, there may be agreements outstanding from the old provider. These documents are processed as normal; however, new agreements can only be sent out for signature using the new provider.

The ability to communicate over https is required for Adobe Acrobat Sign.

To configure the external signature settings

1. In the Administration Panel, go to Library Configuration > Settings > Workflow.
2. Under the Workflow permissions area, select the Enable external signature checkbox and click Configure.
3. In the Provider tab, do one of the following:

• If you are using Adobe Acrobat Sign, change the status to Activated.
• If you are using DocuSign, change the status to Activated. An Administrative or Individual account can be used with DocuSign. For administrative accounts, administrative consent is used when the administrator of an organization grants permission on behalf of all users in the organization. For individual accounts, each user must grant the FileHold application permission to send a document for signature on their behalf. DocuSign displays a confirmation message saying that the FileHold application is requesting permissions to create and send envelopes and impersonate the user to obtain consent. This only needs to be done once for each user.

4. Click Authenticate.
5. Sign into your external signature provider account and click Allow Access. You are returned to FileHold.
5. In the Options tab, enter the number of days a system administrator will be notified prior to their authentication expires. External signature authorization has a limited life span. If it does not get used before this lifetime, the system administrator will need to complete the authorization again. FileHold monitors this time and sends a notification so many days prior to expiration. The expiration date is displayed.
6. Click Save Settings. The message "The changes have been saved" displays.
7. Create workflow templates with External signature activities as part of the workflow.

When a user is signing a document, they are identified in Adobe Acrobat Sign using their email address. Make sure that every user who will send documents to Adobe Acrobat Sign is a user in your Adobe Acrobat Sign account with rights to send agreements.