External signatures in a workflow

Adobe Acrobat Sign and DocuSign can be used as a part of a FileHold workflow with documents stored in the library. These services are called External Signature Providers (ESP). This feature is dependent on the customer contracting directly with Adobe or DocuSign for their e-signature services. Adobe Acrobat Sign and DocuSign require the licensing option "Digital Signature" to be enabled. Contact sales@filehold.com to purchase the Adobe Acrobat Sign or DocuSign integration.

It is not possible to use both Adobe Acrobat Sign and DocuSign at the same time for sending new agreements. You can receive responses from both providers at the same time, however. This facilitates situations where it is necessary to switch from one provider to the other.

When one or more documents, such as an agreement, needs to be signed they are sent to an ESP from a FileHold workflow task. The workflow template must be set up with an "External signature" activity in order to send a document to an ESP. External signature participants are called "Authors" in the workflow template. See Creating Workflow Templates for more information.

Once the document has been sent to the ESP, the ESP will send an email notification with a link to their signature service to the recipients. Once the agreement is signed, the ESP will automatically send the signed documents 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.

FileHold provides a report of the ESP transmissions where issues can be reconciled or documents can be synchronized with the ESP if there was a communication problem. FileHold also provides an External signing report that can be monitored if there were any technical issues. The FileHold server must be accessible by the ESP server in order to update the signed documents. In other words, the FileHold server must be internet accessible in order to communicate with the ESP.

Any documents in the agreement must be suitable for use with the ESP. For example, a PDF file will typically need to have the allow document assembly and allow changes properties enabled in order to be processed at the ESP.

Workflow initiation for documents requiring an external signature

A workflow template must be set up with an "External signature" activity in order to send documents to an ESP. When configuring an external signature task in the template, only one user can complete the task. If multiple authors are entered into the activity, then 1 of X is applied and the first author to "send for external signature" has a status of "Sent" in the workflow status report.

Electronic records cannot be sent to an ESP.

See Manually Initiating Workflows on Documents for more information about workflow initiation.

Sending documents for external signatures

When a document requires an electronic signature via an ESP, the author has to "Send for external signature" from the My Tasks list. Prior to sending the agreement to be signed, the author can modify the document using tools supplied by the ESP. Signatures, dates, initials, stamps, error corrections, and so on can be made to a document prior to sending for signature. For details on document modification, see the ESP documentation. The documents can be sent to the ESP with 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 Adobe agreement.

ESP documents can be composed in both the FileHold Desktop Application (FDA) built-in browser or in an independent web browser page. The key in the Library Manager web config, “ExternalSignature.OpenIndependantAuthoringWindow” can be set to “true” in order to always compose in an independant web browser page. The default is set to “false” which maintains composition in the FDA.

When the ESP is Adobe Acrobat Sign, the FileHold ID number is pre-pended to the document name for FileHold identification purposes. This should not be modified at Adobe.

Once the modifications by the author is completed in the ESP window, the document is then sent to the signers. If the authoring process is cancelled prior to sending, there is no way to return to the authoring stage from FileHold or the ESP. The workflow will need to be cancelled and initiated again.

After all parties have signed the agreement, the signed document is added to the library as a new version.

If a user deletes the document that was signed, a placeholder document is shown in its place with the message, “The signed document matching the document sent from FileHold could not be found at <ESP-name>. This can happen if the agreement is manually modified at <ESP-name> outside of FileHold. Get the signed document from <ESP-name> and check it in as a new version.” along with the <ESP-name> and FileHold information. Users will need to retrieve the signed document and add it into the library as a new version to rectify the error.

To send an agreement for external signatures (New interface)

1. Go to Reviews and Approvals > My Tasks and select a workflow where the task is set to External Signature.
2. In the FDA, select the task from the list and click Complete Task.

• In the Web Client, select the check box next to the task name and click Complete Task.

3. In the Send for external signature window, the following information is displayed:

Area	Description
Workflow name	The name of the workflow. This may be configured by custom naming.
Alerts area	Special alerts such as overdue, restarted, reservations, on-behalf of are displayed on a coloured background. Green – Informational message. Yellow – Warning message. Red – Urgent action is needed. These alerts can be closed by clicking X in the message.
Task instructions with activity title	The activity title is taken from the activity title in the workflow template.
Approve x documents with x supporting documents	Number of main and supporting documents to be sent for a signature.
Task instructions area	Task instructions specified in the workflow template. The instructions should be reviewed prior to completing the task.
<action buttons>	Send for external signature . Task may be reserved  or if the task is reserved, it may be unreserved . Cancel  .
Task details area	Due date – Displayed with red background if overdue. Check out – Not allowed or Allowed Password – Required or Not required
Workflow history area	Displays the history of the workflow. Click Changes to view the changes to the workflow.  System changes to the workflow such as adding main or supporting documents, adding one-time reviews, and delegating workflow tasks.  Workflow has been restarted  Approved Not approved Approval postponed Reviewed or one-time review Send for external signature  Workflow initiated

 

4. Enter the following information:

Field Name	Description
External Name	The name of the workflow in FileHold.
External signers	Enter the email addresses for the signers that are not users of FileHold.
Internal signers	Select from the drop-down list any users of FileHold that are signers. Click … to select from the list.
Internal CCs	Select from the drop-down list any users of FileHold to be CC'd.
Message to signers	Enter the message to the signers.
Expiration	Enter how many days the signers have to complete the task.
Use default expiration	The due date from the workflow template.

 

5. Click Send for external signature .
6. In the ESP window, review the recipient and message information. The file name has the FileHold ID pre-pended when the ESP is Adobe.
7. Select any options, such as password protect or reminders. For more information on this page, see the ESP documentation.
8. If you need to add signature lines to the document, ensure the Preview & add signature fields check box is enabled.
9. Click Next.
10. Add any fields as needed to the document. See the ESP documentation for more information on modifying documents.

{{!UrlToWorkflow}} is a read only tag for an Adobe Acrobat Sign document that will expand to a link that can be copied to a browser that points to the workflow. See Using {{UrlToWorkflow}} Adobe Acrobat Sign tag for more information.

11. Click Send. The message "<Workflow name> has been successfully sent for signature" appears.
12. Once the document has been signed, the author will receive an email notification that the agreement has been signed. All parties receive a signed copy of the signed document. The new signed version of the document is checked into the FileHold library. If the ESP is DocuSign, the agreement history will be attached to the workflow task.
13. To see the status of the signature, see the External signing report.

 

To send an agreement for external signatures (Classic interface)

1. In the Reviews and Approvals > My Task list, select the External signature task.
2. Click Send for external signature.
3. In the Send for external signature window, enter the following information:

Field Name	Description
Name	The name of the workflow in FileHold.
External signers	Enter the email addresses for the signers that are not users of FileHold.
Internal signers	Select from the drop-down list any users of FileHold that are signers.
Internal CCs	Select from the drop-down list any users of FileHold to be CC'd.
Message	Enter the message to the signers.
Expiration days	Enter how many days the signers have to complete the task.
Use default expiration	The due date from the workflow template.

4. Click Send and preview.
5. In the ESP window, review the recipient and message information. The file name has the FileHold ID pre-pended when the ESP is Adobe.
6. Select any options, such as password protect or reminders. For more information on this page, see the ESP documentation.
7. If you need to add signature lines to the document, ensure the Preview & add signature fields check box is enabled.
8. Click Next.
9. Add any fields as needed to the document. See the Adobe Acrobat Sign documentation for more information on modifying documents.

{{!UrlToWorkflow}} is a read only tag for an Adobe Acrobat Sign document that will expand to a link that can be copied to a browser that points to the workflow. See Using {{UrlToWorkflow}} Adobe Acrobat Sign tag for more information.

10. Click Send. The message "<Workflow name> has been successfully sent for signature" appears.
11. Once the document has been signed, the author will receive an email notification that the agreement has been signed. All parties receive a signed copy of the signed document. A new version of the document is checked into the FileHold library.
12. To see the status of the signature, see the External signing report.

Postponing a signature

In the event that the agreement is not ready to be signed, the signature can be postponed. The option "Allow authoring postponed" must be enabled in the workflow template in order to use this feature. If a workflow has the option to postpone authoring enabled, then the workflow may be automatically restarted. Automatically restarting a workflow is useful when a later workflow activity discovers missing information or documents and needs to return to a previous activity. Participants are notified if a workflow is restarted and includes the comments of the user who postponed the workflow. See Creating Workflow Templates for more information. Workflows can be automatically restarted with one of the following options:

• Return to the workflow initiator. The initiator would need to manually restart or re-initiate the workflow.
• Automatically return to a previous activity in the workflow template.
• The user postponing the activity can be given an option of selecting from a list of activities to restart from which includes the returning to the initiator or a previous workflow activities.
• Create a one-time review activity. The one-time review activity automatically restarts the workflow with the new activity inserted in the tasks. This allows a workflow participant to request changes from any user ad hoc before they complete their own task.

 

To postpone an agreement signature (New interface)

1. In the Reviews and Approvals > My Task list, select the External signature task.
2. Click Complete task.
3. In the Send for external signature window, click Postpone Approval .
4. Enter any comments about postponing the signing.
5. Click Choose File to provide a feedback document for the postponement.
6. If restarting from an activity, select one of the following options:

• Return to workflow initiator.
• <Workflow activity title and description> (Return to a previous activity).
• New one-time review activity.

7. Click Postpone Approval .
8. Enter your password, if required, and click OK.
9. If an automatic restart or one-time review option was selected, the workflow is automatically restarted. A one-time review activity is inserted immediately before the current activity. Any previously completed activities are copied over into the restarted workflow. The workflow status changes to "Approval postponed" or "Restarted" and the task status is "Voided". See the Workflow Status Report for more information.

 

To postpone an agreement signature (Classic interface)

1. In the Reviews and Approvals > My Task list, select the External signature task.
2. Click Complete task.
3. In the Send for external signature window, click Postpone sending.
4. Enter any comments about postponing the signing.
5. Click Choose File to provide a feedback document for the postponement.
6. Click OK to postpone.
7. If the option to automatically restart is configured, it may be possible to select the activity to restart from. Select the activity name in the list and click OK.
8. If creating a one-time review activity, select one of the following options and enter any task instructions for the user and click OK:

• Workflow initiator
• Document owner
• Select user from the drop-down list.

10. Enter your password, if required, and click OK.
11. If an automatic restart or one-time review option was selected, the workflow is automatically restarted. A one-time review activity is inserted immediately before the current activity. Any previously completed activities are copied over into the restarted workflow. The workflow status changes to "Approval postponed" or "Restarted" and the task status is "Voided". See the Workflow Status Report for Workflow Participants for more information.

Using the {{UrlToWorkflow}} Adobe Acrobat Sign tag

{{!UrlToWorkflow}} is a read only tag for an Adobe Acrobat Sign document that expands to a link that can be copied or clicked to view the documents associated to the workflow URL. The link can point to either the FDA or the Web Client. The key in the Library Manager web config Workflow.AdobeUrlToWorkflowDestination can be set to either the “WebClient” or “FDA”. By default, is set to the web client URL.

If the setting is “FDA”, the URL may not work properly when clicked from Adobe Reader. In order for the link to work, you may need assistance from your IT personnel.

To enable the FDA link in Adobe Reader

1. Open Registry Editor in the system.
2. Go to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Adobe\Acrobat Reader\DC\FeatureLockDown\cDefaultLaunchURLPerms
3. Modify “tSchemePerms” by adding “|fda:2” to the end. The FDA URL should now work.