eSignature features

Docusign supports virtually any document file types from most applications to ensure all your important documents can be sent for signature. Docusign even recognizes PDF documents and automatically tags form fields for data entry by signers. Supported file formats include .doc, .docx, .pdf, .xls, xlsx, .txt and many others.

Save time preparing documents with PDF form conversion. When uploading a PDF, Docusign automatically recognizes and converts the PDF fields to signer fields.

Guide your customers to sign and initial in all the right places in a matter of seconds. Use standard tags to collect signatures, initials, names, titles, company names and other relevant information—or modify them and save them as custom tags for future use. Available tags include signatures, initials, names, titles, company names, text, numbers, currency, notes and more.

The Drawing field enables both signers and senders to upload images, and signers can leave free-form markups directly on those images.

Retrieve documents from the most widely used cloud storage services, including Google Drive, Microsoft Office 365, Box, Dropbox, Evernote, Microsoft OneDrive, Egnyte and Citrix ShareFile.

Place tags and fields to certain lines of text so that when you drop them into a document, they automatically appear at the right location. Even if you change the document, AutoPlace (formerly Anchor Tags) moves tags with the text.

Generate on demand, self-service documents for signature with little to no code. PowerForms reduce document preparation time and easily pull collected data into your backend systems.

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Streamline data collection and speed up the signing process. Capture data and dynamically populate content into agreements for signature in one easy-to-use interactive experience.

Leverage APIs to pre-populate form fields with existing data from external systems and accelerate agreement completion. Embed forms directly into your business applications to give your users a cohesive experience.

Senders can include additional information, such as legal disclosures or terms and conditions for signer acknowledgment, as a different and distinct part of an envelope. Signers can easily view and accept the supplemental documents, as required by the sender, in this new streamlined signing experience.

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Design forms the way you want to with robust form functionality including checkboxes, radio buttons, dropdown tags, and text, numeric and currency fields.

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Link your fields to data from third-party systems and services. eSignature will automatically pull your data from third-party systems to your document and vice versa, eliminating manual data entry.

Restrict the type of data entered into any chosen field to eliminate data-entry errors and document resending. Validation values include text, email, phone number, date, 5-digit ZIP code, 9-digit ZIP code, social security number and regular expression masking.

Automate document logic with Docusign’s advanced form and field validation capabilities. Use conditional fields to hide or reveal data that needs to be collected based on a signer’s response to other fields. With calculated fields, eSignature dynamically calculates values based on inputs to other fields. Locked fields protect data you don’t want changed, and linked fields ensure all changes are reflected across all identical fields.

Enable downstream signers to edit certain fields. Docusign eSignature manages the changes and requests the initials of other parties before accepting a change. The transaction history tracks all finalized changes.

Route documents to multiple users in serial, parallel and mixed sequencing to fit your ideal process. Choose whether you want to require users to sign one by one or allow them all to sign at the same time.

Automate complex routing scenarios based on data in the agreement.

Templates standardize processes, reduce preparation time and enable end-to-end automation of your business.

Prepare documents for rapid sending with reusable templates that save tags and field placement, workflow routing and other settings. Create your templates easily with drag-and-drop fields directly within Docusign eSignature.

Easily send the same document to a large number of recipients. Simply import a list of signers and each will receive a unique copy to sign. Manage many envelopes at the same time with bulk actions like void, correct and resend.

Add timing delays during the routing process between recipients.

Enable a user to be granted permissions to send or manage envelopes on another user’s behalf. Assigned users can draft, send, void, correct or even organize envelopes.

Define the actions of each recipient in your workflow. Choose who can sign, edit, or approve a document and who can request signer attachments.

Maintain full control over who sees each document. When sending multiple documents, restrict which signers can view and access each individual document to protect confidential information.

Make changes to a document, even if it's incomplete. Change recipient information, add, edit and remove tags, or add and remove documents.

Set up automated email reminders for your signers to complete the signing process and add deadline notifications to expire untouched documents or transactions.

Get real-time updates on your document status and form data through an API as the document progresses through actions to completion with Connect.

Send documents with Docusign mobile apps even when offline. Create and queue documents, and they then will sync and send once connectivity is restored.

For certain transactions, recipients need the option to return a document via fax. Docusign eSignature can help you manage signatures and transactions across any type of device, including fax machines.

Collect credit card and debit card information from a document and process it through a payment gateway such as Stripe. And with DocuSign Payments you can set up documents so that customers sign, pay, and complete business transactions all in one step, using credit cards, Apple Pay or Android Pay.

Docusign eSignature lets you sign from any place on any device, whether that’s from your office or sitting face-to-face with the other party. Every signing experience is flexible and configurable.

Explore Seamless Mobile Signing Experiences

Signers on mobile phones can access a parallel version of the document that automatically adapts its formatting to the device’s size and orientation. Take responsive signing further by defining collapsible sections, page breaks and custom formatting options to enhance the mobile signer experience.

If you are using an iPad, iPhone, or Android device, download an easy-to-use app to create, tag, send and sign documents on the fly. Even if you don’t have the DocuSign mobile app installed, you can easily sign documents from your mobile web browser.

Speed up signing by meeting your signers where they are. Reach with real-time notifications sent directly to their mobile device, via their most preferred messaging channels. Enable signers to quickly open and electronically sign documents with SMS or WhatsApp delivery.

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Sign documents with Docusign mobile apps even when offline. Sign, create and queue documents, and they then will sync and send once connectivity is restored.

DocuSign’s accessibility support enables sight- and hearing-impaired signers to sign documents with our service in adherence with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508 standards.

Reflect your brand on the emails and web pages your recipients see when completing documents. Add your logo, change colors and customize email copy and links.

Comments enable the sender and recipients of an envelope to exchange feedback on a document directly within the Docusign eSignature web and mobile signing experiences. The feature gives users real-time comment notifications and the ability to track and retain conversation history for eSignature transactions.

Learn How Comments Improve Collaboration

Docusign eSignature has email authentication built in. This ensures the only people signing are those who you invited to sign and have access to the given email account.

This authentication type requires signers to provide a sender-generated code to open and sign their documents.

Via SMS text messaging, send a one-time passcode that your recipients must enter to access documents.

Docusign eSignature accepts and records authentication by other systems integrated with eSignature via industry-standard protocols. Single sign-on can detect email domains at login and redirect to your domain’s identity provider for authentication.

You can require signers to call a phone number and enter their name and access code to review and sign documents.

Ask your recipients questions referencing non-discoverable information such as past addresses, vehicles owned and more before granting access to documents. As part of knowledge-based authentication, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Checking validates whether a signer’s name is on the Specially Designated Nationals List administered by the OFAC. Age verification validates that a signer’s age is correct as entered and ensures the signer is the proper age to sign (only valid in the United States).

Verify signers’ identity using government-issued IDs. Our technology verifies government photo IDs and European eIDs by analyzing the document security features and matching the name on the agreement against the name on the ID.

Docusign tracks your transactions in real-time—every signature, approval and related recipient actions are logged and viewable.

Easily customize, run, export and print reports for your account. Docusign reports on documents, recipients and overall account activity.

Share data and statistics by exporting data from documents to a CSV file. Export data ranging from a single data field to data from multiple documents and PowerForms.

Electronic signatures are legally enforceable in the United States and most countries around the world. The ESIGN Act of 2000 defined the legality and enforceability of electronic signatures across all 50 states. The ESIGN Act ensures that contracts and signatures cannot be denied validity or enforceability because they are in electronic form.

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Digital signature technology solutions that can help companies meet certain regional- or industry-specific requirements. eSignature provides both cloud-based and on-premises digital signature-based signing solutions to meet your specific business needs.

All documents are digitally sealed with the industry-standard technology, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). This tamper seal indicates the electronic signature is valid and that the document has not been tampered with after it was downloaded from DocuSign eSignature.

Track your document through every step of the process. Docusign eSignature maintains a complete, automated history of every activity, including viewing, printing, sending, signing or declining to sign a document.

Every signed Docusign eSignature document comes with a certificate of completion that provides proof of the signing process to all parties of the transaction. This certificate includes information from the audit trail, illustrating who signed, timestamps detailing when and where each person signed, and the completed document itself.

Configures and updates the Electronic Record and Signature Disclosure (formerly Consumer Disclosure) to be compliant with company policy, requiring signers to consent or re-consent to the Electronic Record and Signature Disclosure notice.

You can configure DocuSign eSignature to support industry-specific regulations such as FedRAMP, HIPPA and 21 CFR Part 11.

Specify a custom watermark to differentiate draft documents from completed documents. The watermark is displayed on all pages of all documents until the signing process is completed.

For highly regulated industries like financial services, you can maintain a clear record of all transactions by sending a copy of every email interaction between your organization and signers to a secure email address that's been archived.

Control the life of your documents and enforce company policy related to document retention. Automatically purge documents after a specified period of time and notify users in advance of purging.

Create and maintain a single copy of a document—known as the "authoritative copy"—that is unique, identifiable and unalterable without detection.

Download envelopes, documents and data from Docusign for use with external systems. Docusign Retrieve runs on your system as a one-time request or on a recurring basis. Configure Docusign Retrieve to specify file type and storage location.

Automate your common post-signature tasks with agreement actions. Configure rules to automatically archive completed agreements to your cloud storage provider (SharePoint, Google DriveTM and more), export data to Google SheetsTM or Excel online, start workflows in DocuSign CLM and configure workflows that, upon completion of an initial agreement, automatically trigger a second agreement.

The eOriginal service extends Docusign to control, manage and share authoritative copies of negotiable instruments such as leases and loans. Authoritative copies are unique, identifiable and unalterable without detection.

Docusign publishes and updates availability status on the Trust Center in real time, so you know the Docusign service is available when you need it.

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Docusign uptime statistics are updated monthly to reflect server stability and keep Docusign status transparent to the public.

The Docusign Trust Center provides updates and alerts of system maintenance and other notifications.

The Docusign Trust Center provides information on how we safeguard your data, our certifications and tests, and updates and alerts.

Docusign uses AES 256-bit encryption to ensure documents in the system are encrypted at all times. Any unauthorized changes in the underlying document will be detected and identified as evidence of tampering.

Docusign can automatically reassign your document to a different user after a document has been signed, giving that user ownership and removing access from the original sender.

Docusign is ISO27001 certified, SSAE 16, SOC 1 Type 2, SOC 2 Type 2 certified, PCI DSS compliant and authorized at the FedRAMP Moderate Impact Level.

Protect yourself and your signers from scammers and spammers. Docusign ensures users can validate emails and notifications by utilizing an access code to access documents directly from the Docusign website.

Enable customers to sign in their native languages, with support for signing experiences in 44 languages and the ability to request signatures in 14 languages.

Automate and manage entire digital workflows to help your organization comply with local and industry e-signature standards, including eIDAS in the EU.

Docusign service is available in any time zone. Any transaction is stamped with a universal time code that is converted to the local time zone you specify.

Docusign eSignature ensures all actions are accurately timestamped using a server-based time clock synchronized with the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) atomic clock, helping you keep your records and audit trail as accurate as possible.

Add users and groups, and easily configure different permissions and privileges for them.

Delegated administration empowers IT, business analysts and others to administer specific functionality within accounts while maintaining maximum flexibility and control.

Control the account-wide settings of all users to ensure support for your company’s policies.

Make sure all your users have strong passwords to protect your company’s private information. Set password strength requirements for users, including the number of days before expiration, format and more.

Access management with SSO helps administrators secure access to their organizationally-controlled accounts. Using the third-party identity provider of their choice, administrators can help with compliance with security and company standards, and automatically provision users.

Organization management helps administrators centrally manage Docusign eSignature across the enterprise—even across accounts, domains and data centers around the globe. It lets you compare settings across accounts, modify account settings in bulk, and efficiently add, update or close a large number of user accounts at once.

Docusign eSignature publishes both its REST and SOAP APIs. They are easily accessible to developers looking to integrate. Explore Docusign’s extensive API with our interactive IODocs.

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Docusign eSignature supports an OAuth2 based tokening system as an additional API authorization option for companies requiring an increased layer of security to custom integrations.

With Single Sign-On (SSO), you can provision new users and enforce secure access management across all your corporate applications. Ensure compliance with company, security, and regulatory policies.

Docusign eSignature provides a robust sandbox environment facilitating rapid development, testing and deployment of applications using or integrating eSignature technology.

Docusign eSignature’s support of embedded signing allows you to create seamless signing experiences for your users directly within your third-party websites and applications. Customize your agreement UI, with different options to display agreements to best fit the look and feel of your website or mobile application.

Integrate and connect eSignature with the systems and tools you already use—for example, Salesforce, Workday, SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, Google, Box, Slack and hundreds more.