Signing order
Signing order is the rule for who signs when: either one at a time in a fixed sequence, or everyone at once in any order.
In plain words
When a document has more than one signer, someone has to decide the flow. There are two common choices.
- Sequential. Signer 1 gets the link first. Signer 2 only gets theirs after signer 1 signs. And so on.
- Parallel. Everyone gets their link at the same time and signs whenever they like.
Sequential order suits documents where one side should commit first, or where a later signer should see the earlier signatures. Parallel order is faster when it doesn't matter.
An example
An offer letter often goes in sequence. The company's signer signs first, so the candidate receives a letter the company has already committed to. A mutual NDA usually goes in parallel. Both sides are making the same promise, so there is no reason to wait.
How it shows up in docuinked
Set ordered to true on create_document and signers sign one at a time, in the order you list them. Leave it false and all signers get their links at once. Signer numbers in fields follow the list: signer: 1 is the first person, signer: 2 the second.
{"title": "Offer letter",
"pdf_url": "https://example.com/offer.pdf",
"signers": [{"name": "Sam Ortiz", "email": "sam@example.com"},
{"name": "Lee Park", "email": "lee@example.com"}],
"ordered": true}The signing order is part of the draft_hash. If an agent changes it after a person approves, the send is refused. Every document can have up to 10 signers during the beta. See the API reference.
Common confusions
Order is not routing. Some tools offer conditional routing, such as "send to legal only if the amount is over a limit". docuinked doesn't. You can build that logic in your own code or workflow before calling the API.
Order doesn't change what each person signs. Every signer signs the same document. Order only decides when they get it.
Related terms
Common questions
Can I change the signing order after sending?
No. A sent document can't change. Void it and send a new one with the order you want, and the old one stays on record as voided.
How does a later signer know it is their turn?
They get their email only when the signers before them have finished. Your system can also listen for signer.signed webhooks to track each step.
Can two people sign at the same step in a sequence?
Not today. With ordered true, each signer is one step. If two people should sign together, put them next to each other and accept that one goes first, or use parallel order.
Related
Try it in test mode
Free during the beta. Test keys send no email, so you can build the whole flow first.