E-signature for staffing agencies

Q: How do I avoid sending a new worker two agreements?

Use the placement or candidate ID in the Idempotency-Key. If your applicant system fires the same event twice, the second call returns the first result and nothing new is sent.

docuinked lets a staffing agency turn a "placed" status in its applicant system into a signed onboarding agreement and a signed client contract, with each draft checked by a recruiter before it reaches a worker or a client.

What a staffing agency signs

Staffing runs on volume and speed. One placement can mean three documents with three different people.

Worker agreements, either an independent contractor agreement or an offer letter, depending on how the worker is engaged.
Employee handbook acknowledgements and policy sign-offs.
Client service agreements and per-placement statements of work.
Mutual NDAs with clients before you share candidate details.
Timesheet sign-offs, which work much like an invoice approval.

Worker classification is a legal question, not a signing question. A good signature on the wrong agreement doesn't help. Have your lawyer set the templates.

A workflow story

A light industrial agency fills warehouse shifts. Workers apply on their phones and many start within 48 hours.

A recruiter moves a candidate to "Placed" in the applicant system.
A Zapier step sends the worker's name, email, rate and start date to docuinked with create_from_template.
The recruiter gets an approval link in their inbox, checks the rate and site, and approves.
The worker signs on their phone in a few minutes. The page shows the electronic records disclosure first.
document.completed fires. The workflow marks the worker "Cleared to start" and attaches the sealed PDF to their profile.
A second flow sends the client's statement of work to the site manager, with the agency's account manager signing first.

If a worker declines, document.declined fires and the recruiter is told the same day.

An automation example

A Zapier or Make step can call the API directly. Use a stable key so a rerun never sends twice:

curl https://docuinked.com/v1/templates/TEMPLATE_ID/documents \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DOCUINKED_API_KEY" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: placement-88213" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"title": "Worker agreement, placement 88213",
       "signers": [{"name": "Jordan Lee", "email": "jordan@example.com"}]}'

That creates a draft. A second call to send_document sends it, or asks for approval if the key is set to need one. See Zapier and Make.

For agents, a recruiting assistant connected by MCP can prepare a batch of drafts from a shortlist. Each one waits for a named recruiter to approve the exact draft. The agent can never sign, and it can't get a live signing link. See AI agents.

For staffing software

If you sell an applicant system or a gig marketplace, each agency on your platform can be a sub-account under your one API key. Workers see your name, logo and colour, not ours, and docuinked branding can be removed. You can embed signing inside your worker app on allowed sites and use browser events to move them to the next screen. Emails still come from docuinked's address for now. Custom sending domains are coming. See platforms.

What docuinked doesn't do here

Background checks and right-to-work checks. Not offered.
ID verification at signing. Coming. Today identity rests on the email link, plus an optional access code.
Sending one document to hundreds at once. Each worker gets their own document, one call each. Live sends are capped at 100 a day per account in the beta. Bulk send is coming.
Payroll and tax forms. Some government forms have their own signing rules. Check them before you use any e-signature tool for them.

Common questions

Can a worker sign before they have a company email?

Yes. They sign from whatever email you have for them, usually a personal one. For a sensitive document, add an access code and read it to them on the phone.

How do I avoid sending a new worker two agreements?

Use the placement or candidate ID in the Idempotency-Key. If your applicant system fires the same event twice, the second call returns the first result and nothing new is sent.

Can the client and the worker sign the same document?

They can, but it is usually cleaner to keep them separate. The worker's terms and the client's terms tend to be private from each other. Two documents also make the record clearer.

Which recruiter should approve a placement?

The one who owns the placement and can check the rate against the job order. The evidence log names who approved, next to the key that asked.

Try it in test mode

Free during the beta. Test keys send no email, so you can build the whole flow first.

Get an API key Read the quickstart