e-Sign
By sending e-Sign requests directly to clients, you can easily get important documents like contracts or health declarations signed in seconds.
E-signatures are a great way to send out documents in need of signatures directly to customers, contacts, collaborators, and more. Using this feature, you can request signatures via email, or even have people sign documents in person directly through the system. Each signed document will be automatically saved directly to the relevant record’s stream as a PDF file, and include the user who sent the e-sign request and the date and time the signature was sent in. E-signatures are very useful for contract signings, terms of use, price quotes, health declarations, and so much more.
e-Sign settings
To start sending requests for e-signatures, you’ll first need to set who is sending the e-sign request, the request message in the email, and the confirmation email. First navigate to the e-Sign settings by clicking the settings gear on the top right of any system page, selecting the System tab on the left, and opening the e-Sign page from the top bar. You can now click the green Get Started button.
Sender details
Once you’ve clicked Get Started, you’ll see a blue heading reading Email Request Message. Under it you can set the name and email address used to send the email. You can select the Current user email option to use the name and email address of the system user who sends the e-Sign request. These will be filled in from the Full Name and Username (Login Email) fields of their profile, which you can learn about here. While the names of these fields may have been changed, you can identify them using their API names, full name and username.
You can also select the Use custom details option to manually set a name and email address which will be used for your entire organization, no matter who sends the e-Sign request. Both of these fields are required, and must be filled out in order to save the e-Sign settings. The email address must also be a valid email address.
Email request message
Once you’ve selected a sender, set the email which will be sent to users when requesting an e-Sign via email. The Subject and Content fields will both be filled out with default values. You can choose to leave this as the subject and body of the email, or edit them to match your business needs. You’ll notice the use of field references within the email, which you can find in depth explanations for here. The {print_template_name} will display the name of the selected record template, while the {signatureUrl} will display the url which links to the document for signature.
Confirmation email
After setting the request email, you can choose if you’d like to send a confirmation email to the receiver of the request after they sign the document. This email will send both a confirmation and an attached PDF of the signed document. To include this option first check the box under the blue Confirmation email setting. The Subject and Content fields will then open. As in the request email, you can choose to leave the content within them or alter it to match your business needs.
Once you’ve set the email sender, request email details, and confirmation email details, be sure to click the Save button at the top of the page. This will save your newly set details and return to the main e-Sign page.
Edit or delete e-Sign settings
Once you’ve set up your e-sign settings, the Sender Email will be displayed in place of the Get Started button on the main e-Sign page. You can click the green Settings button to update any of the sender or email details. You can also use the Cancel button and then click Ok in the pop up to remove the e-Sign settings. This will permanently delete the e-Sign option, and you’ll need to set up e-Sign from scratch to enable the e-Sign option in your system.
Sending an e-Sign request
Once you’ve set up the e-Sign option in your system, you can start sending documents for requested signatures. These documents are created using the record templates feature, which you can learn how to use here. After you’ve created record templates which you’d like to be signed, you can begin sending them out.
To start, open the object which the record template you’d like to be signed is related to. Next, select the specific record which you’d like the signed document to be saved to. For example, you may wish to send a consent form record template, which is saved to the Contacts object, to a specific contact record. After opening the Contacts object from the top bar menu, select the record you’d like to send the consent form to. Next click the three dot menu on the top right of the record header, and select the e-Sign Request option. This will open the Send e-Sign Request window.
Select a record template
You can now search for and select the record template you’d like to get signed. Only record templates which are related to the object of the current record will be displayed. For example, if you’ve selected the Contacts object, you’ll only see Contact record templates. Learn how to set each record template's object type here.
Signing options
Once you’ve selected a record template, you can select either the Send signature request via email to send the predefined email, explained above, or select Sign now to have someone sign a document immediately. If you’ve selected the email option, a textbox will open where you can input an email to send the request to. In the Accounts and Contacts objects, this field will automatically fill in with the Email (API name: emailaddress1) field as long as this field has a value. You can easily change the recipient request by typing in a new email address.
After selecting a sign type, click Send to send the email or open up the document signing page in a new tab. If you’ve sent an email, a message will appear on the bottom of the screen confirming your request was successfully sent.
Signing and saving an e-Sign
After sending your e-Sign request, the relevant recipient can now easily sign it. You can open the document either through the link in the sent email request, or by using the Sign now option detailed above. Once the document is open, simply click the green Sign button on the bottom of the page to open the Signature box. You’ll find a gray section with a line at the bottom. Click, hold, and then write anywhere above the line to add a signature. If you don’t like how your signature turned out, click the Clear button and try again. Once you’ve added your signature, click the Accept & Sign green button, or click Cancel to go back to the document.
After sending in your signature, a Success page will be displayed to ensure your signature was successfully saved and sent back to the Fireberry system.
The newly signed PDF file will now be saved in the stream of the record which the signature request was sent from. It will be under the name of the record template which was sent, and include the system user who sent the request and the exact date and time when the signature was received. To learn how to view files in a stream, click here.
e-Sign permissions
In order to send out e-Sign requests or set the e-Sign settings, you’ll need to have the relevant permissions, which are detailed below. To learn about permissions and how to grant them to each role, click here.
e-Sign settings permissions
In order to access and edit the e-Sign settings, which are detailed above and include the sender of the e-sign email and the email contents, users will need the permissions listed below.
- Settings: The main Settings action permission, so you can access the e-Sign settings page in the settings menu.
- Company Info: The Read and Edit permissions in the Company Info object, so you can change the e-Sign settings which are shared company information. The sharing setting for this object can be set to anything.
e-Sign sending permissions
Users without the permissions listed above will still be able to send e-Sign requests, as long as they have the following permissions.
- Send e-Sign: The Send e-Sign action permission, so that this option appears in the three dot menu as is explained above.
- Record Templates: The Read permission in the Record Templates object, so you can access and select the templates to send to users. The sharing settings set for this object will control which templates appear in the Send e-Sign Request dropdown list detailed above. You can learn more about record template permissions here.
Notifications for signed documents
You can use automations to notify system users whenever a new e-signed document is received in the system. By setting up an automation, you can update fields, create new records, and send out emails as soon as a new document is signed. Newly signed documents are automatically saved in the relevant stream, which you can learn about above. Everytime a new e-signed document is saved in the system, it creates a note with the name of the document. Follow the instructions below to set up an automation trigger based on this note, and create automated actions.
Setting up the automation
To start, create a new automation, which you can learn how to do here. After clicking the Add button, select the Note object from the dropdown menu to set it as the object type.
Next, under the When section, select the Note is created option, so that the selected actions will occur whenever a new note is created. Under If, select the + Add Filter option and set the field to Note Content. Then be sure the operator is set to Equals and set the value to the exact name of the record template sent for signature. For example, if you’d like to create an automation for each time your record template titled “Health Declaration” is signed, simply type Health Declaration into the value box. Be sure to click Apply before moving to the next step.
If you’re not sure which name your record template is under, open the record templates object, which you can learn about here. Then find the relevant record template and copy the name under the Record Templates Name field.
Alternatively, you can simply open the object which the relevant record template is related to, such as Accounts, select any random record, click the three dot menu, and select the e-Sign Request option. Open the record templates dropdown to see the exact names of your templates.
Once you’ve found the exact name of your record template, paste it into the value box of the automation’s filter.
Multiple record templates
If you have multiple record templates you’d like to create notifications for, there are two options. The first will replicate the same exact actions for each template, so that the exact same written text and processes will be used. To do so, use the Add Group Filter option of the If filter section, detailed here. Add an individual condition for each record template using the process described above, and make sure all the conditions are under the Meet ANY of the following conditions heading.
The second option allows you to use different actions for different templates. This may be useful if you’d like to specify the name of the record template used in the actions, such as titling an email “Signed Health Declaration”. To do so, use the duplicate automation option, explained here, and be sure to update the record template’s name in the filter. This also lets you perform different actions depending on the record template which was signed.
Automation actions
Now that you’ve set up the base for your automation, you can create actions which will be activated each time a new e-signed document is uploaded to the system. There are a variety of different automation actions, detailed below, which you can use to be notified about newly signed documents.
- Send Email: You can set up an email which will send each time a document is digitally signed, so that you or other system users can be updated in live time. To learn how to set up send email automations, click here.
- Update Record: Use the update record action to automatically update important fields as soon as a document is signed. For example, fill in the Date Signed field with the exact date and time when the signature was received, and even change the status of a record to Document Signed. To learn how to set up update record automations, click here.
- Create Record: Create new records as soon as a newly signed document is uploaded. One frequent use for this option is to create a new task for the relevant system user. In this way, your user will be easily reminded to follow the next steps after receiving the signed document. This is one of many different useful records which can be created. To learn how to set up create record automations, click here.
Once you’ve set up any relevant actions and saved your automation, you can sign a document and watch your new notifications come in. For example, you may have chosen to create a new task as soon as the Health Declaration document is signed. Once the document uploads to the stream of the relevant record, you’ll see a new task pop up automatically.
Notifications for system users are just an example, you can of course send notifications to any relevant parties within or outside your organization. Additionally, you can set up many other actions which you’d like to occur automatically once a document is digitally signed.
