DocuSign Account Settings
After you complete your DocuSign Setup, there are several optional features you might want to consider as well. This page covers DocuSign's Certificate of Completion option; reminders and expirations; and other assorted account settings.
Certificate of Completion
When you create a DocuSign envelope, you are packaging a set of attached files together and sending them to a list of recipients, who sign the files as directed. By default, when everyone has signed and the envelope is complete, the system saves a unified file with all the signed documents together, and a separate file containing a Certificate of Completion generated by DocuSign. If you prefer to receive the Certificate of Completion as part of the unified file, you can update your settings to do so.
- Go to the setup wizard for the DocuSign Envelopes table.
- Go to the Fields tab.
- Edit the Combine with Certificate of Completion field.
- Go to the Options tab and scroll down to select the default value.
Where "Choose from the list" is selected, select Yes from the drop-down menu if you want to receive a single file that contains the Certificate of Completion and all the signed documents. If you select No, you will receive a Certificate of Completion as a separate file, in addition to a file with all the signed documents.
This enables the Certificate of Completion for every DocuSign envelope. In most applications, this is a feature you want to enable for all envelopes, or no envelopes. In the rare situation where you do need users to make a choice on each individual envelope, you should instead go to the Layout tab and add this field to the form so that users can access it when creating envelopes.
- Click Finish.
Then, enable the feature in DocuSign:
- Log in to DocuSign and click Settings in the top toolbar.
- Click Signing Settings in the sidebar.
- Scroll down to the Envelope Delivery section and select the "Attach certificate of completion to envelope" checkbox.
Reminders and Expirations
DocuSign reminder and expiration settings determine whether email notifications are sent out to envelope recipients, and whether envelopes have an expiration date after being sent. These are set in the DocuSign account, and can also be configured per envelope or customized for an Agiloft server.
By default:
- Reminders are turned off by default. If you enable them, you specify when and how often to send automatic email reminders. Make sure your reminders will be sent before the envelope expires.
Expirations are set to 120 days by default, meaning any requests you send to sign or view an envelope will expire 120 days after the envelope was sent. You can change the number of days, and you can also opt to send signers an expiration warning. After an envelope expires, it is no longer available for signing.
We recommend enabling the expiration warning, and configuring it to be sent with a low number of days remaining. For example, you might send your reminders three days before the envelope expires. This encourages recipients to complete the envelope as soon as possible.
Manage Account Settings
Adjust the reminders and expiration settings at the account level first, so that your preferred settings are applied by default to all your envelopes. Follow the DocuSign instructions to locate and edit the reminders and expiration settings for the account.
Manage Envelope Settings
If you configured your account to allow senders to override account defaults, you can manually override the reminders and expiration settings when you send an envelope.
- After creating the envelope with its documents and recipient order, click Create and Preview to open the DocuSign preview screen.
- Select Actions > Advanced Options at the upper right of the screen. On small screens, you might need to zoom out to see the Actions menu.
- Manually update the settings for the envelope.
Manage Server Settings
In on-premise installations, you can also assert reminders and expiration settings using a properties file on the server. Doing so overrides the DocuSign account defaults, even if you did not allow senders to override account defaults. These settings will be visible to users in the envelope settings.
Editing the Properties File
To assert these settings at the server level, edit the DSCreateEnvelope.properties configuration file found at ALHOME/$kb/scripts. The properties file contains the variables in the table below.
You can enter hard-coded values in the properties file, or you can specify a field in the DocuSign Envelopes table that defines the variable in the envelope. The latter option allows you to define the settings when you send an envelope, using the DocuSign Envelopes table instead of the DocuSign preview screen.
| Variable Name | Available Parameters | Description |
|---|---|---|
| notification.useAccountDefaults | true|false|yes|no|$fieldname_in_ds_envelopes_with_yesno_choice | When set to true, the account default notification settings are used for the envelope. |
| notification.reminders.reminderEnabled | true|false|yes|no|$fieldname_in_ds_envelopes_with_yesno_choice | When set to true, reminder emails are sent with the envelope in the frequency and delay periods defined below. |
| notification.reminders.reminderDelayed | <integer>|$fieldname_in_ds_envelopes_with_integer | An integer that sets the number of days after the recipient receives the envelope that reminder emails are sent to the recipient. |
| notifications.reminders.reminderFrequency | <integer>|$fieldname_in_ds_envelopes_with_integer | An integer that sets the interval in days between reminder emails. |
| notifications.expirations.expireEnabled | true|false|yes|no|$fieldname_in_ds_envelopes_with_yesno_choice | When set to true, the envelope expires in the defined number of days. If false, the account default setting is used. If the account does not have an expiration setting, the DocuSign default value is 120 days. |
| notification.expirations.expireAfter | <integer>|$fieldname_in_ds_envelopes_with_integer | An integer that sets the number of days the envelope is active. |
| notifications.expirations.expireWarn | <integer>|$fieldname_in_ds_envelopes_with_integer | An integer that sets the number of days before envelope expiration that an expiration warning email is sent to the recipient. If set to 0, no warning email is sent. |
Additional Account Settings
DocuSign offers lots of options for fine-tuning the signature process. Explore the DocuSign admin area to see if any of those additional options apply to you. For example, DocuSign offers these additional features:
- Allow signers to reassign the envelope to someone else
- Allow or request signers to add attachments
- Require a reason if a signer declines to sign
- Require signer authentication
- Enable or disable various tag and field types
- Set reminder and expiration notification and timings
You can find more information about DocuSign's features using the tooltips in the DocuSign admin portal, and by browsing the DocuSign materials on their website.