What is a Signing Order in a DocuSign Envelope?

When you add more than one recipient to an Envelope in DocuSign, to get forms signed, you must set a signing order. This determines the order in which the recipients will be emailed the Envelope to view, sign or take action. You can set up a simple sequential routing order (this is the default), where each recipient receives the email notification once the previous recipient has completed their action. You can also have a mix of sequential and parallel routing (set multiple recipients to receive the email notification at the same time). You, as the agent, are not always included in the signing order by default, so will need to be purposeful about adding yourself to the Envelope and putting yourself in the correct place.

Keep in mind, when you add recipients to the Envelope, it doesn't always have to be for signing purposes. There are options for recipients to view only, receive a copy, edit the Envelope details, or even to specify other recipients that you haven't added. These are for very specific use cases, but the signing order will be especially important for these. For example, if you need another agent on your team to make edits or specify additional recipients, you would probably need to set that person first in the signing order so they could take action before signers receive the Envelope. On the other hand, if you designate someone as needing to receive a copy of the Envelope, they would probably need to be set last in the signing order, so the copy they receive includes signatures.

To set the signing order in the Add Recipients to the Envelope section, use the drag and drop functionality to click and move the recipients in the order you want them, or edit the number next to a recipient, where you can add the same signing order number to multiple recipients for parallel routing.

• At the top right of the recipients list, you can click the Signing Order button to view a diagram which allows you to see a visual representation of how your Envelope will be distributed to the recipients.
• If you need to add a delay between steps, click Add Delay, beneath the recipient list. This gives options for delaying based on an interval of days or hours (maximum of 30 days), or you can delay a step until a specific date/time.