How to set a signing order

When order actually matters

Most documents do not need an order. If three partners are signing the same page, letting them all sign at once is faster. Order matters when one signature depends on another.

• Countersignature: an employee signs the offer letter, then the managing director countersigns to bind the company.
• Approval chains: a manager approves a purchase order before finance signs it off.
• Witnessing: the signer signs first, then the witness confirms they saw it.
• Tenancies: tenants sign first, so the landlord only commits once the tenants have.

Setting the order in Sign PDF

After uploading and checking the boxes, look at the signer list. It starts in the order the parties appear in the document. Tick 'In order' in the editor, or 'Sign in order' in the send panel, and the signers are numbered. Use the up and down arrows beside a signer to move them in the sequence.

You can also type 'sign in order' into the assistant and it switches the option on. Check the numbers in the send panel before you send, because that list is the order people will be emailed in. If you are signing too, you sign straight after you press send, before the others are emailed.

When you send, only the first person is emailed. As each person finishes, the next one gets their link automatically. Your dashboard shows who is up now.

Keeping a sequence moving

The weakness of a signing order is that one slow person holds up everyone after them. Turn on automatic reminders (also on the Full plan) so the current signer is nudged. You can send a manual reminder at any time, and set an expiry date so a stalled document does not hang around for months.

If someone further down the chain needs to see the document early, they will have to wait, since they are not emailed until their turn. Tell them what is coming in your message so the email does not surprise them.

What the certificate shows

The certificate of completion lists every signer with the UTC time they opened and signed, so the order is provable afterwards. The audit trail entries are chained by hash, so they cannot be reordered without detection. That matters if someone later argues the company countersigned before the employee had agreed.