Send documents for signature

E-Signatures sends a PDF to one or more people to sign by email. Requests and starters belong to Personal or the selected team. Members with edit access can create and change them; members with view access can see them and download their files.

Create a request

Select New request and upload a PDF of up to 25 MB and 500 pages. You can also choose Browse starters to start from a document whose roles and fields are already placed; see Signing starters. To remove or rotate pages, fill in details or redact before sending, open the PDF in the PDF Editor and choose Send for signature there. Password-protected PDFs, and files that cannot be read as a PDF, are refused. The uploaded file is kept unchanged.

The top of the request page shows the three steps (add the people who sign, place their fields, send) with the ones already done ticked, and names the next step. Add each signer by email address under Add a signer; once someone is on the list the form folds away behind Add another signer. Suggestions come from Contacts, and a contact with that address is linked. The name is optional: without one, the contact's name is used, or the part of the address before the @. A role such as Client is optional. The document is shown below the signers with every placed field outlined in its signer's colour. The title, settings, signers and email can be changed on the page until the request is sent: select a value to change it, and it saves when you make the change.

• Signing order: Any order emails every signer when the request is sent. In the order listed emails the first signer, then each next signer after the one before signs. Use Move up and Move down in the More menu on a signer's row to change the order.
• Expires: the request stops accepting signatures the chosen number of days after it is sent, or never.
• Automatic reminders: every 3 or 7 days, signers who have not signed are emailed a new link.
• Access code: choose Require an access code in the More menu on a signer's row to set a code the signer must enter before the document opens. The code is not shown again or included in the email, so give it to the signer another way. To stop requiring it, save the code empty.
• Related invoice: links the request to an invoice in the same context. Once the invoice's contact has signed, their signing page offers Pay while the invoice has a balance and takes card payment.
• Subject and Message: the email signers receive. The default subject is "Please sign:" followed by the title.

Place fields

Select Place fields. Choose a signer in Add a field for, then a field type: Signature, Initials, Date signed, Name, Email, Text or Checkbox. The field is added to the page in view. Drag it to move it and drag its corner to resize it. A selected field can also be moved with the arrow keys, and Shift moves it further. Select a field to show its settings in the row above the pages, which changes the selected field's signer, page, label and whether it is required, and the maximum length of a text field. Each signer's fields have their own colour in the editor; the colours are not added to the signed PDF.

Date signed is filled in with the date the signer finishes, in their browser's time zone. Name and Email start with the signer's name and address, and the signer can change them. Required fields must be completed before a signer can finish; optional fields have a dashed border.

Send

Send to signers sends when there is at least one signer and every signer has an email address and at least one field. If you select it before then, nothing is sent: each signer shows what is still needed, with Place fields where their fields are missing, and the page moves to the first one. A signer whose email address cannot be given a Magpie account shows that too: change the address. Each signer receives an email with a link of their own. When Magpie emails a signer, it makes a free Magpie account for them at that address, unless the address has one already. Signers open the document from the email without signing in. The PDF is not attached to the email. After sending, the document, signers and fields cannot be changed. To send a corrected version, void the request and use Duplicate request from More.

Your own email address must be confirmed before you can send, or change a signer's email address. If it is not, the request page says so, with Send a confirmation link. If you sent documents for signing or proposals to many addresses that had no Magpie account in the last hour, the page says how long to wait before sending again or changing a signer's email address.

The request page shows each signer's status: Waiting, Sent, Viewed, Signed or Declined. An unfinished draft lists what is needed before it can be sent. Send reminder, beside the request's name, emails a new link to everyone who has not signed; the button on a signer's row reminds only that signer. A signer cannot be reminded again until 10 minutes after the last reminder. Change signer, in the More menu on a signer's row, replaces their name and email address before they sign; an address that cannot be given a Magpie account is refused. Links already sent to them stop working, and a signer who had been invited gets a new invitation at the new address.

Declined, expired and voided requests

If a signer declines, the request stops for everyone and you are emailed their reason, if they gave one. A request that passes its expiry date stops accepting signatures and you are emailed. Under Sending, choose a new expiry beside Expires and select Extend. The request becomes active again and existing links work again; the extension is recorded in the activity list. Void request in More stops a request that is waiting for signatures or has expired. It requires a reason, which is recorded in the activity list. Signing links stop working, and signers who were emailed a link receive a cancellation email that does not include the reason.

Completed documents

When the last signer finishes, Magpie writes the values into the PDF, creates a certificate of completion, and emails every signer a link to both. You are emailed too. The request page has downloads for the signed PDF, the certificate, the original PDF, and all three as a ZIP file.

The signed PDF begins with the original file byte for byte and adds the values after it, so the document's own text is not changed. The certificate lists each signer's name, email address, signing time, IP address and browser, how they were verified, the consent statement they accepted, the activity list, and the SHA-256 of the original and signed files. Times on the certificate are UTC. The activity list on the request page records each event when it happens, and events are not changed afterwards.

Text entered by signers is printed with a font that covers Latin, Greek and Cyrillic characters. Characters outside those scripts may not print correctly in the signed PDF.

After completion, Add to Contacts on a signer's row links them to a contact with their email address, or creates one if there is none.

Starters

A starter keeps a document with its signer roles, fields, settings and email text, so a request can start from it. Save as starter in a request's More menu makes one. See Signing starters.

Finding requests

Requests lists requests newest activity first, with tabs for Draft, Waiting, Completed, Declined, Expired and Voided. Search finds a title, signer name, signer email, request ID such as SIG-0042, or a linked contact's name. Filters narrow the list by contact, starter and sender. A contact's page lists documents they signed or declined.

In the mobile app

The mobile app lists requests and starters in the selected Personal or team context. You can start a draft from an active starter, enter its signers' names and email addresses, change the draft title and email text, and send it once every signer has a field. You can check status, send reminders while a request is waiting, and share the original PDF. Completed requests also let you share the signed PDF and certificate. Uploading a new PDF and placing its fields are not available in the mobile app.

Deleting

Delete in More removes a request or starter from E-Signatures. Links to it stop working. A deleted request's signed PDF and certificate are deleted, and its original is deleted when no other request or starter uses it. Download files you need first. Copies in server backups are not removed when you delete a request. A request that is waiting for signatures must be voided before it can be deleted.

For how signing looks to the people you send documents to, see Sign a document you were sent. Electronic signatures can have legal effect depending on the jurisdiction and the circumstances; Magpie does not provide notarization or identity verification beyond the email link and access code. For more help, Contact support.