How to Set Up a Document Signing Workflow for Your Team

Why You Need a Signing Workflow

When one person handles all document signing, the process can be as simple as "upload, sign, send." But the moment you add team members — sales reps sending contracts, HR onboarding employees, operations managing vendor agreements — chaos can set in quickly.

Without a defined workflow, you get:

• Different people using different templates (or no template at all)
• Documents sent without required approvals
• No visibility into what's been sent, what's pending, and what's completed
• Inconsistent branding and terms across documents
• No audit trail showing who authorized what

A document signing workflow solves these problems by creating a repeatable, trackable process that scales with your team.

Step 1: Map Your Current Document Flow

Before building a new workflow, document your existing one. For each document type your team handles, answer:

1. Who initiates the document? (Sales rep, HR manager, operations lead?)
2. What template or source document is used?
3. Does anyone need to approve the document before it's sent for external signature?
4. Who are the signers? (Internal, external, or both?)
5. What's the signing order? (Sequential, parallel, or hybrid?)
6. Where does the completed document get stored?
7. Who needs to be notified when the document is completed?

Map this for your top 5-10 document types. You'll likely find inconsistencies and inefficiencies that you can fix in the new workflow.

Step 2: Standardize Your Templates

Templates are the foundation of a consistent signing workflow. For each document type, create a single approved template that your team uses.

Template Best Practices

• Use your brand — Include your logo, brand colors, and professional formatting. First impressions matter, and a polished document builds trust.
• Pre-place fields — In DottiSign, place all signature, date, text, and checkbox fields on the template. Assign each field to a signer role (e.g., "Client," "Company Representative," "Approver"). When the template is used, the sender just assigns people to roles — no manual field placement needed.
• Lock what shouldn't change — Legal language, standard terms, and company information should be fixed in the template. Only variable information (client name, project details, pricing) should be editable.
• Version control — Name templates with version numbers (e.g., "Service Agreement v3.2"). When you update a template, archive the old version rather than deleting it — you may need to reference it for existing contracts.

Essential Template Library

Department	Template	Typical Signers
Sales	Service Agreement	Sales rep (internal), Client
Sales	NDA	Authorized signer (internal), Counterparty
Sales	Proposal / SOW	Sales rep (internal), Client
HR	Offer Letter	HR manager (internal), Candidate
HR	Employee Handbook Acknowledgment	Employee
HR	NDA (Employee)	Employee
Operations	Vendor Agreement	Operations lead (internal), Vendor
Finance	Invoice Acknowledgment	Client
Legal	Amendment / Change Order	Authorized signer (internal), Counterparty

Step 3: Define Approval Chains

Not every document needs approval before being sent — but some definitely do. Define clear rules for when approval is required:

Approval Rules by Threshold

• Under $5,000: No approval required. Team members can send directly from the template.
• $5,000 - $25,000: Department manager approval required before external sending.
• $25,000 - $100,000: Department manager + VP approval.
• Over $100,000: Department manager + VP + CEO/CFO approval.

In DottiSign, you can set up signing orders that include internal approvers before external signers. The document moves through the approval chain automatically — no manual forwarding needed.

Non-Financial Approvals

Some documents require approval for reasons beyond dollar value:

• Any document with non-standard terms needs legal review
• HR documents involving policy exceptions need HR director approval
• Vendor agreements involving data sharing need IT security review

Step 4: Set Up Signing Routing

Signing routing determines the order in which people sign a document. The three main patterns are:

Sequential Signing

Signers receive the document one at a time, in a specified order. Each person must complete their portion before the next person receives the document.

Best for: Documents where later signers need to see what earlier signers entered (e.g., a manager approving an employee's submitted form).

Parallel Signing

All signers receive the document simultaneously and can sign in any order.

Best for: Documents where signers are filling out independent sections (e.g., multiple witnesses on a legal document, or multiple department heads acknowledging a policy).

Hybrid Signing

A combination of sequential and parallel. For example: internal approval (sequential) followed by multiple external signers (parallel).

Example flow:

1. Sales rep prepares the document (sequential — step 1)
2. Sales manager approves (sequential — step 2)
3. Client CEO and Client CFO both sign (parallel — step 3)
4. Your company's authorized signer countersigns (sequential — step 4)

Step 5: Automate Reminders and Notifications

Configure automatic behaviors to reduce manual follow-up:

Automatic Reminders

Set reminder schedules for unsigned documents. A standard schedule:

• First reminder: 24 hours after sending
• Second reminder: 3 days after sending
• Third reminder: 5 days after sending
• Escalation: 7 days — notify the document sender that the signer hasn't responded

Completion Notifications

When a document is fully signed, notify relevant stakeholders automatically:

• The document sender receives the completed document
• The team admin gets a notification for tracking purposes
• Relevant department heads are notified of completed contracts above certain thresholds

Expiration Alerts

Set documents to expire after a defined period. When a document is approaching expiration, alert the sender so they can follow up directly or resend.

Step 6: Organize Document Storage

Completed documents need to be stored in an organized, searchable system. Set up a folder structure that your team can navigate easily:

• By department: Sales / HR / Operations / Legal
• By status: Active / Expired / Terminated
• By client/vendor: Alphabetical folders for each counterparty

DottiSign stores all completed documents with full-text search, so you can find any document by searching for the client name, signer name, or any text within the document. Combined with the audit trail, every document is fully traceable.

Step 7: Set Permissions and Access Controls

Not everyone on your team should have access to every document. Configure permissions based on roles:

Role	Can Create/Send	Can View	Can Manage Templates	Can View All Team Docs
Team Member	Yes (own docs)	Own docs only	No	No
Team Lead	Yes	Department docs	Yes	Department only
Admin	Yes	All docs	Yes	Yes

Step 8: Train Your Team

A workflow only works if your team follows it. Invest time in training:

1. Live walkthrough — Show the team how to use templates, send documents, and track status in DottiSign. Record the session for future hires.
2. Quick reference guide — A one-page document showing which template to use for each scenario, approval requirements, and where to go for help.
3. Designate a point person — Someone on the team who becomes the workflow expert and can answer questions from colleagues.
4. Feedback loop — After the first month, gather feedback from the team. What's working? What's friction? Adjust the workflow based on real usage.

Step 9: Monitor and Optimize

Track these metrics to measure your workflow's effectiveness:

• Average turnaround time — How long from sending to completion?
• Completion rate — What percentage of sent documents are completed?
• Template usage — Are team members using the approved templates or going off-script?
• Bottleneck identification — Which step in the signing process takes the longest?
• Error rate — How often do documents need to be voided and resent?

Review these metrics monthly for the first quarter, then quarterly ongoing. Small adjustments — like reordering signers, adjusting reminder timing, or simplifying a template — can have a significant impact on efficiency.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

1. Over-engineering the workflow — Start simple. A perfect workflow on paper that's too complex to follow in practice is worse than a simple workflow that everyone actually uses.
2. No enforcement — If the workflow is optional, it won't be followed. Make it the only path for sending documents for signature.
3. Ignoring the signer experience — Your internal workflow is important, but don't forget that external signers need a smooth experience too. Test the signing experience from the recipient's perspective.
4. Static templates — Review and update templates at least annually. Business terms, legal requirements, and pricing change over time.
5. No backup plan — What happens when the workflow owner is on vacation? Document the process and cross-train at least one backup person.