Prerequisites: You have Edit access to Signing.
Before anyone can be sent a pack, Legatics needs to know which parties are signing each document and which signatories sign for them. There are three places you can set this up, and they all work together.
Three ways to set up signers
Where | When it is useful |
The signature page view, while tagging on upload or in the Signature pages area | You want to set up signers as you tag. See Managing signature pages. |
The Signers area | You know who is signing before the documents arrive and want everything ready in advance. See Managing signers: entities and people. |
The Parties tab on a document's side panel | You want to set up the parties and signatories for one document. See Viewing a document's details. |
Whichever you use, every entity and person you create is added to the Signers area, so it is always the single record of everyone involved in the signing.
Setting up parties and signatories on a document is not the same as tagging. Tagging says exactly which signatories sign each signature page, and is done in the signature page view. If you add parties to a document first, they will already be listed when you come to tag, so all that is left is ticking the right signatories on each page.
Adding a party
The steps are the same in the signature page view and on the Parties tab.
Click Add parties.
Either:
Search for and tick an existing entity or person, then click Add party, or
Click Create legal entity and enter the entity's name, or
Click Create person and enter their name, with an email address if you have it.
Adding signatories to an entity
Once an entity is added as a party, you can add the people who will sign on its behalf.
Under the entity's name, click Add signatories. (On a document's Parties tab, this is an icon on the party's row.)
Either:
Tick one or more people from the list, or
Click Add new signatory and enter their name, with an email address if you have it.
Click Add signatory (the button shows how many you are adding).
If you are tagging, then tick the signatories who sign the page you are on.
Adding unknown signatories
Sometimes you know an entity needs, say, two signatories but you do not yet know who they will be. You can still tag the page using unknown signatories.
Under the entity's name, click Add signatories.
Under Unknown signatories, use + and - to set how many you need.
Click Add signatory.
They appear as Unknown signatory 1, Unknown signatory 2 and so on.
[Screenshot: The Add signatories panel, including the unknown signatories counter.]
Naming an unknown signatory
You can name an unknown signatory at any time, including after the document has been collated. When you find out who an unknown signatory is:
Hover over the unknown signatory.
Click the Name this signatory icon next to their name.
Pick an existing person from your signers, or enter a new name.
What you need before sending through DocuSign
DocuSign sends to the people you list as signatories, so each one needs the following before you send:
A name and a valid email address for every person who will receive the document.
At least one named signatory under every entity. DocuSign sends to the people under the entity, not to the entity's own email address.
No unknown signatories. They have no name or email, so they block sending through DocuSign until you name them.
Downloading a pack is never blocked by any of these.
Names and emails
Two people, or two entities, can have the same name. Where names match, the pickers show a second line to tell them apart: the email address for a person, and the description or contact email for an entity. Two people can also share an email address, in which case each one is a separate recipient.
Caution: Parties often get a defined term in an agreement, such as Buyer, Seller, Borrower or Lender. Do not use these terms to name parties in Legatics. Use the full legal entity name.
Signed documents
You cannot add or remove parties and signatories on a document that has been signed.