VendorPanel has an integration with DocuSign that works with our approval functionality to facilitate the electronic signing of important documents. This is most commonly used to request digital signatures on contracts, submitted through the Advanced Contracts Management module during the approval of a contract initiation.
The usage of the integration with DocuSign is paid functionality. If you are interested in using this, please reach out to your Account Manager at VendorPanel.
Identifying when an Approval requires DocuSign
The below details how you can easily identify when an approval step in VendorPanel will be using DocuSign to request that the approver digitally sign your document.
At the end of the setup of a new contract, there will be an approval step required.
If DocuSign is being used for the approval submission, you will see a section just above the submit button for uploading the document that needs to be signed, see below:
It's important to note that there may be multiple approval steps populated based on the set approval workflow. Some approval steps may be done in-system as opposed to being done through DocuSign. When viewing the approval request and the list of approvers, there will be a 'DocuSign' tag in the top-right corner to indicate this will be the method of approval.
There may be an approval step specific for requesting a signature from the Vendor with a blank email address field that will have the 'DocuSign' label. Here, you will need to enter the email address of the Vendor. Once submitted, this will be the email address that will be sent the request email from DocuSign prompting them to digitally sign the document.
Adding Signer Tags to your document
Signer tags are added to the contract document that is required to be signed through DocuSign to indicate where each signer must sign. It will also ensure the signer is taken directly to where they need to sign so they do not have to scroll through the entire document.
There are three different types of signer tags that can be included in the document:
| <<signer1>> | This indicates where the signature needs to be added. |
| <<signer1name>> | This will automatically add the name of the signer as per their name in VendorPanel. |
| <<signer1date>> | This will automatically add the date and time of when the document is signed. |
You do not necessarily need to use all three, but all are available for each signing activity.
In the tag, the number (e.g. "1") refers to the first person in the list who has been requested to sign. If there are multiple signatures required then they will need to be listed as individual approval steps in VendorPanel and you would update the number in the tag that corresponds with the order in which they will sign the document (e.g. <<signer2name>>).
Add the Signer Tags to the document
Within the document, you will need to add the signer tags in the positions where they will be required, see the example below.
Change the colour of the Signer Tag text
The next step will be to then highlight the tags in the document and change the text colour to match the document background colour (e.g. white). This ensures the tag won't be visible in the document, but DocuSign will still be able to recognise the tags.
Save your changes
Once completed, save your changes in the document. Depending on your internal process, you may be instructed to save the document in PDF format. It can then be submitted to DocuSign as a Microsoft Word document or a PDF, so please check internally for the correct process.
Submitting your Request for Signature
Once your document is ready with the signer tags, you can upload the file in VendorPanel on the approval submission page.
You can then select the Submit button below the list of approvers. The approvals will be sent in sequential order, meaning once the first approval step is completed, it will be sent to the next approver until all approval steps have been completed.
Viewing the signed document
Once all signatures have been completed, the submitter will be notified through email. Against the submission record, the signed document and a 'certificate of completion' produced by DocuSign will be available to download through the below button:
Using our above example, this is how the signature will output on the document:
From there, the setup of the contract would have been fully approved and you can confirm the contract.
Once the contract is in a management phase, the signed document will be accessible under the Details tab and the Documents sub-area, at the bottom of the page under the Approve Documents section.