Papersign Templates Guide

Information about your signers can be configured on the right side of the page while editing any document. Under "Signers," simply select a signer or add a new one to enter information about them.

Signer info can be dynamically added to the document in two ways:

• You can pre-fill attributes into text fields using the connected attributes setting.
• Attributes can be displayed on the document (read-only) using answer piping.

We'll cover both of these features later in the guide.

By default, signers have five attributes:

• Name*
• Email*
• Job title
• Company
• Phone

Only the Name and Email attributes are required (*), which means that you must set a value for each of them before you can send the document out for signatures. The other three are totally optional. You can create additional signer attributes using the “Custom attributes” menu at the bottom of any signer’s settings.

Each custom attribute has two settings:

• Label: the attribute name, like “Mailing Address”
• Value: the signer's info, like “123 Main St.”

You can add as many custom attributes as you like for each signer.

If you are setting up a document for the Paperform to Papersign integration, the value of each attribute will be replaced with an answer from Paperform (you can also set a static value in the integration settings). We recommend using clearly defined labels, and then entering test values for now so that you can see how it works.

In Papersign, text fields on a document can be directly connected to signer attributes.

Select the text field, and you'll see the "Connected attribute" options in the settings panel to the right.

When a text field is connected to a signer attribute, the value for that attribute will automatically pre-fill the field on the document.

Attributes can only be connected to text fields. Other field types (checkbox, dropdown, etc.) are not currently supported.

If you connect multiple fields to the same attribute, this offers an additional benefit: when the signer makes changes to one of those fields, all of the others that are connected to the same attribute will be updated automatically.

For example, let’s say that you send a signature request to your client, Sue Smith. Her name will need to appear in the document several times, so you add several text fields and connect each one with her Name attribute. You’ve set her name to “Sue Smith,” so the relevant document fields are filled with that value automatically.

When Sue signs the document, she decides to update the first field with her legal name, “Suzanne Smith.” After changing this only once, her name will continue to appear as “Suzanne Smith” for the remainder of the document.

Additionally, you don’t need to know the value of a certain attribute ahead of time in order to connect fields to it. For example, let’s say that Sue’s job title will also appear a few times on the contract, but you don’t actually know what her title is ahead of time. You can go ahead and connect those fields to the “Job Title” attribute anyway, but leave the attribute’s value blank. When Sue enters her job title the first time, her answer will automatically be filled into all of the other relevant fields on the document.

“Connected fields” are shortcuts that you can use to add text fields that are already connected to specific attributes. For example, the connected field labeled “Name” will add a text field that is automatically connected to the “Name” attribute. You can find connected fields at the bottom of the list when adding a new field to the document.

New signer attributes can also be configured via connected fields. When adding a field, type the name of a new signer attribute that you would like to create.

Select “Create new custom field,” and then select a signer. The custom attribute will be created for that signer automatically, and the new text field you’ve created will already be connected to it.

Once your completed document has been configured with connected attributes and answer piping, you are ready to use it as a template for future contracts.

You may choose to keep a dedicated "template" version of each type of contract as a draft in your Papersign dashboard, and title it as such. Alternatively, you can use a previously sent document as your template. The important thing is that the original document is set up in such a way that all necessary changes can be made via signer attributes and variables.

When you're ready to send out the next agreement, start by making a copy of the original. You can do this in one of two ways:

• Click the "New Document" button in the top-right corner of the Dashboard, then select "Copy an existing document."

  

• Click the hamburger menu for the original document in the Dashboard and select "Make a copy."

  

Update the document title and settings as needed, then continue to the editor. From here, you can update each signer's information and change the values for your variables.

If everything is set up correctly, the answer piping and connected attributes should automatically pull in the new values, leaving the entire document updated and ready to send.

If this is your first time reusing a particular document, it's a good idea to carefully read through the updated version before sending it out, just to make sure that everything was set up to be piped and pre-filled correctly.

Paperform has a built-in integration with Papersign, which can trigger an automatic signature request in Papersign each time the Paperform web form is submitted. It works like this:

1. A web form (Paperform) is submitted.
2. A copy is made of the connected document (Papersign).
3. The values of the signer attributes and variables in the Papersign document are replaced with mapped answers from the Paperform submission (you can also set static values, which will be the same for every submission).
4. These new values are piped and pre-filled into the document according to your answer piping and text field settings.
5. The document is immediately sent out to the first signer(s) for signatures.

Once your document template is ready in Papersign, follow our guide for setting up the integration in Paperform.