Optional 2nd Signature for Docusign integration?

vdemattei

I've finally figured out how to get Docusign integrated with a generated PDF contract in Smartsheet. Now I'm running into an issue with the second signatory being optional. Often, we only need 1 signature on our contracts, but sometimes, there is a co applicant that can also sign. When Smartsheet doesn't find a name or email in the designated columns for the co applicant, it won't generate the contract for signature at all. I'd prefer for Smartsheet to send the document for signature to the first signatory and if there isn't a 2nd listed, just bypass and send anyways.

My current workaround is to generate 2 different versions of my contract: 1 with only 1 signature line and a 2nd contract that has 2 signature lines. I will no longer be able to use an automation to generate/send the document. I'll have to right click on the row, generate document, then make sure to select the correct version of the contract based on whether or not there's a co applicant for that particular application.

Darren Mullen

@vdemattei I had the same situation a couple years ago, and I think I was generating the manually and picking the appropriate template like you are.

Since Smartsheet has since added the ability to send out DocuSigns via automation, I haven't testing this, but maybe something to try.... Can you create an automation with a condition that checks if you need one or two signatures and then let the automation choose the appropriate template/DocuSign mapping based on the branch the automation takes?

vdemattei

@Darren Mullen , thank you for your response. I believe your suggestion could help in theory. When speaking to my client, it sounds like they only need 1 signature MOST of the time, so I revised my documents for only 1 signature and reset all my automations to generate the document with only 1 signature. IF 2 signatures are needed, my client can manually generate the 2 signature document. This works in our specific case, but I can see your solution being more useful if both versions of the document are used more equally.

Darren Mullen

@vdemattei Thanks for the follow up!

Your solution sounds pretty reasonable to me :)

vdemattei

@Darren Mullen I have since also incorporated your original suggestion. I am using Smartsheet's conditional logic to check for a condition to generate a document from 1 mapping and otherwise, generate a document from a different mapping. I'm quite pleased with this solution, so thank you for the idea!

My specific uses are this: 1 applicant vs. 2 applicants: Check for co-applicant name - if none, use 1 signature mapping, if there is a co-applicant, use the 2 signature mapping.

We also have a different contract for Veterans (for a different program, so this is a separate instance than the above), in this case: Check for check box under "Veteran" column. If unchecked, use standard contract mapping, if it is checked, use Veteran contract mapping.

Darren Mullen

@vdemattei Great! I'm happy my suggestion worked for you !

Thank you again for the updates. It's nice to hear back when you give a useful solution !

vdemattei

@Darren Mullen Of course!

Some more follow up for you/more findings on this topic: There is a minor issue with the above solution, specifically when utilizing docusign with the document generation. I love the feature to include the status column to track the docusign progress. However, when using a conditional trigger to select one document or the other, you would need to have either 2 separate status columns (1 for each document), or no status column for the 2nd document. Since the 2nd document will rarely be used in our case, I just didn't bother with the 2nd status column. However, I can see a solution to have both status columns as hidden "helper" columns and a 3rd column that combines the info from both status columns into a single document status column. You would just lose the hyperlinks back to docusign.