Reusable form with assigned signature fields

Question

I have a pdf form set up for employees to access from our internal site and complete as needed. There are required date fields that the employee must complete before the form is sent for approval (signatures).

The approvers consist of a committee, requiring a specific number of signatures but not all for approval. Without assigning the signature fields to specific recipients, the signers would have to sign, save and then send to the next signer. Because all don’t have to sign, that is not practical.

The signature fields need to be assigned to specific approvers (signers). This would allow each recipient to receive a notification each time a signature is added so they know if the approval is complete or if a signature is still required.

I have figured out how to add recipients and assign signature fields to each recipient but I haven’t found a way to save those assigned fields to the blank pdf form and still allow employees to complete the data fields before it is sent for signatures (approval). I tried to save it as a template but that doesn’t allow the data fields to be completed.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Amal Jaiswal · Accepted Answer

​Hi @sandys1348 Hope you are doing well, and thanks for reaching out. The workflow you are trying to achieve is doable, just not through the regular "Save as template" option in Acrobat itself; that path only carries over the form fields, not signer assignments. A couple of quick questions so I can point you at the right steps: Are you sending this for signature through Acrobat Sign (the e-signature service), or are you just distributing the PDF as an AcroForm and having people sign and forward it manually?Does your Acrobat Sign account already have Library Templates enabled (you'd see a "Create a Reusable Template" option on your Sign home screen)? Assuming you're on Acrobat Sign, here's what usually solves this: Instead of building a regular fillable PDF and saving it as a template, create a Library Template directly in Acrobat Sign. When you do this, recipients are represented as generic roles: Participant 1, Participant 2, and so on, instead of named people. Here's how to set one up: Create a Library TemplateAssign your data fields (the ones the employee fills in) to Participant 1, and assign each signature field to a separate participant role (Participant 2, 3, 4...) for each approver seat on the committee. This works the same way for templates as it does for regular agreements: Assign form fields to recipientsBecause the template stores roles rather than actual email addresses, it stays reusable. Each time someone sends the agreement from the template, they fill in the real name/email for each participant role, and the field assignments (and notification triggers) carry over automatically. More background on how Library Templates work in general: Adobe Acrobat Sign Library Templates Please note that your "not everyone on the committee has to sign, just enough of them" requirement is a bit more advanced than a standard signing order. Acrobat Sign doesn't have a native "any 2 of 5" rule out of the box. If your account has custom workflows enabled, that might get you closer. Worth a look here: Custom sending workflows overview. You may also want to check with your account admin on the recipient roles available to your plan: Allow various recipient rolesHope this will help. ~Amal

sandys1348 · Answer

Unfortunately, our employees do not have an adobe sign license so they wouldn’t be able to fill in the data fields and send for a signature. Since submitting this question, I have discovered the difference in creating the form in adobe sign and see what you’re referring to about the participant 1, 2,3, ...). Unfortunately, that isn’t going to help me since the employee’s using the form would need a license to be able to send the form for signatures. We have too many that would need that ability to justify the cost for a single form.

Thank you so much for the information though. If we have additional forms in the future, at least I now know how I can implement them.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.