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Configure data governance rules

 

Adobe Acrobat Sign Guide

What's New

  1. Pre-Release Notes
  2. Release Notes
  3. Important Notifications

Get Started

  1. Quick start guide for administrators
  2. Quick start guide for users
  3. For Developers
  4. Video tutorial library
  5. FAQ

Administer

  1. Admin Console Overview
  2. User Management
    1. Adding users
      1. Add a User
      2. Add Users in Bulk
      3. Add Users from your Directory
      4. Add Users from MS Azure Active Directory
    2. Create function-focused users
      1. Technical accounts - API driven
      2. Service accounts - Manually driven
    3. Check for users with provisioning errors
    4. Change Name/Email Address
    5. Edit a user's group membership
    6. Edit a user's group membership through the group interface
    7. Promote a user to an admin role
    8. User Identity Types and SSO
    9. Switch User Identity
    10. Authenticate Users with MS Azure
    11. Authenticate Users with Google Federation
    12. Product Profiles
    13. Login Experience 
  3. Account/Group Settings
    1. Settings Overview
    2. Global Settings
      1. Account tier and ID
      2. New Recipient Experience
      3. Self Signing Workflows
      4. Send in Bulk
      5. Web Forms
      6. Custom Send Workflows
      7. Power Automate Workflows
      8. Library Documents
      9. Collect form data with agreements
      10. Limited Document Visibility
      11. Attach a PDF copy of the signed agreement 
      12. Include a link in the email
      13. Include an image in the email
      14. Files attached to email will be named as
      15. Attach audit reports to documents
      16. Merge multiple documents into one
      17. Download individual documents
      18. Upload a signed document
      19. Delegation for users in my account
      20. Allow external recipients to delegate
      21. Authority to sign
      22. Authority to send
      23. Power to add Electronic Seals
      24. Set a default time zone
      25. Set a default date format
      26. Users in Multiple Groups (UMG)
        1. Upgrade to use UMG
      27. Group Administrator Permissions
      28. Replace recipient
      29. Audit Report
        1. Overview
        2. Allow unauthenticated access on the transaction verification page
        3. Include reminders
        4. Include view events
        5. Include agreement page/attachment count
      30. In Product Messaging and Guidance
      31. Accessible PDFs
      32. New authoring experience
      33. Healthcare customer
    3. Account Setup
      1. Add logo
      2. Customize company Hostname/URL    
      3. Add company name
      4. Post agreement URL redirect
    4. Signature Preferences
      1. Well formatted signatures
      2. Allow recipients to sign by
      3. Signers can change their name
      4. Allow recipients to use their saved signature
      5. Custom Terms of Use and Consumer Disclosure
      6. Navigate recipients through form fields
      7. Decline to sign
      8. Allow Stamps workflows
      9. Require signers to provide their Title or Company
      10. Allow signers to print and place a written signature
      11. Show messages when e-signing
      12. Require signers to use a mobile device to create their signature
      13. Request IP address from signers
      14. Exclude company name and title from participation stamps
    5. Digital Signatures
      1. Overview
      2. Download and sign with Acrobat
      3. Sign with Cloud Signatures
      4. Include metadata for Identity Providers
      5. Restricted Cloud Signatures Providers
    6. Electronic Seals
    7. Digital Identity
      1. Digital Identity Gateway
      2. Identity Check policy
    8. Report Settings
      1. New report experience
      2. Classic report settings
    9. Security Settings
      1. Single Sign-on settings
      2. Remember-me settings
      3. Login password policy
      4. Login password strength
      5. Web session duration
      6. PDF encryption type
      7. API
      8. User and group info access
      9. Allowed IP Ranges
      10. Account Sharing
      11. Account sharing permissions
      12. Agreement sharing controls
      13. Signer identity verification
      14. Agreement signing password
      15. Document password strength
      16. Block signers by Geolocation
      17. Phone Authentication
      18. Knowledge-Based Authentication (KBA)
      19. Allow page extraction
      20. Document link expiration
      21. Upload a client certificate for webhooks/callbacks
      22. Timestamp
    10. Send settings
      1. Show Send page after login
      2. Require recipient name when sending
      3. Lock name values for known users
      4. Allowed recipient roles
      5. Allow e-Witnesses
      6. Recipient groups
      7. Required fields
      8. Attaching documents
      9. Field flattening
      10. Modify Agreements
      11. Agreement name
      12. Languages
      13. Private messages
      14. Allowed signature types
      15. Reminders
      16. Signed document password protection
      17. Send Agreement Notification through
      18. Signer identification options
        1. Overview
        2. Signing password
        3. One-Time Password via Email
        4. Acrobat Sign authentication
        5. Phone authentication
        6. Cloud-based digital signature
        7. Knowledge-based authentication
        8. Government ID
        9. Signer Identity reports
      19. Content Protection
      20. Enable Notarize transactions
      21. Document Expiration
      22. Preview, position signatures, and add fields
      23. Signing order
      24. Liquid mode
      25. Custom workflow controls
      26. Upload options for the e-sign page
      27. Post-sign confirmation URL redirect
    11. Message Templates
    12. Bio-Pharma Settings
      1. Overview
      2. Enforce identity authentication
      3. Signing reasons
    13. Workflow Integration
    14. Notarization Settings
    15. Payments Integration
    16. Signer Messaging
    17. SAML Settings
      1. SAML Configuration
      2. Install Microsoft Active Directory Federation Service
      3. Install Okta
      4. Install OneLogin
      5. Install Oracle Identity Federation
    18. Data Governance
    19. Time Stamp Settings
    20. External Archive
    21. Account Languages
    22. Email Settings
      1. Email header/footer images
      2. Permit individual user email footers
      3. Customize the Signature Requested email
      4. Customize the To and CC fields
      5. Enable Linkless Notifications
      6. Customize email templates
    23. Migrating from echosign.com to adobesign.com
    24. Configure Options for Recipients
  4. Guidance for regulatory requirements
    1. Accessibility
      1. Accessibility Compliance
      2. Create accessible forms with Acrobat desktop
      3. Create accessible AcroForms
    2. HIPAA
    3. GDPR
      1. GDPR Overview
      2. Redact a user
      3. Redact a user's agreements    
    4. 21 CFR part 11 and EudraLex Annex 11
      1. 21 CRF part 11 validation pack
      2. 21 CFR and EudraLex Annex 11 handbook
      3. Analysis of shared responsibilities
    5. Healthcare customers
    6. IVES support
    7. "Vaulting" agreements
    8. EU/UK considerations
      1. EU/UK Cross-border transactions and eIDAS
      2. HMLR requirements for deeds signed electronically
      3. The impact of Brexit on e-signature laws in the UK
  5. Download Agreements in Bulk
  6. Claim your domain 
  7. Report Abuse links

Send, Sign, and Manage Agreements

  1. Recipient Options
    1. Cancel an email reminder
    2. Options on the e-signing page
      1. Overview of the e-sign page
      2. Open to read the agreement without fields
      3. Decline to sign an agreement
      4. Delegate signing authority
      5. Restart the agreement
      6. Download a PDF of the agreement
      7. View the agreement history
      8. View the agreement messages
      9. Convert from an electronic to a written signature
      10. Convert from a written to an electronic signature 
      11. Navigate the form fields
      12. Clear the data from the form fields
      13. E-sign page magnification and navigation
      14. Change the language used in the agreement tools and information
      15. Review the Legal Notices
      16. Adjust Acrobat Sign Cookie Preferences
  2. Send Agreements  
    1. Send page overview
    2. Send an agreement only to yourself
    3. Send an agreement to others
    4. Written Signatures
    5. Recipient signing order
    6. Send in Bulk
      1. Overview of the Send in Bulk feature
      2. Send in Bulk - Configure a parent template
      3. Send in Bulk - Configure the CSV file
      4. Cancel a Send in Bulk transaction
      5. Add reminders to Send in Bulk
      6. Reporting for Send in Bulk
  3. Authoring fields into documents
    1. In-app authoring environment
      1. Automatic field detection
      2. Drag and drop fields using the authoring environment
      3. Assign form fields to recipients
      4. The Prefill role
      5. Apply fields with a reusable field template
      6. Transfer fields to a new library template
      7. Updated authoring environment when sending agreements
    2. Create forms with text tags
    3. Create forms using Acrobat (AcroForms)
      1. AcroForm creation
      2. Creating accessible PDFs
    4. Fields
      1. Field types
        1. Common field types
        2. In-line Images
        3. Stamp Images
      2. Field content appearance
      3. Field validations
      4. Masked fields values
      5. Setting show/hide conditions
      6. Calculated fields 
    5. Authoring FAQ
  4. Sign Agreements
    1. Sign agreements sent to you
    2. Fill & Sign
    3. Self-signing
  5. Manage Agreements
    1. Manage page overview
    2. Delegate agreements
    3. Replace Recipients
    4. Limit Document Visibility 
    5. Cancel an Agreement 
    6. Create new reminders
    7. Review reminders
    8. Cancel a reminder
    9. Access Power Automate flows
    10. More Actions...
      1. How search works
      2. View an agreement
      3. Create a template from an agreement
      4. Hide/Unhide agreements from view
      5. Upload a signed agreement
      6. Modify a sent agreement's files and fields
      7. Edit a recipient's authentication method
      8. Add or modify an expiration date
      9. Add a Note to the agreement
      10. Share an individual agreement
      11. Unshare an agreement
      12. Download an individual agreement
      13. Download the individual files of an agreement
      14. Download the Audit Report of an agreement
      15. Download the field content of an agreement
  6. Audit Report
  7. Reporting and Data exports
    1. Overview
    2. Grant users access to reporting
    3. Report charts
      1. Create a new report
      2. Agreement Reports
      3. Transaction Reports
      4. Settings Activity Report
      5. Edit a report
    4. Data Exports 
      1. Create a new data export
      2. Edit a data export
      3. Refresh the data export content
      4. Download the data export
    5. Rename a report/export
    6. Duplicate a report/export
    7. Schedule a report/export
    8. Delete a report/export
    9. Check Transaction Usage

Advanced Agreement Capabilities and Workflows

  1. Webforms 
    1. Create a web form
    2. Edit a web form
    3. Disable/Enable a web form
    4. Hide/Unhide a web form
    5. Find the URL or script code 
    6. Prefill web form fields with URL parameters
    7. Save a web form to complete later
    8. Resize a web form
  2. Reusable Templates (Library templates) 
    1. US Government forms in the Acrobat Sign library
    2. Create a library template
    3. Change a library template's name
    4. Change a library template's type
    5. Change a library template's permission level
    6. Copy, edit, and save a shared template
    7. Download the aggregate field data for a library template
  3. Transfer ownership of web forms and library templates
  4. Power Automate Workflows 
    1. Overview of the Power Automate integration and included entitlements
    2. Enable the Power Automate integration
    3. In-Context Actions on the Manage page
    4. Track Power Automate usage
    5. Create a new flow (Examples)
    6. Triggers used for flows
    7. Importing flows from outside Acrobat Sign
    8. Manage flows
    9. Edit flows
    10. Share flows
    11. Disable or Enable flows
    12. Delete flows
    13. Useful Templates
      1. Administrator only
        1. Save all completed documents to SharePoint
        2. Save all completed documents to OneDrive for Business
        3. Save all completed documents to Google Drive
        4. Save all completed documents to DropBox
        5. Save all completed documents to Box
      2. Agreement archival
        1. Save your completed documents to SharePoint
        2. Save your completed documents to One Drive for Business
        3. Save your completed documents to Google Drive
        4. Save your completed documents to DropBox
        5. Save your completed documents to Box
      3. Webform agreement archival
        1. Save completed web form documents to SharePoint Library
        2. Save completed web form documents to OneDrive for Business
        3. Save completed   documents to Google Drive
        4. Save completed web form documents to Box
      4. Agreement data extraction
        1. Extract form field data from your signed document and update Excel sheet
      5. Agreement notifications
        1. Send custom email notifications with your agreement contents and signed agreement
        2. Get your Adobe Acrobat Sign notifications in a Teams Channel
        3. Get your Adobe Acrobat Sign notifications in Slack
        4. Get your Adobe Acrobat Sign notifications in Webex
      6. Agreement generation
        1. Generate document from Power App form and Word template, send for signature
        2. Generate agreement from Word template in OneDrive, and get signature
        3. Generate agreement for selected Excel row, send for review and signature
  5. Custom Send workflows
    1. Custom Send Workflow Overview
    2. Creating a new Send Workflow
    3. Edit a Send Workflow
    4. Activate or Deactivate a Send Workflow
    5. Send an agreement with a Send Workflow
  6. Share users and agreements
    1. Share a user
    2. Share agreements

Integrate with other products

  1.  Acrobat Sign integrations overview 
  2. Acrobat Sign for Salesforce
  3. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft
    1. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft 365
    2. Acrobat Sign for Outlook
    3. Acrobat Sign for Word/PowerPoint
    4. Acrobat Sign for Teams
    5. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft PowerApps and Power Automate
    6. Acrobat Sign Connector for Microsoft Search
    7. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft Dynamics 
    8. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft SharePoint 
  4. Other Integrations
    1. Acrobat Sign for ServiceNow
    2. Acrobat Sign for HR ServiceNow
    3. Acrobat Sign for SAP SuccessFactors
    4. Acrobat Sign for Workday
    5. Acrobat Sign for NetSuite
    6. Acrobat Sign for VeevaVault
    7. Acrobat Sign for Coupa BSM Suite
  5. Partner managed integrations
  6. How to obtain an integration key

Acrobat Sign Developer

  1. REST APIs 
    1. Methods documentation
    2. SDK/Developer Guide
    3. API FAQ    
  2. Webhooks 
    1. Webhook overview
    2. Configure a new webhook
    3. View or edit a webhook
    4. Deactivate or reactivate a webhook
    5. Delete a webhook
    6. Two-way SSL certificates
    7. Webhooks in the API

Support and Troubleshooting

  1. Customer Support Resources 
  2. Enterprise Customer Success Resources 

Data Governance/Retention Overview

By default, Adobe Acrobat Sign securely retains all customer documents on the service for as long as the account is active.

Transactional information persists in the system until the customer takes action to delete the agreements explicitly.

  • The Acrobat Sign service complies with several industry standards for data security and availability such as PCI DSS 3.0, HIPAA, SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001.
Note:

Upon expiration or termination of a Customer’s license to Acrobat Sign, Adobe is under no obligation to retain the Customer’s agreements, audit reports, or other Customer data.

However, if Adobe does retain such data, it will be deleted in accordance with any retention policy that was defined while the Customer had an active Acrobat Sign license.

For customers that prefer to store their agreement records in their own systems, and want to delete the original documents from the Acrobat Sign systems, a “retention policy” can be defined that asserts how long Acrobat  Sign should retain the transaction, and automatically delete the agreement (and optionally the supporting audit/personal data) from Acrobat Sign after that timespan.

Retention rules are defined by an account-level admin in the Data Governance section of the admin menu.

  • Group-level admins do not have the authority to create or disable retention rules
  • Account-level settings are inherited by all groups in the account as their default value
    • Groups must be configured individually if they are to differ from the account-level setting
    • Group-level settings always over-ride the account-level setting
Navigate to Data Governance

Documents/files/attachments vs. Agreements vs. Transactions

  • Documents/files/attachments are all individual files that are uploaded to the Acrobat Sign system. The building materials for the Agreement.
  • Agreements are the customer-facing objects that Acrobat Sign creates from the uploaded files and that recipients fill and/or sign. "Agreement" is the term used to define both the object during the process of obtaining signatures and the final PDF that is generated.
  • Transactions encompass the Agreement and all of the associated logging and documentation that is generated for/by the agreement along the way. (eg: Audit reports, authentication results, field-level data .csv pages)

 

Rule vs RuleID

The term Rule (in the context of this article) describes a prescribed process. In this case, the process that governs when an agreement is deleted from the Acrobat Sign system. It's a generic term used to talk about the idea of applying a variable condition (when to delete an agreement) to another object (agreements in this case).

The term RuleID is used to describe a specific configured rule. When a rule is created, a unique ID number is assigned (thus RuleID) to differentiate it from all other rules. The configured ruleID is the literal object that is related to the agreement

 

Terminal State for an Agreement

Retention rules are triggered when an agreement reaches a "terminal state".

A terminal state is achieved when the agreement has no further actions that can be taken by recipients to complete it.  There are three terminal states:

  • Complete - Achieved when the agreement completes all processes with all recipients successfully.
  • Abandoned - An abandoned agreement has been stopped by explicit action. This action can come from one of several sources:
    • Canceled by the sender
    • Declined by the recipient
    • Failed due to recipient authentication failure
    • Failed due to system error
  • Expired - Agreements that reach their expiry date due to inaction within the defined time period.

How it's used

When an agreement enters a terminal state:

  • Acrobat Sign checks the group-level retention rules of the user that created the agreement (the current group the user is in when the agreement becomes terminal)
    • If there is no group-level rule currently being applied, the account-level rule will be used
    • If the account-level rule is also undefined, no retention rules are defined, and the agreement does not acquire a deletion date
      • Agreements that do not acquire a deletion date when they become terminal can still be deleted via GDPR tools

 

If a retention rule is applied to the agreement:

  • The agreement is scheduled to be deleted based on the rule parameters
  • The applied rule’s RuleID is associated with the transaction, ensuring the correct rule is honored at the time of deletion

 

The terminal agreement waits until the designated deletion time.

  • The number of days until deletion is literal. 
    • E.g.: If 14 days are defined, the deletion action is triggered exactly 14 days (to the second) after the agreement became terminal

 

When the deletion time arrives, Acrobat Sign checks the RuleID to determine if the rule is Disabled or not

  • If the rule is Disabled, no action is taken
  • If the rule has not been Disabled, the agreement is deleted
    • If the option to delete the audit report and personal information (PII) is enabled, this same process applies based on the time interval defined for those documents
      • Accounts using the Government ID authentication method delete the signer identity report (if collected) as part of the PII

Configuration

Availability:

The Data Governance environment is available for team and enterprise license plans.

Configuration scope:

Data Governance rules can be accessed at the account and group levels.

The interface for this feature can be assessed by navigating to the Date Governance tab of the administrator menu.

Create a rule

Configure retention rules at the account-level

Configure the account-level retention (if any) first.

All groups automatically inherit the account-level settings, so if your intention is to apply one policy to all groups, this achieves that goal:

  • Navigate to Account > Account Settings > Data Governance
  • Click the plus icon

The Create Retention Rule overlay presents:

  • Define the number of days an agreement should be retained after it has achieved a terminal state
    • 1 day is the minimum
    • 5475 days (15 years) is the maximum
  • Optionally set a retention period for the agreement audit trail, and associated personal information of the parties involved in the agreement
    • The audit and PII must be retained at least as long as the agreement, and potentially longer
    • If this option is not enabled, the audit record and PII are retained until deleted by some other method (e.g.: GDPR deletion)
Create retention rule

The first rule (at the top of the stack, without an End Date) is the currently applied rule.  Only one rule may be applied for any one group at a time. 

If a new rule is created:

  • The new rule becomes the currently applied rule
    • The new rule is inserted at the top of the list with the Start Date of when the rule was created, and no End Date
  • If there is a previously existing rule actively being applied when the new rule is created: 
    • The previously existing rule stops being applied to newly terminal agreements
    • The previously existing rule moves down the list, just under the new (current) rule
    • The previously existing rule automatically adopts an End Date value that aligns with the Start Date of the new (current) rule
New Rule


Configure retention rules at the group-level

By configuring, the group-level retention rules, you will override the inherited account-level rules for the users currently in the group.

If a user is moved between groups with agreements in progress, the retention rules of the new group apply to any agreements that enter a terminal state while in that group.

Terminal agreements that have a retention rule applied prior to moving the creating user to a new group will honor the deletion date of the applied rule, provided the rule is not disabled before the deletion action.

 

With the above in mind, configuring group-level retention rules is different in only two ways:

To access a group's data governance tab:

  • Navigate to: Account > Groups
  • Single-click the group you want to edit
  • Select Group Settings
Navigate to group settings

 

  • Select the Data Governance option from the left rail
    • Note that if no group-level retention rules are being applied, there is a clear indicator that account-level rules are in effect
Group-level data governance

  • Create new rules by clicking the plus icon (just as with the account-level interface)
Note:

Once rules have been created in groups, you can access those group-level retention rules from the account-level Data Governance tab:

  • Navigate to Account > Account Settings > Data Governance
  • Click the Groups with Retention Rules tab
  • Single-click the group name you want to edit
  • Select View Group Retention Rules and the group-level Data Governance page opens
Access Group settings via Account level data governance

When configuring group-level rules, an additional option to Retain all agreements for this group is available.

This option allows a group to override an account level retention rule, and keep all agreements (for the users in the group) indefinitely.

Retain all agreements


Retention rule status

Enabled – Rules that are still valid for the agreements that entered a terminal state when the rule was being applied

  • The currently applied rule is always at the top of the list and contains no End Date

DisabledDisabled rules are no longer being applied.  If an agreement reached a terminal state under a disabled rule, it will not be deleted on the target deletion day

  • Disabled rules are greyed out
  • Disabled rules may not be re-enabled

ExpiredExpired rules have no terminal agreements that are pending deletion

  • e.g.: If you have a rule for 14 days that has an end date of March 10th, then the rule will expire at the end of March 24th, as all agreements covered by the rule have already been deleted

Legacy - Customers that had a retention policy governed by the legacy back-end setting will see a reflection of that policy as a Legacy retention rule. 

  • Agreements that were already scheduled to be deleted under the legacy rule (before the new rules were put in place) will honor the deletion time of the legacy rule
Rule States


Filtering the rules by status

The list of retention rules can be filtered by clicking the “hamburger” icon in the upper-right of the table.

This set of options allows you to filter for:

  • All rules – The default value
  • Only Enabled rules
  • Only Disabled rules
  • Only Expired rules

You also have the option to return 15, 30, or 50 records per page.

Rule Filters


Disabling a rule

Caution:

Disabling a rule cannot be reversed.

Disabling a rule will cause all remaining agreements subject to the rule to no longer have a deletion date that will be honored.

These agreements would then have to be deleted using GDPR tools.

To disable a rule:

  • Select the rule
  • Click the Disable link
Disable a Rule


Deleted Groups

Retention is based on group-level settings (either explicitly set or inherited from the account-level settings).

Future auditing of retention rules that have been applied demand that a history of the rules persist.

For this reason, the GroupID is not fully deleted. Instead, the necessary settings are kept in place, and can be reviewed/edited thru the account-level admin’s access to Groups.

Deleted groups can be exposed on the Groups page by clicking the “hamburger” icon and selecting Show Only Deleted Groups

Show Deleted groups

Single-click the group to be edited, and click the Group Settings link.

  • Rules can be created and disabled in the same way as when the group was active
Deleted groups


API based Delete action

On-demand retention can be enabled, where customer admins have the option to use the Acrobat Sign API to remove documents individually.

Contact the Support team to enable this option.

Things to know

  • Only one rule can be applied as agreements reach a terminal state 
    • Multiple rules can be Enabled, as a rule stays enabled as long as there are agreements that have a target deletion date (per the scope of the rule)
  • Disabled rules may not be re-enabled. Disabled is forever
  • Retention rules are applied when an agreement enters a terminal state, not when the agreement is created
  • The retention rule applied is based on the group that the creating user is currently in at the time the agreement enters a terminal state
  • There is no way to edit the retention rules applied to an agreement after it has entered a terminal state in terms of the wait time
    • You can disable a rule to prevent the agreement being deleted, but this would prevent the deletion of all agreements that adopted the rule and have not been deleted yet
  • You can determine which rule applies to any agreement by checking the audit report of the agreement and comparing the date when it was completed to the date ranges of your various retention rules
  • 5475 days is the maximum retention period you can install

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The Creativity Conference

Oct 14–16 Miami Beach and online

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Oct 14–16 Miami Beach and online