Complete known information before recipients see the agreement. Prefill fields help reduce back-and-forth, improve accuracy, and create a smoother signing experience by ensuring required data is already in place.
Adobe Acrobat Sign allows senders to enter information into specific agreement fields before the document moves to the signing phase. You can use prefill fields in a one-time agreement or in reusable templates created in the document library.
Benefits of prefill fields
Prefill fields give you more control over the agreement before it reaches recipients. Use them to:
- Enter known data in advance, such as account numbers, order details, or internal references.
- Reduce recipient errors by limiting what they must complete.
- Standardize information across agreements and templates.
- Shorten turnaround time by eliminating unnecessary clarification requests.
- Improve data quality by ensuring required values are accurate before signing begins.
When used consistently, prefill fields create a cleaner signing experience and reduce follow-up work after the agreement is sent.
Availability
- Acrobat Sign Solutions: Supported
- Acrobat Sign for Government: Supported
- Acrobat Standard and Acrobat Pro: Supported
Field types that support prefill
Only certain field types can be assigned the Sender Name(Prefill) role. These fields are completed during the prefill phase, before recipients receive the agreement.
Supported field types:
- Text field
- Payment field
- Drop-down
- Checkbox
- Radio button
- Image
- File attachment, available with business and enterprise service levels.
Other field types cannot be used during the prefill phase. Those fields can only be completed during signing. If the sender is also a signer, they can complete fields assigned to the sender (as a recipient) during the signing phase.
Transaction phases
Agreements move through the following phases:
- Create a transaction.
- Upload a document or select one from the document library.
- Preview and edit phase, optional.
- Available when the Preview, position, or add form fields option is selected.
- Fields can be placed and edited.
- Prefill phase, optional.
- Available only when prefill fields are present.
- The sender can complete the fields assigned to Prefill.
- Signing phase.
- Recipients sign the agreement.
- If the sender is also a signer, they can complete fields assigned as a recipient.
- Transaction complete.
- All participants receive a signed and filed copy of the agreement.
Set the Prefill role before placing a field
Enterprise accounts have the option to select Prefill as if that role were a recipient before placing a field.
- Select the recipient dropdown.
- Select {Sender Name} (Prefill) from the list of recipients.
- Drag and place all fields that should be prefilled onto the document.
Acrobat Pro and Standard accounts must first manually assign one field to the Prefill role before the option is available in the list of recipients.
