This article describes the new Send in Bulk experience accessed from the Home page when enabled. (Released in November 2023.) Note that the Send in Bulk environment has a link that allows users to switch between the new and classic experiences.

This new experience is enabled by default for new accounts after the November 2023 release and enabled by an administrator for accounts that existed prior to the November 2023 release.

The classic Send in Bulk process document is still available and will remain so until the experience is retired in May of 2025.

Create a Send in Bulk parent template using a CSV file to configure agreements

Creating a Send in Bulk template with a comma-separated values (CSV) file requires the sender to determine which values in the interface should be globally applied to all child agreements and then construct the CSV file to apply the custom settings per agreement. Only the recipient's email address is required for the CSV input method to successfully generate child agreements. All other values can be inherited from the Send in Bulk interface settings.

The CSV import method provides several practical improvements over the manual method, such as:

Up to 1,000 child agreements can be configured for one Send in Bulk transaction.
Up to 100 recipients can be included in each child agreement. Each recipient can have their own:
- Role
- Authentication type (including Email (None), Acrobat Sign auth, Phone (SMS), Password, and Knowledge-based authentication)
- Authentication value
- Private message (up to 1,000 characters)
Each child agreement can include:
- Custom agreement name
- Custom "global message" in the email (up to 1,000 characters)
- Custom locale
- Custom expiration date
- Complex workflow structures (Sequential, Parallel, and Hybrid signature flows)

Alert:

Using the Send in Bulk CSV upload option does not support in-app authoring of fields. All fields must be placed on the document template before uploading to the Send in Bulk interface.

Create the CSV file

A CSV file is best created using a spreadsheet application like Excel, Numbers, Google Sheets, etc. Most spreadsheets can export into a CSV format, which is required for the upload to succeed.

Spreadsheets present the data in an easily readable table format, where the rows (i.e., records) and columns (i.e., fields) are easily discernable. When creating your CSV, each row represents one child agreement, and each column is one argument applied to the agreement (like the recipient email and personalized form fields).

Two things to consider before you start to build your CSV:

The Send in Bulk template allows the configuration of many agreement options, and if the CSV does not explicitly define a setting, the default value from the template is used. So if all agreements have the same Agreement name, don't include that column in your CSV file.
A value does not need to be placed in every field because a column exists. Empty fields are ignored, and the default from the Send in Bulk template is used. So there is no need to fill in every field in every record.

The CSV itself can be divided into three meaningful sections:

Note:

The new Send in Bulk environment does not currently support configuring the sender to sign first through the user interface.

Customers using a legacy CSV file in the new experience will not be able to insert the Sender as the first signer. A new CSV using the new formatting must be created with the sender defined as the first recipient for each child agreement.

At least one and up to 100 recipients can be included in each child agreement.

Each recipient can be defined by five fields:

Recipient_X:Email
Recipient_X:Role
Recipient_X:Auth_Type
Recipient_X:Auth_Value
Recipient_X:Private_Message

Where _X is the recipient index number (Recipient_1, Recipient_2, etc) and the argument after the : is the value used by the system to construct the agreement.

Only the email address is required. All other values can be ignored or inherited from the parent template by omitting the column or leaving the field empty.

Example of a CSV file showing the six recipient columns

Note:

Defining recipient values like the recipient name, title, and company can be achieved using uniquely named column headers that map to the like-named fields in the document. See Defining custom fields for merging field data into the agreements below.

Column headers are case-sensitive and must match the field names exactly.

Field values:

:Email - This field accepts any string in an email format (x@y.zz). Values in the :Email field that don't comply with the email format trigger an error.

:Role - Accepts the standard Roles for agreements:

SIGNER
APPROVER
ACCEPTOR
FORM_FILLER
CERTIFIED_RECIPIENT

:Auth_Type - Accepts one of the below authentication methods. If an authentication method is defined that isn't enabled for the sending group, and error will be generated.

PASSWORD - Password authentication requires the customer to enter the password value defined in the :Auth_Type field.
KBA - Knowledge-based Authentication. US authentication only. The recipient is required to answer several questions drawn from public database sources.
ADOBE_SIGN - Adobe Acrobat Sign authentication. Requires the recipient to authenticate to the Adobe identity system.
PHONE - Text or Voice authentication delivered to the phone number defined in the :Auth_Value field.

:Auth_Value - Only applicable to PHONE and PASSWORD authentications. No other Auth_Type should include an Auth_Value. Accepts a string that defines the value used to validate the authentication method (when applicable).:

PASSWORD authentication - A string that defines a value the recipient must enter to pass the authentication challenge.
PHONE authentication - A string of numbers that defines the recipient's phone number. The phone number will be used to communicate the code to the recipient.
- The phone number must be formatted to have a hyphen between the country code and the phone number (e.g., 1-5555551212 and 91-9934765344)
- The phone number format may include a plus at the beginning and hyphens within the number to produce a more human-readable string as desired. (e.g., +1-555-555-1212)

:Private_Message - A string of up to 1000 characters delivered to the recipient as a private message in their email body and on the e-signing page.

These columns relate to the Agreement details and Agreement settings sections of the Send in Bulk configuration UI. When configuring the Send in Bulk transaction in the Acrobat Sign interface, you are setting the default values to be used if there isn't a value explicitly defined in these columns. There are five distinct fields:

Locale - This defines the language (localization) applied to the recipient's experience. The email and e-signing page elements that are part of the Acrobat Sign template are localized only. Custom content added by the sender is not translated. The available values are:

Basque (Spain) - eu_ES
Bokmål (Norwegian) - nb_NO
Catalan (Spain) - ca_ES
Chinese - zh_CN
Chinese (Taiwan) - zh_TW
Croatian - hr_HR
Czech - cs_CZ
Danish - da_DK
Dutch - nl_NL

Finnish - fi_FI
French - fr_FR
German - de_DE
Hebrew - iw_IL
Hungarian - hu_HU
Icelandic - is_IS
Indonesia - in_ID
Italian - it_IT
Japanese - ja_JP

Korean - ko_KR
Malay - ms_MY
Norwegian - no_NO
Nynorsk (Norwegian) - nn_NO
Polish - pl_PL
Portuguese - pt_PT
Portuguese (Brazil) - pt_BR
Romanian - ro_RO
Russian - ru_RU

Slovak - sk_SK
Slovenian - sl_SI
Spanish - es_ES
Swedish - sv_SE
Thai - th_TH
Turkish - tr_TR
Ukrainian - uk_UA
UK English - en_GB
US English - en_US
Vietnamese - vi_VN

Agreement_Name - The Agreement name value that is inserted into the recipient email and provided on the Manage page.
Expires - This field defines the number of days before the agreement will be automatically canceled.
Agreement_Message - Defines the global message inserted into the recipient's email body.
Order - This field describes the recipient flow:
- A string of recipients with only commas delimiting each recipient is identified as a sequential signature flow.
- All recipients within parentheses (Recipient_1,Recipient_2), are identified as being in a parallel signature flow. All members are notified at the same time, and all must sign.
- You can freely mix these methods in any order to create a hybrid signature flow:
  e.g., Recipient_1,Recipient_2,(Recipient_3,Recipient_4,Recipient_5),Recipient_6,(Recipient_7,Recipient_8),Recipient_9

The CSV file with the agreement related columns visible

Adding custom field mapping to the Send in Bulk transaction begins with understanding the field name in the template you upload. The CSV file must use the document template's field name as the column header name.

For example, if you have a field in the document template named Investment, the column header in the CSV must be Investment.

If you intend to fill a field named StreetAddress , the column header in the CSV must be StreetAddress.

Column headers are case-sensitive and must match the field names exactly.

An example CSV file with two custom field columns added

Caution:

There are six reserved words that cannot be used as custom field names:

Name
Title
Company
Email
Date
Role

Caution:

The CSV file may not have a comma or blank space at the end of any row or at the end of the CSV file.

Having a comma or blank space at the end of a row or at the end of the file will trigger an error message: "Error reading the CSV file provided."

Example of a CSV file highlighting trailing commas and a blank line at the end of the file.

How to send the Send in Bulk transaction to generate the child agreements

Log in with a user that has access to the Send in Bulk feature enabled in their primary group and navigate to the Home page.
Select the Send in Bulk tile.

If the tile is not present, then the user's primary group does not have Send in Bulk enabled.

Contact your Acrobat Sign administrator to provide access to the Send in Bulk feature for the user's primary group.

If an error is generated asserting you don't have sufficient access, then the user's primary group isn't configured to allow access Send in Bulk, but the user is a member of a group with access.

Access to the Send in Bulk interface requires the user to have the feature enabled in their primary group.
Once the Send in Bulk interface loads:
1. Select the group from which the agreements are to be sent. If the group picker isn't interactive, then you only have access to one group. The group defines:
  
  the templates available for the transaction
  
  the signature options and requirements requirements
  
  the security applied to the agreements
2. Select the file to be used as the base document for the agreement. You can select a file from:
  
  My computer. Selecting a file from your computer advances the configuration process immediately. If you need to use multiple files, you can select more files after the page refreshes.
  
  Template Library. Selecting from the Template option allows you to select multiple files from the library by checking the box in the list. Once all files are checked, select the Confirm button to add them to the transaction. The template library has two tabs:
  
  Templates. This is a listing of all templates available to the user through the group's template library.
  
  Recent Templates. This is a list of the most recently used templates in the group's template library.
All values defined in the Agreement details are applied to all child agreements.

Note:

A link may be enabled in the upper-right corner of the window that allows users to switch to the classic version of the Send in Bulk feature.

All values defined in the Agreement details are applied to all child agreements.
A. Send from (group picker) - When the user has membership in more than one group, the Send from drop-down allows the sender to pick the group from which the child agreements will be sent. If the user only has membership in one group, the field is greyed out and inactive.

B. Agreement name - The provided Agreement name is applied to all child agreements as a default value. If an Agreement name isn't explicitly provided, the file name of the first uploaded file is entered automatically.
Unique names can be provided per agreement using the CSV file to name the agreements. Using a meaningful and unique agreement name facilitates producing reports and data exports for the Send in Bulk transaction.

C. Add file - One or more files uploaded to provide the basis for the agreement. When multiple files are added, all files will be concatenated into one PDF file for the recipient to review. The order the files are listed (top to bottom) in the interface faithfully represents the order the files are concatenated together.

D. Agreement Settings - A group of settings that govern the child transactions outside the agreement itself. These values are applied as the default values for all child agreements.
Each of these settings can be explicitly defined for each child agreement on the CSV file and, if defined, will replace the default values.
- Completion deadline - The date the child agreements automatically expire.
- Reminder frequency - They cycle that reminders are sent to the currently active recipient.
- Password - Defines the password required to view the final PDF. This password is embedded into the PDF and isn't observable in the Acrobat Sign system.
- Language - Defines the locale applied to the email and recipient environment.
The page refreshes to show the Agreement details.

There are three sections to review and edit as needed:
- Agreement files - The selected files or templates are already attached. If you need more files attached, select the Choose more files button and add files from your local computer or the template library.
  
  Files can be added from both sources as needed.
  
  Files selected from your local system can only be added one at a time. Multiple templates can be selected.
- Agreement name - The name of the agreement appears in the subject line of the recipient's email and is displayed prominently on the Manage page.
  
  The default Agreement name is imported from the first attached file.
  
  The agreement name is editable by clicking into the field and typing.
- Message - The message field contains the default message that is inserted in the email body for all recipients. To edit the message field, click into the field and start typing.
Verify or configure the Completion deadline.

Depending on the nature of your agreements, you may or may not employ an agreement deadline.
If used:
- The default lifespan of agreements is defined at the group level. If you must edit this value frequently, talk with your admin to see if the default can be adjusted.
- The sender can modify this deadline during agreement composition (if group settings permit).
- Deadlines can be modified on the Manage page by the original sender (if group settings permit).
- Internal signers can be excluded from the deadline cancellation (if configured to do so in the group settings).
- The agreement automatically expires once the deadline is crossed and cannot be signed or completed. A new agreement must be created.
Edit the Completion deadline by selecting the Agreement settings edit icon and picking a new deadline from the calendar.
Note:

All agreements expire after being in progress for 365 days if not completed. This expiration deadline cannot be modified or suppressed.
Verify or modify the Reminder frequency.

The reminder frequency defines the cycle when reminders are emailed to the current active recipients for your agreement.
- The default reminder iteration is defined in the group settings.
- A default reminder message can be configured in the group settings.
- The default reminder can be edited during agreement composition (If permitted by group settings).
- Reminders that trigger every day have a 10-day life cycle. All other reminders have a 60-day lifecycle. Reminder lifespans cannot be altered.
- Reminder emails are sent at the same time of day the agreement is initially sent.
- Reminders can be configured on the Manage page after the agreement is sent.
- Recipients are only notified when they are the active participant in the agreement. They are not notified before or after (with the exception of the final notification containing the completed agreement PDF).
Edit the Reminder frequency by selecting the Agreement settings edit icon and picking a new frequency from the dropdown.
Add a password to view the final PDF.

The password entered into this field is exclusively for viewing the PDF.
- The password to view the final agreement PDF can be configured as a required field, an optional field, or a denied field in the group settings.
- The password strength (number of characters and complexity) is defined in the group settings.
- A default password value cannot be defined. It must be provided by the sender during agreement composition.
- When added, this password is embedded into the PDF as a security parameter, and can't be removed without the password.
- The password is not stored anywhere in the Acrobat Sign system, and cannot ber recovered by support.
To set password security when viewing the agreement PDF, select the Agreement settings edit icon and type a password into the field.
Configure Content Protection (if available).

Content protection installs security to view the agreement agreement after it has been completed. The agreement will require the same authentication method to view as is configured to initially sign the agreement.
Verify or select a new localization language for the recipient's email.

The Language value indicates the localization for all Acrobat Sign template elements, like labels and instructions, in the recipient email and the e-signing page.
- The default localization is defined in the group settings.
- The default value can be edited (if group settings permit)
- The localization language is a distinct setting from the user's UI settings. It's possible to have the group's UI language set to US English and the group's default signing language set to Japanese.
Edit the Recipient's Language by selecting the Agreement settings edit icon and picking a new language from the dropdown.
When all of the agreement details and settings are configured, select the Add recipients button at the bottom of the page.
Configure the Add recipients section.

The number between the role dropdown and the input field announces the total number of child agreements configured.
A. Bulk recipient list link - The toggle link that defines the recipient input option of Manual input or Import CSV.
- When the link value reads Import CSV, the user is configuring the Manual input experience.
- When the link value reads Enter recipients manually, the user is configuring the Import CSV experience.
Because this document describes how to use the CSV process, select the link so that it shows Enter recipients manually.

B. CSV file - Select the Choose files button to browse to the CSV file configured for this transaction.

C. Download CSV template - Download an example of how the CSV can be configured.
D. Add CC - Add email addresses for any CC'd parties. The CC'd party will get emails for all child agreements.

Note:

There is no option to add yourself as a countersigner, as all recipients must be defined in the CSV file.
Fix any errors that are reported.

The CSV requires that the provided values conform to the expected form when defining system values (like localization and roles). If there are any rows in the CSV that have errors, a red link appears showing the number of errors.
1. Select the link to get a full report of which rows have issues and what the issue is.
2. Edit your CSV file to correct the errors.
3. Re-upload the repaired CSV.
Select Send now when the Send in Bulk template is fully configured and all recipients have been added.

Acrobat Sign immediately starts a batch process to generate the child agreements and notify the recipients.

If you check the parent template on the Manage page, you may see a processing status in the Agreements summary while the agreements are generated.