The Custom Workflow Designer enables users to create workflow templates tailored to their business needs, streamlining agreement composition and consistent signing processes. With its intuitive interface, you can define participant details (emails, names, roles, and routings), include specific documents, set pre-filled form fields, manage email distribution, and configure options like expiration dates or passwords.

Benefits of Workflow Templates

Workflow templates promote consistency, reduce errors, and make agreement creation easier by providing custom instructions and pre-defined fields.

For agreements requiring regulatory compliance, workflows streamline complex configurations for signatures and notifications. They ensure consistency by pre-defining controllable elements and enforcing guardrails for sender-added values. This approach saves time and ensures adherence to applicable regulations.

Once you are logged in, select Workflows in the top menu of the home screen.

Access and Actions

All users: Create workflows for personal use. Access can be assigned to a group or the whole organization (when configured to do so).
Group admins: Can create and grant access to workflows for the groups they administer.
- Group admins can edit and reconfigure any workflow shared with a group they have admin authority over.
Account admins: Can create and grant access to a workflow for any user or group in the organization.
- Account admins can edit and reconfigure any workflow shared with a group or with the organization.

Each agreement generated from a workflow template is treated as a distinct agreement, with its history and audit report accessible from the Manage page.
All normal interactions with the individual agreements, such as modifying the expiration date or creating reminders, are allowed.

Reporting and Data Exports

Generate agreement reports and data exports by applying Workflow filters to include specified workflows in your report dataset.

Configuration

Availability:

The Custom Send Workflow Designer is available for the Acrobat Sign Solutions license only.

Configuration scope:

The controls that impact Custom Send Workflows can be accessed at the account and group levels.

Note:

The help documentation assumes that the following settings are enabled:

Enable new Custom Workflow send experience
Enable template-defined signature placement

If these settings are not enabled for your organization, contact your success manager for assistance with the update.

Activating the newest workflow experience aligns workflows more closely with the functionality of the manual Send process.

Features Added:

Reflowable Page Layout: Improves layout flexibility for better usability.
Digital Signatures: Allows one or more recipients to use digital signatures.
Premium Identity Verification: Configure advanced identity verification for recipients.
Recipient Groups: Set up recipient groups during the sending process or with reusable recipient groups.
Document Attachment Options: Attach multiple document templates from which the sender can select when sending the agreement.

How to Enable:

Go to Account Settings > Send Settings > Custom Workflow Controls > Custom Workflow Controls, and enable the newest workflow experience.

Configure workflows to use the new experience

Premium identity authentication

In the Workflow Designer, all enabled authentication methods are displayed within the recipient object.

Checkbox Options: Authentication methods are shown as checkboxes, allowing the workflow designer to specify which options are available. Only methods enabled in the group settings are displayed.
Sender Flexibility: If multiple authentication options are selected in the designer, the sender will have access to the same options during the sending process (if the recipient is flagged as Editable).

This setup ensures flexibility while maintaining control over recipient authentication methods.

Recipient tab with the signer properties exposed and the authentication options highlighted

Recipient groups

In the Workflow Designer, recipient objects can be assigned as Recipient groups, providing flexibility for signature workflows.

Reusable or Ad Hoc Groups: The sender can choose a recipient group from their address book or create an ad hoc group by specifying multiple email addresses.
Shared Responsibility: A recipient group allows multiple individuals to act for a single signature step.

Example Use Case:

If you need one of three managers to countersign an agreement:

Add a recipient group containing all three managers' email addresses.
When it’s time for the group to sign, all three managers are notified.
Only one manager needs to complete the signing action to proceed.

Recipient groups streamline workflows by ensuring flexibility and avoiding unnecessary delays in the signature process.

Recipient groups must be enabled separately.
Reusable recipient groups must be configured before they can be included in a workflow design.

When using a reusable recipient group in a workflow, ensure the group is created first and is accessible within the workflow's scope. For example, if a workflow is available to the entire organization, the recipient group must also be available organization-wide.

To add a reusable recipient group, click Add Recipient Group to open the group selector.

Recipient group compatibility depends on workflow permissions:

Workflows accessible to the entire account can only use account-managed groups.
Workflows available to a specific group can use both group-managed and account-managed groups.
Workflows for an individual user can use user, group-managed, and account-managed groups.

Additional notes:

The reusable group's name is automatically used as the group name when sending an agreement with the template.
Recipients in a group cannot be edited, added, or removed.
A recipient group cannot be removed from the signature flow, even if the recipient isn't marked as required.
If configured as a recipient group, the recipient is no longer editable when sending agreements with the template.

The recipient configuration panel with the Add Recipient Group button highlighted. Including the recipient group picker window and the resulting Send page

Ad hoc recipient groups are created directly within a custom workflow and are specific to that workflow. They cannot be saved or reused in other processes.

To configure an ad hoc recipient group:

Enter the email addresses of the group members in the Recipient field, separated by commas.
Check the Mark as recipient group box.

When the sender starts an agreement using the workflow, the system automatically generates a group name. This name includes a prefix identifying it as automatically generated, followed by "Recipient Group X," where X is a sequential number based on the total number of recipient groups added.

If the recipient is set as Editable, the sender can:

Edit the group name.
Remove any prepopulated members.
Add new members as needed.

The workflow designer with Mark as recipient group selected and the resulting Send page with the recipient group members listed

Reflowable design that builds a custom Compose page in the style of the Send page.

The user experience under the "new" setting has been updated to a modern reflowable design that mimics the Send page.

The instructions that are to the right of the recipient list in the legacy experience have been moved to the top of the page in a collapsible window.

Template-Defined Field Assignment

Template-defined field assignments ensure a strong link between the recipient list, as defined in the Custom Workflow Designer, and the appropriate fields on your forms.

Example Use Case:

A customer signer signs first.
An optional co-signer may sign second.
A sales representative, acting as the second or third recipient, applies an internal counter-signature.

Traditionally, two separate forms would be required because of recipient indexing:

One is for the single signer scenario, where the internal counter-signature is designed as the second signer index.
One is for the co-signer scenario, where the co-signer is signer index 2, and the counter-signature is designed as signer index 3.

With template-defined rules, you can design a single form with all potential recipient fields included.

How It Works:

The signer index (as defined in the Custom Workflow Designer) is strictly enforced.
When the agreement is sent, fields assigned to omitted (optional) recipients are understood insofar as their index numbers but ignored during the signature cycle.

In the example above:

The co-signer is always assigned signer index 2.
If the co-signer is omitted, the signer2 fields are ignored.
The counter-signer (signer index 3) is exclusively assigned to signer3 fields and will interact only with those fields, regardless of whether the co-signer (signer index 2) is present.

Enabling Template-Defined Signature Placement:

Navigate to Send Settings > Custom Workflow Controls > Enable template defined signature placement

This functionality simplifies complex recipient scenarios, reducing the need for multiple forms and ensuring accurate field assignments.

Configure workflows to use template efined signature placment

Note:

Enabling the template-defined signature placement feature will disable the option to author the agreement during the sending process.

Understanding the relationship between recipients and fields

Every recipient in an agreement is assigned a "signer index number", which determines which fields they can fill or sign. Each field also has a matching index that links it to a specific signer. For instance, Signer 1 can access all fields labeled for Signer 1.

These index numbers are based on each recipient’s position on the Send page (the first recipient is Index 1, the second is Index 2, and so on). If Recipients must sign in order is turned on, you can easily see these indexes for clarity.

By understanding this relationship, you can ensure each recipient only interacts with the fields meant for them, making the signing process smoother and more organized.

Note:

Any field without a signer index is available to any recipient who wants to fill it out (until it’s filled, at which point, it's locked like the other filled fields).

When you create a recipient flow in the Custom Workflow Designer, signer indexes are assigned top to bottom and left to right.

For example, if both the Signer and Co Signer appear at the top:

The Signer, positioned at the far left, becomes Signer 1.
The Co Signer, to the right, becomes Signer 2.

They may sign in parallel, but these indexes make sure each recipient only interacts with the fields intended for them (Signer1 fields for the Signer, Signer2 fields for the Co Signer).

An example signature flow diaagram with four recipients.

The "Sales Rep" signs third, after both the Signer and Co Signer have signed.

The "Exec Approval" is requested fourth, after the Sales Rep counter-signature is completed.

Note:

The recipient labels (e.g., "Signer," "Co Signer," "Sales Rep," etc.) don't affect which fields are assigned. They're admin-defined names to help users quickly understand the workflow template.

The above designer recipient flow will produce a Custom Compose page containing a recipient section that looks like the below.

(On the Custom Compose page, the stack order is more apparent, though the index numbers are not exposed.)

Example custom compose page showing the recipients with their index numbers inset.

When authoring a form, each field is assigned to a specific signing index by first selecting a participant and then placing the fields for that participant.

The drag-and-drop authoring environment displaying a list of recipients with their corresponding color coded fields/

Tip:

Each participant is color-coded for clarity, making it easy to see which fields belong to whom.

To even have the option to configure workflows, the feature has to be enabled.

Navigate to Global Settings > Custom Send Workflows and enable Enable workflow designer for administrators.

Once enabled, all account and group-level administrators will have access to the workflow designer in their admin menu.

Group-level administrators can create workflows for the groups they have administrative control over.
Account-level administrators can create a workflow for any group, as well as organization-wide workflows.

An option is available to enable the creation of workflows at the user level, granting non-admin users the authority to make their own custom workflows.

The Global Settings menu highlighting the "Enable workflow designer for admins" controls.

When the setting is enabled, the option for Custom Workflows is available after selecting the Workflows tab.
When the setting is disabled, the Custom Workflows option is not available.

By default, non-admin users can only create workflows for themselves and cannot share them with their group. However, you can enable workflow sharing at the account or group level by navigating to Global Settings > Custom Send Workflows > Allow sharing of user created workflows to any of their groups.

The Global Settings menu highlighting the "Allow sharing of user created workflows" controls.

When the setting is enabled, users see the group selector drop-down box as an option for who can use the workflow.
When the setting is disabled, the group selector drop-down option isn't exposed in the interface.

Accounts seeking to enforce consistent processes and minimize user input can create predefined workflows for all documents, thereby preventing ad-hoc sending. If your account uses Users in Multiple Groups, you can configure workflow settings at the group level to ensure the correct signature options and notifications are always applied.

To restrict users to only sending agreements with approved workflows, navigate to Global Settings > Custom Send Workflows > Enable sending agreements using only workflows.

Configure workflows to be the only method to send agreements

Error Reporting for common issues in the legacy environments

Due to the new interface's enhanced control and security, some legacy workflow elements can cause errors. To better explain these issues, additional error checks have been added.

If your account is configured to use the modern Send experience and a problematic workflow is launched, users will see a red banner indicating the error:

If the account is still configured to use the classic experience by default, the workflow may continue to work under those rules.

The modern experience displays errors as detected.

In the case where more than one problem is found, all errors detected will be listed.

To make the workflow valid under the new interface ruleset, an admin must edit the workflow and correct the detected issues:

Under the classic ruleset, email strings could be malformed or improperly delimited (with spaces vs. commas, for example).

When this error is produced, the admin should check:

If the CC emails are properly delimited

Any defined recipient email string to ensure it is properly constructed
- (e.g., name@domain.tld)
- The modern experience accepts commas or semicolons

The modern experience requires unique values for all document titles on the Documents page of the Workflow Designer.

Additional details for this error can be found here

When designing a workflow, it is possible for an Admin to attach a document template that has a limited access scope.

When a user that is outside this scope attempts to load the workflow, the document cannot be attached, and a security violation is triggered.

For example, an Admin may create a new document template with properties that limit access to the owner only. The admin can attach that document to the workflow because they are the owner.

Any other user of the system is not the owner, so is outside the scope of the document.

When this error is prompted, the admin will need to adjust the properties of the attached document template.

Steps to review and adjust template properties can be found here

Additional content relevant to Custom Send Workflows:

Get help faster and easier

New user?

Overview and configuration for custom sending workflows

Use the Custom Workflow Designer to create custom Compose pages designed to support your documents, policies, and compliance requirements.

Benefits of Workflow Templates

Access and Actions

Reporting and Data Exports

Configuration

Availability:

Configuration scope:

Features Added:

How to Enable:

Premium identity authentication

Recipient groups

Example Use Case:

Recipient group compatibility depends on workflow permissions:

Additional notes:

Reflowable design that builds a custom Compose page in the style of the Send page.

Template-Defined Field Assignment

Example Use Case:

How It Works:

Enabling Template-Defined Signature Placement:

Understanding the relationship between recipients and fields

Error Reporting for common issues in the legacy environments

Additional content relevant to Custom Send Workflows:

Get help faster and easier

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