E-signature

Send a contract, a delivery note or a handover form out for signature straight from the record it was generated from, with no printing and no scanning. Each person gets a personal link, signs on their phone or computer, and when everyone has signed you receive the signed PDF in Lark, with an audit page at the end. If the template saves its documents to an attachment field, the signed PDF is saved there too.

What kind of signature this is

This is an electronic signature with an audit trail: the document records who signed, when, from which IP address, and the SHA-256 fingerprint of the exact document they were shown. It is not a certificate-based digital signature. If your contracts legally require a qualified or certificate-based signature, use a dedicated signature provider for those.

Before you start

• E-signature works on every plan, Free included. Sending from an automation needs what the automation does: a Business seat or Pro.
• You need a template with signature fields (below), and you generate one record at a time to send it.
• Signature fields work in Word templates only, not in Excel or PowerPoint templates.

1. Mark where people sign

Signatures work like images: a picture in your Word template whose Alt Text says who signs there.

1. Insert any picture where the signature goes. A blank rectangle is fine. Its size is the size of the signature.
2. Right-click it, choose Edit Alt Text, and type {SIGN:Customer}. Customer is the role: the person who signs there. Use any name made of letters, digits and underscores, without spaces, such as Customer, Supplier, Witness_1.
3. Keep the picture In line with text (the Word default). A floating picture cannot be replaced.

The same role can appear several times: initials at the bottom of every page, for example. Two optional text placeholders print what the signer typed and when they signed:

Placeholder	Prints
{SIGN_NAME:Customer}	The full name the signer typed
{SIGN_DATE:Customer}	When they signed, as 2026-10-14 15:30
{SIGN_DATE:Customer | date:"DD MMM YYYY"}	The same with the usual date filter

Signing times are shown in the template’s timezone. Upload the template as usual: under Template Fields each role is listed as a signer, and the template list shows Signature beside its name. In the template designer, the Signature block does all of this for you.

2. Generate the document

Select one record and click Generate. Where a signature is still missing, the document shows a yellow box with a ✗ and a line. That is what signers see until they sign. The record’s data is frozen at this moment: if the record changes afterwards, the document being signed does not.

3. Send it for signature

Next to the finished document, click Send for signature. For each role, choose:

• Colleague: someone in your company who has used AutomaDoc. The AutomaDoc bot sends them a message with a Review and sign button.
• Someone outside: type their name (and, if you like, a note such as their email for yourself). AutomaDoc does not send email: you copy their link and send it however you like.

Then choose the Signing order: everyone at once, or one after another, in which case a later signer sees “waiting” until the people before them have signed, and a colleague is only messaged when it is their turn.

The link is the credential

Anyone who has a signing link can sign in that person’s place. Send each link only to its signer. For extra safety, under Protect the links with a password choose A generated password for each person outside (each gets a strong password of their own, shown once next to their link) or One password I choose, for everyone. Send a password separately from its link. After five wrong passwords a link is blocked until you issue a new one.

The links are shown once, right after you send. AutomaDoc keeps only a fingerprint of each link, so a lost link cannot be shown again. Issue a new one instead (step 5).

4. What signers see

The link opens a page that works on any phone or computer, in the signer’s language. They read the document, then either Draw their signature with a finger or mouse, or Type their name, which is drawn in a handwriting style. They type their full name, tick the consent box and click Sign, or click Decline and, if they wish, give a reason.

A request expires after 14 days. A link to a request that is finished, declined, cancelled or expired shows only that fact, nothing about the document.

5. Follow up

Open More → Signatures in the Base extension to see the documents you sent. Company Portal admins see every request in the company under Signatures. For each request you can:

• see who has opened and signed it, with the full audit trail;
• Remind a colleague (a new bot message) or get a New link for someone outside. Either way the old link stops working. If they had a generated password, the new link comes with a new one, shown once beside it;
• Cancel request: every link stops working;
• download the current or Signed PDF and the Audit trail (CSV).

Sending for signature from an automation

The HTTP trigger can send the document it generates for signature with nobody opening the extension (see Automation). Tell AutomaDoc where everything is on the record:

1. On the Template tab, under Signing by automation, choose for each role Who signs: a User field (a colleague, messaged by the AutomaDoc bot) or a text or email field (someone outside).
2. For someone outside, choose Write the link to and Write the password to (two text fields). Click Save signing settings.
3. When the automation runs, AutomaDoc writes each outside signer’s link and a generated password into those fields. Add a step to your Lark automation that emails them, with the password in a separate message if you can.

Anyone who can see the record can see what is written to it, so hide those fields from people who should not sign. A New link from the Signatures page is written into the same field, with its new password in the password field, so the automation never sends a dead link.

When everyone has signed

• You receive the signed PDF from the AutomaDoc bot.
• The PDF ends with an audit page: the document name, its SHA-256 fingerprint, and for each signer their name, role, time and IP address.
• If the template has a save to attachment field and your plan includes it, the signed PDF is saved to the record (added or replacing, as the template is set).
• If the template has a status field and your plan includes it, it reads ✅ Signed - followed by the file name. A decline writes ❌ Signature declined, and an expired request ⌛ Signature request expired.

If someone declines, the request closes for everyone and the bot tells you why.

Good to know

• Sending for signature does not use generations: you pay only for the generation that produced the document.
• One document can be out for signature only once at a time. Cancel the open request to send it again.
• Files of a finished request (the signed PDF, signature images) are kept for 90 days, then deleted; the audit trail is kept. Keep the signed PDF you receive in Lark or on the record.
• Only colleagues who have used AutomaDoc can be chosen as Colleague. Anyone else, including colleagues who have not, can sign as Someone outside.