Signing order: one after another, or everyone at once?

On the first step of Request Signatures there is a tick box called "Sign in order". It is a small box with a real effect on how your document travels.

What each one looks like in practice

Sign in order (sequential). You list Amina, then Ben, then Carla. Amina gets the email now. Ben's email is only sent once Amina has signed. Carla waits for Ben. The tool states it as: *"The next person is emailed only after the one before has signed."*

Everyone at once (parallel). All three get their email immediately. Any of them can sign at any time, and the document completes when the last one is done: *"Everyone is emailed at once and can sign in any order."*

Either way, each person gets their own private link, and nobody needs an account.

The everyday version

Think about a form that needs your manager's approval and then the finance office's.

• In order: you post it to your manager. When it comes back signed, you post it on to finance. Finance never sees an unapproved form.
• All at once: you photocopy it and post both copies today. Faster, but finance might approve something your manager later rejects.

When to sign in order

• When later signers need to see earlier ones. A guarantor who should only sign after the borrower. A department head signing after their team.
• When approval has stages. Draft, review, authorise.
• When one person's answer changes the document for the next. A quantity, a date, a price that the following signer relies on.
• When there is a witness. A witness signs after the person they witness. That is the definition of witnessing. The tool enforces this: if you put a witness above the person they are witnessing, it will tell you to move them down.

When to send to everyone at once

• When nobody depends on anybody. Three colleagues acknowledging a policy. Four tenants on one lease. Attendees signing a register.
• When speed matters. One slow signer holds up nobody.
• When people are in different time zones and waiting for a chain to move would cost days.

This is usually the better default. Sequential signing is slower by design, and it is worth using only when the order genuinely means something.

How the order is set

The recipients are numbered in the list, and there are up and down arrows next to each one. When Sign in order is on, those numbers are the signing order. When it is off, the numbers are just the order they happen to be listed in.

Where copy-only recipients fit

People with the Receives a copy role take no part in the order at all. They do not sign, so they cannot hold anything up. They simply get the finished document when everyone is done, and, if you tick "Tell copy recipients now", an email at the start as well saying the document is on its way.

What happens if someone does not sign

• In order: everything after them stops. The next person is never emailed, because their turn has not come.
• All at once: the others can still sign. The document just waits for the missing one.

Either way you can see where things stand in your sent documents, send reminders, or send someone their link directly if the email did not arrive.

Can I change it after sending?

No. The order is part of the request, so decide before you send. If it is wrong, cancel the request and send a new one.

A note on reminders and expiry

On the review step you also choose "Link expires after" and "Automatic reminders". Those work with both orders, but with sequential signing, remember that a reminder only ever reaches the person whose turn it currently is. Everybody else has not been emailed yet.

The roles

Signer, approver, witness and copy-only behave differently in the order. They are explained in the roles on a signature request.