Package multiple docs into an approval workflow with E-signature

  • 14 September 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 23 views

Badge +4

I am trying to automate a paper approval process into a digital process using SharePoint, Nintex and E-signatures.

In a document library, I want to select multiple documents to package together into an approval workflow(Nintex).  The package will be sent to a series of users that must all approve with E-signatures(Docu-Sign, E-Sign Live or any other E-signature that are partnered with Nintex).  

 

I am not sure what is the best approach to this scenario.  Please help me.

Ideally, I want users to simply:

- select the desired documents
- run workflow which will Email users a list of documents to review
- E-signature service will launch when document is selected
- Validation check to ensure documents are signed before workflow moves to the next approver

 

However, my concerns are:

1. How can you select multiple documents and start a Nintex workflow?  I tried putting the desired files into a document set and starting the workflow from it, however I am not sure if this is the best approach.  Zipping files is not an option.

2. How can the workflow validate that the document has been signed with an E-signature before moving to the next approver.  If this question is better suited for the E-signature vendor, please let me know.


2 replies

Badge +9

Hi Tony,

Regarding the first question, I know at least in the Adobe Sign action you can specify multiple files to upload, in which case your solution of document sets sounds like quite a neat solution as you should be able to send off all the documents contained in the set for signature.

For the second question, this is probably more of a question for the e-signature provider, as we typically pass the documents and the approver, and the process then runs on the providers side until the process reaches a terminal point in the providers system (e.g. someone rejects it, or everyone has signed). At that point the workflow is notified again and will continue to the next action.

With your process, your second step is for the workflow to email the list of documents for people to review, however the way that the signature systems work is to take that step as well, so it would look more like:

- Query to get documents inside the document set

- Start an e-signature action (e.g. Adobe Sign) with the required agreement details, and required approver email addresses + all the document paths

- Workflow will send the documents to provider

- Provider will email the reviewers with the document to be signed (possibly merged into a single document)

- Reviewers respond to the provider

- When the provider has all the approvers or a rejection, the workflow will be notified

Thanks,


Callum

Badge +4

Thanks for the feedback Callum.  I just got a trial of Docu-Sign and will tryout your recommendations and update this thread when I am done.

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