TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Overview
- Configuring Digital Signatures
- Agent handling the Service Request
- Signing a document
- Viewing Completed Signatures
- Analysing Signature Usage
Overview
Digital Signatures can be embedded directly into service requests as part of document templates.
All digital signature documents are maintained in specific workspaces.
This allows for teams such as HR, Legal and Procurement to create documents that require digital signatures from users such as managers, employees, new joinees, vendors or other external partners. You can check the sample use cases from the attachments of this article.
Signers do not need to have an account on Freshservice to sign, all that is required is a name and email address.
Digital signatures are processed via DropboxSign, this does not require a customer to have an account with DropboxSign
Each Pro and Enterprise account will be assigned 30 free eSign credits on a one off basis from September 2024. These complimentary credits will be set to zero once used or on the purchase of a eSignature pack so that credit usage can be accurately tracked.
Growth accounts will receive 10 esign credits. Other accounts such as sandbox, trial, etc. will receive 5.
It will only be possible to purchase signatures for Pro and Enterprise accounts. These can be purchased from the subscriptions page at a cost of $90 per pack of 30 signature credits.
A signature credit is counted as one service request that is sent to DropboxSign.
For Example:
If an agent processes a signature request with 1 signee, it is counted as one credit.
If the request has 2 or 3 signees it is also counted as one credit.
Only if a signature request is cancelled and resent does it count as two credits
Configuring Digital Signatures
To configure a digital signature, first navigate to Admin Settings, Service Request Management and then to Document Templates.
This will show a list of documents that have been setup in this workspace.
These templates can be a mix of documents that require signatures or documents that do not require any signatures.
There is a sample document template available on the right of the screen.
From this screen you can navigate to the subscriptions page if you have the Account Management privilege as part of their role to purchase additional credits.
View usage will only display if the user has Account management privileges associated with their role.
Click on the New Template button to create a new document template.
You can drag and drop a document template here or upload from your computer.
Each document has to be in .docx format
Placeholders are identified as being between curly brackets as follows: {{Employee Name}}
Once the template is uploaded, you will have a preview of the document and will also be able to view the dynamic placeholders identified in the document.
You can give the document a relevant name.
To insert signatures into the document is an optional step, you can do this by selecting the Add Signatures option on the top left.
Signatures can then be dragged and dropped onto the document as required.
When you drop a signature, you can give it a title to identify later when mapping signatures.
Signatures can be reordered if required.
Signatures can be placed multiple times on the document if required.
Once you are ready, click save and the document template is created.
Pro Tip: If a single individual is required to sign a document multiple times, you do not need to provide multiple email addresses for them. Instead, simply place the same signature placeholder at each required signature location during the template setup. This approach allows the same signer to execute multiple signatures
The next step is to link a document to a service request. Navigate to the service catalog and create a new service request.
This can include Custom Fields that you can use to map to the placeholders in the Template.
At the service items settings, select Document as the fulfillment option and then select the document template you have just created.
At this point the template mapping option will display, but it is best to save at this stage so that the custom fields are available for mapping.
The final step is to map the placeholders to fields from the service request. The key details are the signature mappings which will map the email and name for the people to carry out the signature process.
Once this is completed, the service item can be published and requested by a user.
You also have an option at this stage to have this document sent automatically without any agent intervention. For this to be available all fields have to be mapped to a placeholder, then activate the toggle switch - “Automatically send the document to the requester Map all fields above to auto-send document to requester.” under the mapping that is displayed on the service request as seen below:
Agent handling the Service Request
Once a request has been submitted, the agent can review and process the request from the ticket page.
The first step is to select the option - Send document via DropboxSign.
This will display a summary of the ticket with all relevant placeholder data shown. The agent can update the details at this point if required, once ready to go the agent can click on send via Dropbox Sign
The final step is to review and edit the messages that will be sent to the signatures.
The first message will be sent to anyone who will be carrying out the signing based on the order decided at the template stage.
The second message will be sent to the requester to let them know that the process has been initiated.
At this stage, the document has been sent via Dropbox sign to the recipients based on the order specified.
To view where the document is at any stage, you can select the option that shows the number of signatures completed. From here you can cancel a signature request or send a nudge for a signee to complete.
If you cancel before anyone has signed, the agent can resend the document from the ticket but this will be charged as an extra signature request.
If you cancel after one signee has completed their part, a new ticket will have to be raised to complete the process.
Signing a document
When a document is sent to a signee, they will get an email and a link to dropbox to complete the signing.
It is not currently possible to change the layout or format of the email that is sent. Signees have two months to sign before the process is invalid.
Viewing Completed Signatures
Once all signatures have been completed, the requester will be notified that it is done and it will be available for them on the ticket. This is visible to the agent and the requester
Analysing Signature Usage
There are two areas to view usage - 1. From the Document Template area, 2. Dedicated curated report in analytics. To access this information the user has to have the account admin privilege. Any usage of this feature while it was in beta (pre september 2024) will not be counted in the analytics.
Viewing usage from document template screen
This will show usage for the current workspace, HR in this case, and usage across all workspaces. If the user has the account management privilege
If this is an MSP account, you will see this for the IT workspace only.
If you convert your account from ESM mode to an MSP account then you will show statistics regarding usage for to the primary workspace
If a request with a service is moved from one workspace to another then it will still be counted in the original workspace.
Dedicated Curated Report
You can use the dedicated report in analytics to view more detailed information on usage as shown below. This can also be used to export the tickets that were associated with any signature request.
- Note: To view the service request data, users will need the IT Supervisor Role.
- To view signature credit related data, users need the Account Admin role.
- Total Credits used: This indicates the total number of credits used by the account. This could be across multiple workspaces.
- Note, deleted Service Requests that have been processed will count as a signature credit.
- Pending Signature requests: This is a count of the number of Service requests that have been initiated that are waiting on a signature. E.g. A request for 3 people to sign and only one has so far would mean that this would be counted as 1 pending signature request.
Service requests consuming signatures: The number of service requests that are consuming signatures. E.g. One service request may consume multiple signatures if the process was cancelled and then resent as this would count as two signatures but only one request.
Pending Signature count: This is the count of how many signatures are pending. E.g. A request for 3 people to sign and only one has so far would mean that this would be counted as 2 pending signature requests
Credits used: The bottom widgets show credits used by month and credits used per workspace.
