Sending a contract for signature

When negotiation is done and every edit is decided, you can send the contract out for electronic signature without leaving Fusial. Fusial renders the agreed .docx to a flat PDF, lets you place signature fields on it, emails each external party a unique signing link, and — once everyone has signed — files a sealed PDF back onto the contract with a certificate of completion.

A signing request is called an envelope. Each envelope wraps one document version, its signers, and the fields they need to fill in.

Owners, admins, and members can create, send, void, or resend an envelope. Only viewers can't manage signing.

Before you start

A contract can have at most one active envelope at a time (an envelope in draft, sent, or partially signed). If one is already open, void it before starting another.

The document must be the final agreed text:

• You sign a .docx version — an uploaded original, a counterparty version, or a Fusial export. (Fusial converts it to PDF for you; see Document-to-PDF conversion.)
• Every tracked change must be decided. If any edit is still pending, Fusial blocks signing — "Resolve all tracked changes before signing — the signed document must be the final text" — because flattening the document would otherwise silently bake in undecided edits. Finish deciding edits (or export a clean version first) and try again.

While an envelope is active, the document version is locked for signing. You can't change accept/reject decisions on it until the envelope is voided.

Step 1 — Create the envelope

From the contract, start a new signature request and choose the document version to send. Fusial creates the envelope as a draft and immediately begins rendering the chosen .docx to a flat, unsigned PDF in the background. The contract stays in its current status until you actually send.

The render takes a moment. If you try to send before it finishes, Fusial tells you the document is still being prepared — wait a beat and send again.

Step 2 — Add signers

Add each person who needs to sign. A signer can be one of three parties:

• You — under Quick add, add yourself to sign in-app. Your row is tagged You. You sign while logged in to Fusial as soon as the envelope is sent; no email link is sent and you're never notified to sign your own request.
• Teammate — click Add a teammate to add another member of your organization — "Another Fusial user signs in-app". They sign in-app too, but because the request comes from you, Fusial notifies them (see Step 4). You can add more than one teammate.
• Counterparty — an external contact, identified by name and email. They receive a private signing link by email and sign in their browser without an account.

In the signer list, each person is tagged You, Teammate, or Signer so it's clear who signs in-app and who signs by link. Members with a viewer role can't be added as signers.

Rules Fusial enforces:

• At least one signer.
• No duplicate email addresses across signers.

You can edit the signer list freely while the envelope is a draft.

Step 3 — Place fields

Open the rendered PDF and drop fields onto it for each signer. Field positions are stored relative to the page, so they land in the same place whether viewed in the editor or stamped onto the final PDF.

Field types:

Each field is assigned to exactly one signer and is required by default; you can mark a field optional. Before an envelope can be sent, Fusial checks that:

• Every signer has at least one field, and
• Every signer has at least one Signature field — the anchor that records intent to sign.

If anything is missing, the send is rejected as incomplete and Fusial tells you which signer needs attention.

Step 4 — Send

Sending locks the envelope and sets everything in motion:

1. Fusial re-checks that the document hasn't changed since the PDF was rendered. If it has, it quietly re-renders and asks you to send again in a moment.
2. The envelope moves from draft to sent, and the contract moves to Out for signature.
3. A fresh, unique signing link is minted for each signer. Links expire 30 days after sending.
4. Each counterparty signer is emailed their link (subject: "Please sign: {contract title}"). Each teammate signer is notified that they've been asked to sign — in-app, by email (subject: "You've been asked to sign {contract title}"), and on Slack if they use it — with a link to sign in-app. You aren't notified; you can sign right away.
5. The contract owner and whoever created the envelope are notified that the request went out.

Once sent, an envelope is locked: you can't change signers or fields. To make changes, void it and start over.

Each signing link is unique to one signer and should not be forwarded. The link carries a high-entropy token; Fusial only ever stores a hash of it, so the link can't be recovered after the email is sent — only resent.

Managing a sent envelope

• Resend a link — if an email bounced or a counterparty lost their invite, resend it. Fusial mints a fresh link (invalidating the old one) and re-emails any counterparty signer who hasn't signed yet. Already-signed signers are skipped.
• Void the envelope — cancel the request at any point before completion. The envelope moves to voided (a terminal state) and outstanding links stop working. If the contract was Out for signature only because of this envelope, it drops back to Negotiating and the document unlocks so you can keep editing. (If another envelope is still out for signature, the contract status is left alone.)

A voided or completed envelope can't be reopened — start a new envelope if you need to send again.

Envelope statuses

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