Send a monday.com file for signature with Docusign

Pick a route

A Docusign template suits a document that doesn’t change. This guide is for the other case: each item has its own file, such as a contract drafted for that client, and you don’t want to build a template for it.

If you do have a Docusign template and each item needs its own file, the File column automation can use both. Pick the template in Template, then use Mode to choose whether the files replace the template’s document, go after it, go before it or attach as supplemental documents. See With a template.

Both start from a board like this one:

Vendor agreements

To sign

Agreement	Vendor contact	Vendor email	Contract file	Status
Northwind terms	Ana Torres	ana@northwind.com	terms.pdf	Ready for signature
Contoso order	Sam Ortiz	sam@contoso.com	order.pdf	Sent

Send one file by hand

1. Open the item and open the Docusign Integration Plus item view.
2. Click New envelope, select your Docusign account and click Next.
3. Choose From scratch and click Next.
4. Choose From a file column, pick the column, check the list of files and click Next.
5. Add the recipients and click Next.
6. Enter the Internal reference name, which is the name shown in the item’s envelope list, and click Review.
7. Click Create draft & set tabs.
8. Place the fields in the Docusign sender view, then send.

Nothing goes out until you send from the sender view. Send files without a template explains each file status you may see, such as Over 25 MB or Can’t download.

Send files with an automation

The automation needs no sender view, because the document says where each signer signs.

1. PDF with anchor tags in a File column
2. Status changes
3. The app checks every signer has a signature field
4. Envelope goes to Signer 1

Step 1: Add anchor tags to the document

Type a tag wherever a field should appear. This signature block has tags for two signers:

Client signature: \s1\                    Date: \d1\
Printed name:     \n1\

Provider signature: \s2\                  Date: \d2\
Printed name:       \n2\

In your document

Signature:

\s1\

Date:

\d1\

Name:

\n1\

What the signer gets

Signature:

Sign here

Date:

The date they sign

Name:

Their full name

• Every signer needs a signature tag. \s1\ is Signer 1 and \s2\ is Signer 2. /sig1/ and /sig2/ work too.
• Date, initials and name tags are optional. Docusign leaves out any field you don’t tag.
• Hide the tags. Make the text white, or the same color as the background, and leave room after each tag.
• Tags must be text. A tag inside an image or a scanned page isn’t found.

The Anchor tags reference lists every tag.

Step 2: Upload the file to the item

Upload the document to the File column. Upload the file itself: links in the column, such as Google Drive, Dropbox or monday docs, can’t be attached.

Step 3: Add the automation

1. Click Automate in your board’s top bar, click Create and search for Docusign.
2. Choose the template with a File field:

3. Click status and something and pick your trigger, for example Status and Ready for signature.
4. Click Draft/Send and choose Draft while you test.
5. Click Account and choose your Docusign connection.
6. Click Template and choose 📁 No Template (Use File Column Only).
7. Click Brand and choose a brand, or ⚪ No custom Branding.
8. Click File and pick the File column.
9. Click Data and map the signers, as described in the next step.
10. Create the automation.

Step 4: Map the signers

With no template, Data shows a fixed set of fields:

• Signing order is fixed. Signer 1 signs first, then Signer 2, then Signer 3. CC recipients share the last signer’s step.
• Tags follow the slot. If you leave Signer 1 empty and map Signer 2, the document still needs \s2\.
• An empty name is fine. The email is used as the name.
• People columns use the first person. That person’s email and monday.com name fill the slot.

Step 5: Test with a draft

1. Change an item’s status to your trigger label.
2. Open the item view and open the new draft in the sender view. Check where the fields landed.
3. When the tags land in the right place, change Draft/Send to Send.

When the envelope stays a draft

With Send, the app checks which tags Docusign found. It only sends when every signer has a signature field, so a signer is never asked to sign a document with no place to sign. Otherwise it saves a draft and the notification gives the reason:

The rest are in When the envelope stays a draft.

Which files go out

• Files go out in the order they appear in the File column.
• An automation attaches up to 10 files, up to 25 MB each and up to 50 MB in total. Files past these limits are skipped and named in the notification.
• A file that takes longer than 20 seconds to download is skipped.
• Tags work in every attached file, so a signature page can be its own file.

If your files all share one layout, a Docusign template can place the fields instead of tags. See Send files from a File column with automations.

Get the signed file back

Sending doesn’t change the board by itself. To keep the signed PDF on the item, add a tracking automation:

Save signed Docusign documents to monday.com covers the options, and Update monday.com when a Docusign envelope is signed covers the status.