Reduce Time Spent Collecting Signatures with Smartsheet and DocuSign

Remember how time consuming the document signing process used to be? You would create the document, print out multiple copies, physically flag the sections that needed signatures, place the sets of documents in an envelope and then mail them out. Once the recipient received the documents, they would sign them, and if there was anyone else who needed to sign, the process would repeat itself until complete.

What was the turnaround on that process? One week? Two weeks? That’s assuming there were no sections left unsigned or mistakes made. And, how much did that process cost? Not only in time and resource costs, but the postage needed for routing the documents could quickly add up. 

The introduction of electronic signatures has provided a sense of relief for anyone involved in this complicated signature process. In fact, according to the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM), moving from paper to electronic processes can result in a 30-50% process productivity gain, and a 3 to 10 times reduction in turnaround time. 

Collecting Signatures Made Easy

With the Smartsheet and DocuSign integration, this signature process has been made even easier. You can quickly collect electronically-signed documents in just a few clicks. First, map fields containing contact information stored in Smartsheet to attributes of one or more DocuSign templates. Once you do that, it’s saved as a reusable workflow you can use again at any time.

Then, using the saved workflow, instantly send the documents to one or hundreds of recipients from your sheet, and each person will receive a unique DocuSign envelope to review, sign and submit. When each envelope is completed, the signed documents are automatically attached to the corresponding row in Smartsheet.

3 Easy Steps to Getting Started with Smartsheet and DocuSign

You’ll need a DocuSign account to use the Smartsheet + DocuSign integration. If you don’t already have one, go to https://www.docusign.com to sign up. Once you have access to a DocuSign account, go to https://www.smartsheetlabs.com/docusign.  

First, connect Smartsheet Labs to your Smartsheet account by clicking the Login with Smartsheet button. Next, enter your DocuSign account credentials to connect Smartsheet Labs to your DocuSign account. Once Smartsheet Labs is connected to both your Smartsheet account and your DocuSign account, you are ready to create a reusable workflow to create DocuSign envelopes using data that’s stored in Smartsheet .

1. Prep a sheet in Smartsheet. Choose a sheet that contains the recipient information (name/email) and other data that you want to use to create DocuSign envelopes. You’ll be able to create a DocuSign envelope from any row in the sheet, so make sure that each row contains recipient names and email addresses, as well as any other data that you want to map to fields in the Docusign template. If you want the ability to auto-map data from the sheet into fields in the DocuSign template, make sure that the column names in the sheet match the corresponding field names in the DocuSign template that you’ll be using to create envelopes.
2. Find (or create) templates in DocuSign. If the templates you want to create envelopes from already exist in DocuSign, proceed to the next step. Otherwise, create a template in DocuSign by following the instructions found here.  
3. Build the bridge between Smartsheet and DocuSign. Now that you’ve identified the sheet that contains recipient data in Smartsheet and the DocuSign template that you want to create envelopes from, you are ready to create the connection between the two apps. Go to https://smartsheetlabs.com/docusign and click the Build New Workflow button. Follow the wizard to select the DocuSign template, select the sheet in Smartsheet that contains the recipient data, map data from Smartsheet to fields in the DocuSign template, and name your workflow. Tip: If column names in the sheet match field names in Docusign, you can use the Auto-fill Tabs link during the Map Your Tabs step to automatically map Smartsheet columns to DocuSign fields.

Reduce Time Spent Collecting Signatures 

Now that you’ve created a reusable workflow, you’re ready to start sending your documents and gathering signatures. Whether you need to collect signatures for a vendor contract, complete new hire paperwork, or execute a nondisclosure agreement, the Smartsheet and DocuSign integration will help you to streamline the process, track the details, and work more efficiently.

For more details on how to set up and manage your Smartsheet and DocuSign workflows, check out this helpful Work Smart webinar.