📖 Table of contents
Automate the preparation of your documents
Do you spend time editing your documents? With Forms, no need to manually fill in your recurring documents before having them signed!
Easily create and share forms with different stakeholders (your signers, clients, or colleagues) to collect the necessary information. Each time the form is filled out, your document type is automatically generated, completed, and ready to be signed.
👉 Forms are included in the Pro plan and are available as an add-on with the One and Plus plans (you can start a 14-day trial without obligation).
In this article, we will detail step-by-step the stages of creating a form..
3 steps to create a form
Creating a form takes place in three main stages:
Preparing your source document (outside of the Yousign application)
Configuring the future generated documents
Customizing your form
Creating a form can take up to 15 minutes depending on your document, but you only create your form once to automatically generate unlimited associated documents.
Step 1: Prepare the source document
Before creating a form, you must prepare the document that will be generated once the form is filled out (outside of Yousign). To do this, follow these steps:
Open your document type (or an already filled out old document) in a text editor that allows you to download it in .docx format (such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs).
Identify in your document the information you want to collect with your future form (i.e., the data that varies from one document to another).
Enclose this information in double brackets {{ }} and add a name between these two double brackets: {{first name}}
👉 Throughout this article, we will take the example of creating a form to automate the generation of employment contracts.
To prepare your document type, you will need to add variables such as the first name and last name of the future employee to your document type. Insert the following variables into your document: {{employee-first-name}} and {{employee-last-name}} where you want them to appear on your document (i.e., where you used to fill them in by hand).
Download the document in .docx format,
Go to the Yousign application and the Forms tab,
Click on "New Form",
Check that you have followed the instructions and move on to the next steps,
Import the document.
Step 2 : Configure the documents
Once your document is imported into Yousign, define who will sign the generated documents each time a form is submitted and the settings of the future signature requests. The form editing will be done later.
2.1 : Add signers and fields to your source document
At this stage, you can add signers and place signature fields on your document type (in the same way as when you create a signature request).
You have the possibility to add two types of people as signers: a recurring signer (always the same person) or a placeholder signer (a different person each time). You can add up to 100 signers per form.
Add a recurring signer (Make the same person sign on all generated documents)
This person will always be requested to sign the document generated by this form.
👉 In the example of an employment contract, this person can be the CEO of your company because he/she signs all employment contracts for your company.
To add a recurring signer:
Click on "Add Signer",
Click on "A recurring signer"
If you already have their contact information in your Yousign contacts: click on the search bar and search for the contact, then click on their name,
If you don't have them in your Yousign contacts: click on "Create", then enter their information,
Drag the signature fields you need onto your document.
Add a placeholder signer (a different person sign each time a document is generated)
One of the signers will be different each time a document is generated, and you want to collect their information with the form.
👉 In the example of an employment contract, this person can be the future employee who will have to sign their own contract.
To add a placeholder signer:
Click on "Add Signer",
Click on "A placeholder signer",
Enter the person's description (in the example of the employment contract, "Future employee"),
Select the language,
Click on "Save",
Drag the signature fields you need onto your document.
Once all your signers and fields have been added (initials, mentions, etc.), you can click on "Next" to move on to the signature request settings step.
2.2: Configure future signature requests
At this stage, you configure the signature requests that will be generated from the form. You can:
Personalize the name of the future signature requests (generated by the form),
Add a personalized message (if necessary),
Adjust the expiration and automatic reminder dates,
Choose whether or not to apply a custom experience,
Click on "Next" to move on to the last step.
Step 3: Configure the form
This last step is the most important because it allows you to configure the questions and format of the expected responses to help respondents complete the form.
The difference between a respondent and a signer
A respondent is the person responsible for filling in the information in the form.
A signer is a person who will be requested to sign the document generated once the form is completed.
A respondent can be (or not) a signer of the document.
A signer can be (or not) a respondent.
👉 In the example of the employment contract, we could have 3 respondents:
The future employee (who is also the signer)
The future employee's manager (who is not a signer)
The director of human resources (who is not a signer)
And a signer who is not a respondent:
The CEO who is only a signer (he/she will not fill out a form)
Choose between a single respondent or multi-respondent form
First, determine the number of people who need to fill in information to edit the document (from 1 to 5 people).
Single respondent: when only one person needs to fill in the information necessary to generate the document.
Multi-respondents: when several people need to fill in the information necessary to generate the document (from 2 to 5 people).
Reminder: these people can be signers of the document or not.
Specificity in the case of a multi-respondent form
If you need to collect information from several people to generate your document:
Start by choosing who should provide the information for which variables.
👉 In the example of the employment contract:
Data related to the future employee would be assigned to the future employee such as their first name, last name, address, etc.
Data related to the tasks could be assigned to the manager.
Data related to the start date and salary could be completed by the director of human resources.
We would then have three forms to edit.
Then click on "Next", you edit the first form: you will have as many forms to configure as respondents.
3.1: Edit the variables
All the variables associated with the respondent appear on the left side of your screen, and you can view your document type on the right side of your screen for more context.
Click on "Edit" next to the title to change the title of the form and add a description if necessary,
Then click on "Edit" next to each variable:
Enter the question to ask to collect the variable,
Select the desired response format (to avoid errors) between short answer, long answer, date, email, phone, and drop-down list,
Add a suggested answer if necessary,
Add a description if necessary,
Indicate whether the question is optional or not.
Repeat these actions for each variable,
Preview the form by clicking on "Preview Form"
3.2: Configure the signer's contact information
If the respondent is themselves a signer of the document (or if they need to provide a signer's information), an additional section will appear. This section will be used to collect information about the signer in order to send them a signature request to sign the document once it is generated (first name, last name, email, and mobile phone).
You can enable automatic filling of the necessary information and link it to variables already present on the document type to avoid double entry for the respondent.
Warning: the linked variables must have the correct format (short answer for first name and last name, email format for email, phone format for mobile phone) and must not be optional.
3.3: Configure the success page
Once the form is completed by the respondent, a success page will appear. You can customize it with a title and a personalized message.
Once the form and success page are configured, click on "Next" at the top right, repeat these actions for each form (only in the case of a multi-respondent form), then move on to form configuration.
3.4: Configure the form
Once the form(s) is/are edited, configure the settings according to your needs:
Enter a name (to find it in your Forms dashboard),
Allow or not the download of the document type by your respondents (this option is useful to give more context to the respondent when filling out the form),
Only for single respondent forms: choose the visibility to give to your form between public (to share it with an external usage link) or private (completion possible only by a user of your organization on Yousign, for an internal usage),
Then choose whether you prefer to review the document once it is generated or trigger automatic sending for signature to signers,
Add people to notify once the form is completed and the document is generated.
Congratulations, you have finished creating a form, now use it to generate all your recurring documents in no time. Discover how to use them in this article.
Duplicate a form
Duplicating a form allows you to copy an existing form and make changes without editing the original.
To duplicate a form:
Go to the Forms page.
Click on "..." next to the form you wish to duplicate.
Click "Duplicate form."
Your duplicated form will be named “Copy of (name of original form)” and will appear on top of your forms list in Paused status.
All Users can duplicate a form providing they have edit rights.
You can duplicate all forms, regardless of their status.
The duplicated form will automatically be paused, even if the original form is active, so you can edit it as you need.
If you duplicate a form created by someone else, you will be the creator of the duplicate (not the user who created the original form).
If a form belongs to a workspace, the duplicate will only be visible to members of the original workspace.