How-To ESIGN: Save Even More Time With Templates and IDR

Aaron Wheeler recently posted some thoughts about going paperless and being productive with DocuSign Electronic Signature, since it enables him to get signatures “oftentimes within minutes” from clients who are traveling the world.

He uses two DocuSign features: Templates and Intelligent Document Recognition (IDR) to reduce the time for document creation from 20 minutes to TWO. Two minutes is about how long you should spend brushing your teeth!

Templates: You can take frequently used documents, like purchase agreements, and pre-define all of the locations on the agreement where recipients need to sign or initial. You specify a “role” for each signer (Buyer 1, Buyer 2, Buyer's Agent, Seller 1...) and drag and drop the stick-e-tabs on the agreement. Once you've created a template, you can use it again, when you have a similar transaction. Take a look at our how-to for template creation.

IDR: You can use IDR to automatically recognize a certain document by looking for document attributes. For example, if you wanted DocuSign to recognize a document as a “real estate purchase contract” you can use the IDR tool to draw a box around section(s) of the document, such as a title or other unique identifier.

Once you've created your templates and used the IDR tool to help DocuSign identify your documents, you can prepare offers by uploading the individual documents for the offer. IDR will ask if you want to apply various templates as it detects the documents. All you have to do is specify the names and emails for each party of the transaction and press “send.”

If you “cc” the other party's agent, their agent will receive a secure link to the completed documents after your clients have signed. These documents will be clear and easy to read because they haven't been faxed back and forth!

Click to read Aaron's original post and view his slideshow of the entire process, from template creation to signing.

To try DocuSign with a risk-free 30 day money back guarantee, click here and pretty soon, the amount of time you'll take to create documents will be about the amount of time it takes you to brush your teeth!

*Note the DocuSign plan, DocuSign Professional for Individual Users Advanced Plan, that supports templates and IDR start at $34.95/month. However, that is less expensive than a mobile broadband plan (~$70.00/month with Verizon)