Add workflow controls to your envelopes with scheduled sending and delayed routing

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Summary•3 min read

See how to use these new workflow features to control envelope sending and routing.

Scheduled sending
Delayed routing
Additional resources

Scheduled sending
Delayed routing
Additional resources

We are excited to introduce two new workflow features to our eSignature REST API: scheduled sending and delayed routing!

With scheduled sending, you can schedule an envelope to be sent at a specific date and time in the future.
With delayed routing, you can add intentional delays between recipients in the envelope’s routing.

You can try both features for free in your developer demo account. In production accounts, scheduled sending is available on Standard and above plans, while delayed routing is available on Enterprise Pro plans or as part of the Advanced Workflow add-on for Business Pro plans.

Here is a brief introduction on how you can use these two features via the eSignature REST API v2.1.

Scheduled sending

Scheduled sending is useful any time an envelope is created or prepared before you want that envelope to be sent. This feature has a very broad set of potential use cases. Instead of building your own timing system, you can use scheduled sending to send envelopes at set times in the future.

Example JSON request:

If you want to send an envelope at 9:00 AM Pacific Time (UTC-8) on April 10, 2022, you would create your typical Envelopes: create API request with the additional workflow details as outlined below.

<strong>POST</strong> /v2.1/accounts/{{accountId}}/envelopes
{
  ...[additional envelope details]...
  
"workflow": {
    "scheduledSending": {
      "rules": [
        {
          "resumeDate": "2022-04-10T17:00:00Z",
        }
      ]
    }
  }
    
...[additional envelope details]...

}

You have two options for the rules parameter when you set the scheduled send:

resumeDate: A string value formatted as ISO8601 DATETIME with TimeZone specified.
delay: A string value formatted as [d.]_hh:mm:ss_ where d is the optional number of days, _hh_ is the number of hours ranging from 00 to 23, _mm_ is the number of minutes ranging from 00 to 59 and _ss_ is the number of seconds ranging from 00 to 59.

Delayed routing

Delayed routing is useful for a wide variety of use cases in which you may want to have an interval of time before a user is asked to sign a document. For example, many industries have legal requirements around grace periods, where the recipient must have access to view the documents for a set amount of time before getting access to sign them. To implement this case:

Add a CC recipient at routing order 1
Add that same person as a Needs to Sign recipient at routing order 2
Add a delay to occur before routing order 2

Example JSON request:

To implement the example above by adding a three-day delay before routing order 2, you would create your Envelopes: create API request with the additional workflow details as outlined below.

<strong>POST</strong> /v2.1 //accounts/{{accountId}}/envelopes
{

...[additional envelope details]...
  
    "recipients": {
    "carbonCopies": [
      {
      "recipientId": 1,
      "routingOrder": 1,
      "email": "recipient@email.com",
      ...
      }
    ],
    "signers": [
      {
      "recipientId": 2,
      "routingOrder": 2,
      "email": "recipient@email.com",
      ...
      }
    ]
  }
      
"workflow": {
    "workflowSteps": [
      {
        "action": "pause_before",
        "triggerOnItem": "routing_order",
        "itemId": 2,
        "status": "pending",
        "delayedRouting": {
          "rules": [
            {
              "delay": "3.00:00:00"
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    ]
  }
  
...[additional envelope details]...

}

Explanation:

By setting action to "pause_before", triggerOnItem to "routing_order", and itemId to 2, you are specifying that the envelope should be paused before routing order 2.

By setting rules to have a "delay" of "3.00:00:00", you are setting the envelope to resume its routing three daysafter the delay is initiated.

The rules parameter here supports the same options that scheduled sending does for both delay and resumeDate.

Additional resources

Take a look at the resources below and take advantage of scheduled sending and delayed routing to automate your workflows like never before.

Aaron ProhofskyProduct Manager

Aaron Prohofsky has been with Docusign since January 2021. He is the product manager for the core sending experience in the Docusign web application. He graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in engineering and has worked in the tech industry for many years. In his free time he loves playing basketball, beach volleyball and kiteboarding.