Default API reminder and expiration settings

When you send a document using the Docusign eSignature REST API, you will probably want to control when a signer will be reminded to sign it, as well as how long the document is valid for them to sign. For this, you will need to leverage the reminders and expirations settings that we provide.

Reminders and expirations

You can use reminders and expirations in a couple of ways when using the Docusign web UI. You can specify account defaults that apply to all envelopes sent on the account or set it on an envelope-by-envelope basis.

When using the API, there’s also a default reminder and expiration setting where the envelope will expire after 120 days and won’t send any notifications to the recipients.

Which settings are used when using the eSignature REST API?

While you might expect that your envelope will automatically use the expiration and reminder settings that you’ve specified on your account by default, this isn’t actually the case. If you want the API to use anything other than the default 120-day expiration with no reminders, you need to specify it in the API call.

This is controlled by the notification object in your call to create the envelope. If you don’t specify a notification object, then the default API parameters will be used. If you would like to use the reminder and notification settings that you have specified on your Docusign account, then you will need to use the notification object and set the useAccountDefaults parameter inside of it to true.

Alternatively, you can use the notification object and leave useAccountDefaults as false while setting the expiration and notification settings for the envelope that you’re creating. In this example, I’ll set the envelope to have specified notification and expiration settings instead of using my account defaults.

Code example:

{
  "status": "sent",
  "emailSubject": "This is a custom email subject.",
  "emailBlurb": "This is a custom email blurb.",
  "notification":{
      "useAccountDefaults": false,
      "expirations":{
          "expireEnabled": true,
          "expireAfter": "30",
          "expireWarn": "20"
      },
      "reminders":{
          "reminderEnabled": true,
          "reminderDelay": "3",
          "reminderFrequency": "5"
      }
  },
  "documents": [{
      "documentId": "1",
      "name": "TestDocument.docx",
      "fileExtension": "docx",
      "documentBase64": "base64Document"
    }
  ],
  "recipients": {
    "signers": [{
        "name": "John Doe",
        "email": "johndoe@example.com",        
        "recipientId": "1",
        "tabs": {
          "signHereTabs": [{
              "xPosition": "25",
              "yPosition": "50",
              "documentId": "1",
              "pageNumber": "1"
            }
          ]
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

This envelope will not use the account defaults or the API defaults and will instead expire after 30 days with a warning after 20 days that the envelope will be expiring soon. It will also send the first reminder to sign after three days and then every five days after that.

Additional resources

• Create Envelope Reference

• How to Set Reminders and Expirations in Docusign eSignature

• Docusign Developer Center

• @DocuSignAPI on Twitter

• Docusign for Developers on LinkedIn

• Docusign for Developers on YouTube

• Docusign Developer Newsletter