Contract signing

Signicat Mint supports workflows to create signing orders that you can share with your customers for signing. A typical signing order involves preparing and sharing documents with one or many signers.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to populate a fillable PDF template with details that you obtain from your signers, create the signing order and share it with multiple others signers. At the end, all parties can download the signed document.

This workflow allows you to deliver a legally-binding signed custom PDF with minimal setup.

New to Mint?

If you are new to Signicat Mint, we recommend you start your journey with the Build your first flow guide.

Overview

A contract-signing workflow in Mint typically involves these steps:

Workflow overview

1. Form: Receive contract details from your end-users through a web form.
2. PDF hydration: Pre-fill a PDF template with the details you received.
3. Create sign order: Create a signing order from the prefilled PDF document.
4. Add signer to sign order: Add signers to the signing order.
5. Send sign order: Seal and send the signing order to the other signers.
6. Sign inside journey: Allow the current end-user to sign immediately in the user journey, if required.
7. Redirect user: Redirect your end-users to your website or confirmation page.
8. Download signed documents: When all parties have signed, download the signed document.

For in-depth details about each of the steps in this tutorial, visit the Mint steps reference.

Prerequisites

To get started with Mint in the Signicat Dashboard, make sure you have followed the instructions below to set up your Signicat environment:

Prerequisites (click to expand)

If you do not have an account already, then you need to sign up to the Signicat Dashboard for free and complete the initial preparations. To do this:

1. Sign up to the Signicat Dashboard and register your profile.
2. Ensure that you have created an organisation.
3. Create an account. To do this:
   1. Go to Signicat Dashboard > Organisation, then select + Add account.
   2. Enter an account name, choose the type of account that you want to create, then select Create.
4. Create a domain. To do this:
   1. Go to Signicat Dashboard > Settings > Domain management, then select + Add domain.
   2. To create a standard domain, enter a domain name. Then, select Add domain.
   3. To create a custom domain, follow the instructions in the Custom domains documentation.

Account types

We recommend that you create a sandbox account to test our services before going live. Sandbox and production accounts must be set up separately.

Mint permissions

To create and edit Mint workflows, your user in the Signicat Dashboard needs the Account Viewer role and at least one of the following permissions:

• Mint Admin
• Mint Editor
• Mint Workflow Builder Editor

For more information, see the Managing roles and permissions page.

When you are ready to use Mint in the Signicat Dashboard, continue by following the steps below.

Build the workflow

Below, you find step-by-step instructions to build the workflow.

1. Create a flow

With Mint you define all your operations inside a workflow. To create a new Mint workflow, do the following:

1. In the Signicat Dashboard, go to Products > Signicat Mint.
2. From the Mint sidebar, select Builder.
3. Select Blank to create a flow without template.
4. Enter a name and a description.
   What your end-users see

   The name and description of a workflow are visible to the end-users at the start of the user journey.

5. Select Create flow.

2. Add Form - Collect signer data

When building a web form with the Form step, you can add modular elements, such as input fields or text boxes. The form is rendered during the user journey so that your end-users can fill in their personal details.

For the sake of this contract signing workflow, let's build a web form to collect the following:

• First name
• Last name
• Email address
• Phone number
• Date of birth

Later in the workflow, you will reuse this data to hydrate the PDF and identify signers. Additionally, you can display text to provide instructions and context to the end-user.

How to add a Form

To add a Form, do this:

1. In the canvas, select the plus icon (+), then Step to add a new step.
2. In the left "Steps" menu, select Signicat > Form to add an empty form.

3. Add a header

1. In the left "Elements" menu, select Special elements > Header.
2. In the canvas, select Placeholder to edit the header element.
3. In the left menu, edit the Text field to "Provide your details".
4. Set the Header type to h2.

4. Add a text block

1. In the left "Elements" menu, select Special elements > Text Block.
2. In the canvas, select Placeholder to edit the text.
3. In the left menu, edit the Text field to provide context. For example:
   "Please provide your personal details to generate your digital contract."

5. Add input fields

To add input fields for your end-users to provide their personal details, do this:

• First name: In the left "Elements" menu, select Inputs > Text. Then, edit the Label to "First name".
• Last name: In the left "Elements" menu, select Inputs > Text. Then, edit the Label to "Last name".
• Email address: In the left "Elements" menu, select Inputs > Email. Then, edit the Label to "Email address".
• Phone number: In the left "Elements" menu, select Inputs > Phone. Then, edit the Label to "Phone number".
• Date of birth: In the left "Elements" menu, select Inputs > Date. Then, edit the Label to "Date of birth".

Here is how your form step should look like in the Mint UI:

Configuration of your form step.

Remember to save

After adding a step, it is important to save your flow to prevent losing any progress you made. To save a flow, select Save at the top right.

3. Add PDF hydration - Pre-fill the contract

A PDF Hydration step allows you to populate a fillable PDF template with data, in this case the data obtained with the web form.

In this workflow, you first need to configure a PDF template with empty fields. Then, you populate the template with the data from the Form step. After you pass the input data from the Form to the template, the PDF document is populated and ready for signing.

Create a PDF template

Before you can configure the PDF hydration step, you need to create a fillable PDF template. You can create a fillable PDF with software like Adobe Acrobat or LibreOffice. We recommend you follow the respective guides to create a custom fillable PDF, or use the demo template below.

Demo PDF template

For demo purposes, you can get started by downloading our generic fillable PDF template here. This is a mock template to simulate a fictional contract signing.

Upload a PDF template

After you have created your own fillable PDF template or downloaded the demo template above, you need to upload it to your Mint workflow. To do this:

1. In the Mint workflow builder, select the Settings gear icon (settings) at the top right.
2. In the Flow settings, navigate to the Files tab.
3. Select Browse files.
4. Choose the fillable PDF template you want to upload from your device.

Files in Mint

The files you upload to a workflow are available for use in any of the steps of the workflow.

Add PDF hydration

Once you have uploaded the fillable PDF temple, you are ready to add and configure the PDF hydration step. This allows you pass the data collected in the web form to populate the PDF document. To do this:

1. In the Builder UI, select the plus icon (+). Then, select Step.
2. In the "Steps" menu on the left, select Documents > PDF hydration.
3. Fill in the following fields:
   • Input file: Select and choose the fillable PDF template that you uploaded in the previous step.
   • Optional file name: Optional. Allows to edit the filename displayed to signers after download.
   • Input key-value pairs: Define the key-value pairs to link the fillable fields to the values/variables you obtain in the web form. If you use our demo template, add these:
     • Key: txtName
       Value: Type or select the + (plus) icon and choose Form.First name, then Form.Last name.
     • Key: txtDob
       Value: Type or select the + (plus) icon and choose Form.Date of birth.
       Keys

       Note that the keys should match the variables you defined when creating the fillable PDF template.

You are now ready to create and configure the sign order.

Remember to save your workflow

4. Create a signing order

You can employ the hydrated PDF from the previous step to create a signing order. The Create sign order step creates a sign order with a single signer before initiating the document signing process. Later, you can include additional steps to customise the signing process like adding multiple signers.

Wait to send

The 'Wait to send' option allows you to add more signers or more documents to a signing order later in the same workflow. When enabling the 'Wait to send' option, you pause the signing order until you add further details and decide to send notifications to the signers.

Note that when you use the 'Wait to send' option, you must add the Send sign order step later in your workflow.

To add the Create sign order to your workflow, do this:

1. In the canvas, select the plus icon (+), then Step to add a new step.
2. In the left "Steps" menu, select Electronic Signing > Create sign order.
3. Configure the step:
   • Documents: Choose PDF Hydration.Output file as a source.
   • Mechanism to sign document(s): Set to Handwritten.
   • Signer's email: The email address of the signer. Type or select the + (plus) icon and choose Form.Email address. This is the variable from the Form step.
   • Signer's phone number: Phone number (with country code) of the signer. Type or select the + (plus) icon and choose Form.Phone number-prefix, then repeat for Form.Phone number-number.
   • Document company's email address: Email address of the company that is issuing the documents to be signed. Type or select the + (plus) icon and choose Form.Email address.
   • Wait to send: Allows you to add more signers before the contract is sent out. Toggle to ON.
   Advanced settings

   The Create sign order step has more options to customise your signing orders. Learn more in the step reference.
   
   For example, you can send a signed copy to all signers by activating the Signicat Secure Share option. This will send them a link where to download the completed signing order.

You have now configured the signing order with one signer. This is the end-user who provided their signing details in the web form at the beginning of the user journey. To add more signers, continue below.

5. Add signers to signing order

Optional step

This is an optional step. You may skip this section if you do not want to add more signers to the signing order.

The Add signer to sign order step allows you to add additional signers to the signing order you created above. You can repeat this step to add as many signers as you need.

1. In the canvas, select the plus icon (+), then Step to add a new step.
2. In the left "Steps" menu, select Electronic Signing > Add signer to sign order to add a signer to an existing signing order.
3. Configure the step:
   • Sign order ID: Type or select the + (plus) icon and choose Create sign order.signOrderId. This links the signer to the signing order you created previously in the workflow.
   • Mechanism to sign document(s): Set to Handwritten.
   • Signer's email: The email address of the signer. Enter the email of a new signer you wish to add to the signing order.
   • Signer's phone number: Phone number (with country code) of the signer. Enter the phone number with country code of a new signer you wish to add to the signing order.
   • Send notifications: Toggle to ON if you intend to send email and SMS messages to the signers when the order is ready to sign.

Notifications

When you enable notifications, signers receive email or SMS notifications with instructions on how to complete the signing process once the sign order is sent out.

To add multiple signers, repeat the steps 1-3 and add as many signers as you need.

6. Send sign order

The Send sign order step completes an existing signing order created using the 'Wait to send' option and sends out the signing request to all other signers who were added to the order.

To add the Send sign order to your workflow, do the following:

1. In the canvas, select the plus icon (+), then Step to add a new step.
2. In the left "Steps" menu, select Electronic Signing > Send sign order.
3. Configure the step:
   • Sign order ID: Type or select the + (plus) icon and choose Create sign order.signOrderId.

7. Sign inside journey

Additionally, you may want to prompt the end-user that filled in the web form to also sign the order inside the same user journey. This would be an additional screen where they can review the PDF document and sign before they leave the user journey.

The Sign inside journey step redirects the end-user to a signing order inside the user journey and returns them back after signing. To add this to your workflow, do the following:

1. In the canvas, select the plus icon (+), then Step to add a new step.
2. In the left "Steps" menu, select Electronic Signing > Sign inside journey.
3. Configure the step:
   • Sign order ID: Type or select the + (plus) icon and choose Create sign order.signOrderId. This links shows the signing order you created previously in the workflow.
   • Signer ID: The identifier of the signer. To select the end-user in the journey, type or select the + (plus) icon and choose Create sign order.signerId. This links the signer to the signing order in the same user journey.
   • Optionally, you can set the expiration date. By default, signing orders expire after 30 days.

After this step, the end-user who provided the details for the signing order will be redirected to sign the contract as part of the same user journey.

Remember to save your workflow

Here is how your workflow should look like in the Mint UI:

Workflow overview.

8. Redirect the end-user

When the end-user signs the order and the user journey is complete, you may want to redirect them to your website or a confirmation page of choice:

1. In the canvas, select the plus icon (+), then Step to add a new step.
2. In the left "Steps" menu, select Signicat > User Redirect.
3. In the step configuration, enter the URL of a webpage in the "Redirect URL" field. For example, https://www.signicat.com/.

Alternative end scenarios

If you want to skip the redirect step and terminate the user journey on a Mint screen instead, you can edit the "Waiting message" in the step settings of the next step: Download signed documents.

For example, you could provide the following message: "Your signature has been collected. We're waiting for the other signers now. You may close this tab..."

9. Download signed documents

Once all parties have signed the document, the Download signed documents step binds the completed signed order and makes it available for you to download in the Mint Journeys reports.

To add the Download signed documents to your workflow, do the following:

1. In the canvas, select the plus icon (+), then Step to add a new step.
2. In the left "Steps" menu, select Electronic Signing > Download signed documents.
3. Configure the step:
   • Sign order ID: Type or select the + (plus) icon and choose Create sign order.signOrderId.
   • Custom file name: Optional. Allows you to edit the name of the download file.

Success!

You have completed the workflow build. You are now ready to save, publish, and see it in action.

Try out a demo

If you'd like to try out a similar workflow with contract signing, visit our Mint Signature demos page.

Save and Publish

Now, it's time to save and publish your workflow, so you can share it with your end-users.

1. Select Save at the top-right corner.
2. Select Publish to publish the flow. Now, Mint generates a public URL that you can share with your end-users. The workflow URL is automatically copied to your clipboard.

Where to find the workflow URL

To copy the workflow URL again, select the More Options icon (more_vert) at the top-right corner. Then, select Copy workflow URL.

See it in action

In your browser, open a new window and paste the workflow URL to start the user journey and test how your end-users experience the workflow.

View and monitor user journeys

You can find reports of all the finished, suspended and failed user journeys in Mint Journeys. To learn more about the interface, visit the Mint Journeys documentation.

Next steps

Continue your journey with Mint:

Mint tutorials

Explore more Mint tutorials

Steps

Learn about the building blocks of your flows