Create a reusable PDF template

Turn a PDF you already use, such as a waiver, into a reusable signing template by uploading it once, naming the signer roles, placing signature and date fields, and publishing it.

In the sidebar, open Settings, then choose Reusable PDFs under Agreements. The page address is /agreements/pdf-templates. The page title reads Reusable PDF templates.

Use this when you have a PDF that customers sign again and again and you do not want to rebuild it as an agreement template. You upload the PDF once, mark where each signer signs, and publish. After that the template is picked when an agreement is created.

Before you start

• Your role needs permission to view agreement templates to open the page. Creating, editing and publishing one each need their own permission.
• Have the PDF file ready; nothing else is accepted.
• Know who signs. A reusable template does not name real people; it names roles such as a customer signer, and the real person is filled in when the agreement is sent.

Steps

1. Press New PDF template. The Create reusable PDF template drawer opens.
2. Type a Display name, a Template key, a Template type and a Category. Add a Description, Tags, Version notes and a Draft summary if useful. Press Create template.
3. The Reusable PDF template editor opens with a draft version. To come back to it later, open the template's row menu and choose Open editor.
4. Under Draft packet PDF, press Upload PDF and pick your file. Wait for the page previews to appear.
5. Under Signer-role placeholders, type a Role key and a Role label such as Customer signer, then press Add role placeholder. Add one role per person who signs.
6. In the Placement editor, select a role, pick a field under Add fields such as E-signature, Initials or Date of signing, and drag it onto the page (or click it, then click the page). Fields save as you place them. Repeat for every role and every place they sign.
7. Check Template readiness. Publish status must read Ready to publish; a Blocker names what is missing.
8. Press Publish draft, then Publish draft again in the Publish reusable PDF template draft? dialog.

What you see

• The list shows each template with its Type, Status and Stats, and the row menu offers Open detail and Open editor.
• Open detail shows Version history, Source preview, the counts of Pages, Fields and Role placeholders, and Template lifecycle actions such as Clone.
• On a published template, the editor shows Immutable published state. Press Create draft version to start the next version; the published one keeps working until you publish again.
• Replace PDF swaps the draft's file. The fields you placed are cleared and the page previews are made again, so place the fields again on the new pages.
• Archive draft throws away an unpublished draft; Archive template retires the whole template.

If something looks different

• Add fields is greyed out: add at least one role placeholder first.
• The pages have not appeared after uploading: press Retry previews in the Placement editor.
• Publish status reads Blocked: read the listed issues. Common ones are a field with no role and a role with no field.
• A customer needs to sign it now: create the agreement from the published template. See Create an agreement.

Open Reusable PDFs