---
key: set-agreement-retention-and-signing-services
title: Set agreement retention and signing services
audience: staff
section: settings
routes: ["/settings/org/agreements"]
permissions: ["agreements.settings.manage"]
features: ["settings.org.agreements"]
since: 0.0.1
updated: 0.0.1
status: published
summary: Decide how long Nova keeps signed, cancelled and draft agreements, protect agreements on legal hold, and choose whether an outside signing service handles your agreements.
keywords: [retention, legal hold, delete old agreements, DocuSign, signing provider, e-sign service, record keeping, purge]
related: [set-agreement-branding-and-reminders, set-how-customers-sign-agreements]
---

In the sidebar, open **Settings**, then choose **Agreement Settings** under **Agreements**. The page address is `/settings/org/agreements`. This article covers **Retention and legal-hold defaults** and **Execution providers**, the two sections above **Operational posture** at the bottom.

## Before you start

- Your role needs permission to manage agreement settings.
- Retention needs to be in your plan, and your role needs permission to manage retention. When both are true, the section shows **Retention enabled**; otherwise it shows **Read-only** and a note replaces its fields.
- Most organizations keep the built-in signing service and never add a provider. Add one only if you already have an account with an outside signing service.
- Everything saves with the one **Save settings** button at the top of the page.

## Steps

1. Under **Retention and legal-hold defaults**, set **Keep completed agreements for**, **Keep canceled or expired agreements for** and **Clean up abandoned drafts after**, all in days.
2. Switch on **Protect agreements on legal hold from deletion** so a held agreement is never permanently deleted. The note under **Legal-hold controls** tells you whether you can put agreements on legal hold from their own pages.
3. Under **Execution providers**, leave **Default signing service** on **Internal** to use Nova's own signing.
4. If you use an outside service, switch on **Fall back to built-in signing** so agreements still go out if that service fails, and decide whether to **Refresh status when opened** and **Check for updates in the background**.
5. To connect an outside service, press **Add provider**. A card marked **New provider** appears. Fill in **Service ID** (a short lowercase name such as docusign), **Display name**, **Type** (**Internal** or **External**), and the connection details your provider gave you: **Credential location**, **Account ID**, **Connected account ID**, **Service web address**, **Wait time (seconds)** and **Verification key location**. Switch on **Turned on** so the service can be chosen.
6. Press **Save settings**.

## What you see

- The summary strip shows **Providers** with how many services are set up and which one is the default, and **Operational posture** repeats **Retention defaults**.
- With no outside service added, the **Execution providers** section explains that agreements keep using the internal service.
- **Remove** on a provider card takes it out of the list once you save.

## If something looks different

- A note stands in for the retention fields and the badge reads **Read-only**: retention is not in your plan, or your role cannot manage it.
- **Save settings** does nothing and no red text shows: two provider cards may share the same **Service ID**. Give each card its own.
- Saving fails on **Advanced settings**: the text must be a valid technical block from your provider. Leave it blank if you are unsure.
- A **Service web address** is refused: it has to be a complete web address, such as one starting with https://.

[[route:/settings/org/agreements|Open Agreement Settings]]