Use e-signature to send a PDF, DOCX, or DOC file for signing directly from ActiveMerge. Add signers, place signature fields, and send. Signers get an email with a personal link, sign in their browser, and everyone involved gets the completed PDF automatically once signing is done.
There are two ways to use it: sending a single document by hand, or sending automatically for every document a template generates.
Credits, not a separate add-on
E-signatures are part of your regular ActiveMerge credit wallet. There’s nothing extra to subscribe to.
Sending a document for signature costs 20 credits, charged once when it’s actually sent, not when you create a draft. Your available credit balance is shown wherever you start a signature request.
Sending one document
Step 1: Start a request
Go to Signatures → New Request. The document comes from one of three places:
- A document you already generated in ActiveMerge (start from that generation job)
- A file already saved in ActiveMerge
- A direct upload: PDF, DOCX, or DOC, up to 20 MB
Add a title, an optional message that goes in the signing invitation email, and an optional expiry date. Leave the expiry date empty if the request shouldn’t expire.
Step 2: Add signers
Add each signer’s first name, last name, and email. Use Use my info to fill in a signer with your own account details, handy when you’re one of the signers yourself.
Turn on Use signing order if signers should be invited one at a time in the order you listed them, rather than all at once. This matters when, for example, a client needs to sign before your team countersigns.
Submitting the form creates a draft. Nothing is sent yet, and no credits are charged.
Step 3: Place signature fields and send
From the draft, click Set Up & Send. This opens the signing editor, where you place signature, date, initials, and text fields directly on the document by clicking where they should go, one placement per signer.
When you’re done in the editor, sending happens from there. That’s the point credits are charged: 20 credits, deducted once, the moment the request actually goes out. If you close the editor before sending, come back to the draft and click Continue in Editor to pick up where you left off.
Reusable signing templates
If you send the same kind of document for signature often, such as a standard NDA or service agreement, build it once as a signing template instead of placing fields every time.
Go to Signatures → Templates → New Template, upload the PDF, and place the signature fields in the editor. Once saved, that template is available as a starting point for future signature requests, so you’re not repositioning fields on the same document over and over.
This is separate from ActiveMerge’s regular document templates (the ones with {placeholders} used for document generation). A signing template exists purely to save field placement for e-signature.
Sending automatically after document generation
If you’re generating many documents at once from a template and a data source, such as Excel, Airtable, or Notion, you can have each one sent for signature the moment it’s generated, without visiting the Signatures section at all.
Add signature placeholders to the template
In the document template itself, add placeholders where the signature fields should appear:
| Placeholder | What it does |
|---|---|
{{sign.signature_1}} |
Signature box for signer 1 |
{{sign.date_1}} |
Date, filled in automatically when signer 1 signs |
{{sign.initials_1}} |
Initials field for signer 1 |
{{sign.text_1}} |
A free-text field signer 1 fills in |
The number matches the signer’s order. A second signer’s fields use {{sign.signature_2}}, {{sign.date_2}}, and so on.
Client Signature: {{sign.signature_1}}
Date: {{sign.date_1}}
Put each placeholder on its own line with space around it. ActiveMerge reads where the placeholder lands on the rendered page to position the field there. If signing is turned off for a given generation run, these placeholders are simply removed from the output instead of left visible.
Turn on Send for Signing when generating
On the document generation screen, turn on Send for Signing. This section only appears once ActiveMerge detects {{sign.*}} fields in the template.
For each signer, choose where their email and name come from:
- Data column: pull the value from a column in your data source
- Fixed email/name: the same value on every document, useful for an internal countersigner
- Me: your own account email and name
Name can be a single full-name column, or split into separate first-name and last-name sources. If there’s more than one signer, you can also turn on Enforce signing order so each signer waits for the one before them.
Under Advanced options you can set:
- A document title using
{{ColumnName}}placeholders, so each signer’s copy is titled individually - A message included in the signing invitation
- An expiry in days (1-365)
Once this is turned on, every document that job generates is sent for signature automatically as soon as generation completes. There’s no draft step to review first, so check your field mapping and signer columns carefully before running the full batch. Sending still costs 20 credits per document.
Tracking status and following up
Go to Signatures to see every request: draft, sent, partially signed, completed, declined, expired, or cancelled. Open one to see:
- Each signer’s individual status
- A Sync Status button to pull the latest state from the signing service if something looks out of date
- Edit in editor to go back into the field-placement editor for a request that’s already been prepared
- A Resend reminder action next to any signer who’s been sent the request or opened it but hasn’t signed yet
What happens when everyone signs
The moment the last required signature is recorded, the request moves to Completed, and you can download the signed PDF from the request page. If the document came from a Notion or Airtable automation with write-back enabled, the signed PDF is uploaded back to that record automatically.
Expiry and cancellation
Set an expiry date when you create the request (or an expiry in days for the auto-send-on-generation path). Once it passes, the request moves to Expired and the signing link stops working.
You can cancel a request at any point before it’s completed. A draft that’s never been sent shows as Discard Draft instead, since nothing has gone out to signers yet. Cancelling a request that’s already partway through signing closes it for every signer immediately, including anyone who has the link open.
Handling declines
If a signer declines instead of signing, the request moves to Declined right away. The document closes for every other signer at that point, since a declined request generally can’t be completed as-is. Start a new request from the same document once whatever needed fixing is fixed.
Frequently asked questions
Do signers need an ActiveMerge account?
No. They get a link by email and sign in their browser. No account, no app to install.
Are these signatures legally binding?
Yes. Each signature is recorded with a timestamp, IP address, and audit trail.
What file formats can I send for signature?
PDF, DOCX, or DOC when uploading directly. If you generate documents in ActiveMerge, the generated output can be sent for signature without a separate export step.
When am I actually charged credits?
When the request is sent, not when it’s created as a draft. A draft you discard without sending costs nothing.
Can I require signers to sign in a specific order?
Yes. Turn on signing order (called Use signing order on a manual request, or Enforce signing order on the auto-send path) and set each signer’s order. Later signers only get their invitation once the signers ahead of them have finished.
Does this work with documents generated from Notion or Airtable?
Yes. Generate the document as usual with signature placeholders in the template, turn on Send for Signing, enable write-back on the automation, and the signed PDF uploads back to the matching row or page once signing completes.
What’s the difference between a signing template and a regular document template?
A regular document template has {placeholders} and produces the document itself. A signing template is just a saved set of signature field positions on a PDF, used to skip re-placing fields every time you send the same kind of document.
What happens if I need to send the same document again?
If a request expired, was declined, or needs a correction, start a new request rather than trying to reuse the old one. A signed or cancelled request can’t be reopened.