Subscription process: signing order and DocuSign options

Overview

An envelope has its documents and its signers. Two things remain before it can go: who signs when, and anything you want to adjust in DocuSign itself.

What you'll learn

• How the order number actually works

• Why parallel is usually right

• What a sequence costs you

• What the DocuSign preview lets you do, and what it does not cover

Signing order

Each signer on an envelope has an Order number, and the rule is stated on screen:

"Same number = sign together. Example: 1, 2, 2, 3 → A then (B+C) then D."

So the number is a grouping, not a queue position. Signers sharing a number sign simultaneously; different numbers sign in ascending sequence.

The common case has its own hint: set all orders to 1 if everyone can sign in parallel. If nobody needs to see anyone else's signature first, give everyone 1 and the envelope goes to all signers at once.

When sequence matters

Use ordering when one signature must legally or practically precede another — where a counterparty signs only after the company's representative has, or where an approver must review before the principal signs.

Sequential signing has a real cost: the envelope stalls at whoever has not yet signed, and later signers never receive their request until the earlier ones act. That is the point of it, but it is also the thing that delays a process — and a sequence created by accident does not look like an error. It looks like a signer who has not got round to it.

The DocuSign preview

Before sending, you can preview the envelope in DocuSign and use DocuSign's own capabilities on the documents — extra fields, an additional approver, document metadata.

Two things worth knowing:

• This is genuine DocuSign, not an imitation. Whatever DocuSign offers around document preparation and signature is available.

• Anything you add there is your responsibility. Kapitable generated the documents from transaction data; changes made in the DocuSign layer sit outside that chain. What comes back on completion is the signed document and its certificate — not the contents of any field added on the DocuSign side. So a value typed there lives in the PDF and nowhere else: it will not appear in the transaction, the cap table or the registry. If you added something only to inspect it, take it out again.

Steps

1. On the envelope in E-Signature Setup, review its signers.

2. Set each signer's Order. Use 1 for everyone if they can sign in parallel; use ascending numbers where sequence matters, and the same number for people who should sign together.

3. Optionally, preview in DocuSign and make any DocuSign-level adjustments.

4. Remove anything you added only for inspection.

5. Mark the envelope ready.

6. The envelope appears in E-Signature, awaiting sending (A8.10).

What good looks like

Every signer has an order that reflects how the process should actually run, and the envelope is marked ready. Nothing has been sent — marking ready and sending are separate acts.

Common problems

Everyone has a different order and you did not intend a sequence. Set them all to 1. A sequence you did not mean to create is a delay you did not plan for.

A signature is blocked and nobody knows why. Check the ordering. A signer with a higher number has not been asked yet — they are not late, they have not been invited.

Someone added a field in DocuSign and the document no longer matches the transaction. Fix it at source in Kapitable and regenerate (A8.6), rather than patching in the DocuSign layer.

Related

• A8.8 — Subscription process: building an envelope · what you are configuring

• A8.10 — Subscription process: tracking signatures and sending reminders · sending it

• A8.7 — Subscription process: defining signers · who these orders apply to

• A8.6 — Subscription process: generating and reviewing documents · fixing at source