Signing order

Signing order, also called routing order or signer sequence, decides whether the people on a document sign one after another or all at the same time. With a sequential order, the second signer is only invited once the first has finished; with a parallel order, everyone receives the request at once and can sign in any sequence.

Setting it up is usually a matter of numbering recipients. Signer 1 gets the email first. When they finish, the platform automatically notifies signer 2, and so on. Some tools let several people share a step, so two co-founders can sign in parallel before the document moves on to an investor. Each handover is recorded in the audit trail with a timestamp.

Think of a small agency hiring a contractor. The contractor should sign the agreement first, then the agency's director countersigns. With sequential routing, the director never sees an unsigned draft in their inbox and only signs once the other side has committed. For a simple team acknowledgement, such as five employees confirming they read a new policy, parallel signing makes more sense because nobody needs to wait for anyone else.

One misconception is that signing order affects legal validity. Generally it does not: a contract signed by all parties is usually binding regardless of who signed first, although specific company rules or deal terms may require one side to go last. Another myth is that sequential order is always safer. It is slower, and one unresponsive person blocks everyone behind them, which is why reminders matter so much in sequential flows.

Signing order sits inside the envelope settings and often works alongside templates, where the routing is saved once and reused for every copy of the same agreement. It also affects what each signer sees. In a sequential flow, later signers usually see earlier signatures already on the page, which can reassure them. In parallel flows, signers may sign a version where other fields are still blank, and the platform merges everything into the final file afterwards.

Our take: use sequential order when it reflects a real business need, such as approval before signature or the counterparty signing before you. Otherwise, parallel is faster and kinder to everyone involved. Defaulting to a long chain just because you can tends to slow deals down.

eSignSimple supports both sequential and parallel signing order. You can add automatic reminders so a slow signer does not stall the chain, save the routing in a template, and see every step in the audit trail and certificate of completion. Signers do not need an account at any point.