Signing order

What does Signing order mean?

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. See how to send a document for signature for a walkthrough.

What is an example of signing order?

A startup's employment contract needs the candidate to sign first and the CEO to countersign. In eSignSimple the founder adds both signers, turns on signing order and puts the candidate first. The CEO only gets the email once the candidate has signed, so she never countersigns an offer that was not accepted, and reminders go to whoever is currently up.

Sequential or parallel: which should you choose?

Choose sequential when a later signature should depend on an earlier one. A company countersigning only after the customer has signed, so it never commits to an offer that was not accepted. A manager approving an expense policy exception before the employee signs. A landlord signing only once all co-tenants have. In each case the order reflects a real business rule, and recording it in the audit trail is useful evidence.

Choose parallel when signatures are independent: five employees acknowledging a handbook, two co-founders signing a partnership agreement as equals, or several parents signing a parental consent form. Parallel finishes as fast as the slowest person; sequential takes the sum of everyone's delays. With four signers who each take two days, that is roughly two days versus eight.

How does a sequential chain move in eSignSimple?

When you turn on signing order, the signers are numbered in the order you add them. Only the first receives an email when you send. As soon as they sign, the next person is emailed automatically, and so on. Everyone further down the list sees nothing until it is their turn, so nobody is asked to sign a document the earlier signers have not yet accepted. The certificate of completion lists signers with their position numbers and signing times, which documents the sequence.

On paid plans, reminders go to whoever currently holds the document, every 3 days, up to 3 reminders. If anyone declines, the chain stops and you are notified with their reason; signers after them are never contacted. eSignSimple keeps routing simple: either everyone signs at once, or strictly one after another. If two people need to sign at the same step of a longer chain, put them next to each other in the order; it adds a short wait but keeps the record clear.

What should you do when a signing chain is stuck?

First, check the audit trail to see where it stopped. If the current signer never opened the email, the likely causes are a typo in the address, a spam filter or an inbox nobody watches. If they opened it but did not sign, they probably have a question, so a short personal message usually works better than another automatic reminder.

If the address was wrong, void the document and use send again to create a corrected draft with the right email; earlier signatures on the voided copy do not carry over, so tell those signers why they are being asked again. To prevent repeats, keep chains short: a two-person sequence rarely stalls, a six-person one often does. If only the last signature truly depends on the others, run the first group in parallel in one document and handle the final approval separately. Our guide on sending a document to multiple signers shows both set-ups.

Which terms are related?

• Audit trail: An audit trail is a chronological record of events in a document's signing process, such as sending, viewing and signing, with timestamps.
• Envelope: An envelope is a container for one or more documents sent to one or more recipients for signature as a single transaction with one shared audit trail.
• Counterpart: Counterparts are identical copies of an agreement signed separately by different parties that together form one binding contract.
• Bulk send: Bulk send lets you send one document or template to many recipients at once, with each person receiving and signing their own individual copy.