Assign fields to each signer on one envelope

A multi-signer envelope fails in a boring way when every mark still sits on the first recipient. The second person opens a link, sees nothing to complete, or the filed PDF shows one signature in every box. Assignment is the step that prevents that: each mark belongs to a recipient slot before you send.

Coordinates and field types are how to place signature fields on a PDF. Order of invites is sequential vs parallel signing and how to send one envelope to multiple signers. Desk help is Docs. This guide is only assignment: who owns which box, how templates remember it, and what the signer can still not do.

Recipient slots are the assignment target

On Documents → new, the field tool places signature, date, text, initials, checkbox, and select marks at /desk/documents/new#fields. Assign each mark to a recipient slot. Select fields need at least two comma-separated options. Checkboxes stamp an X when checked. Required fields block that signer’s submit — not everyone else’s.

An envelope accepts up to 20 recipients. Place fields for a recipient before you send. A later sequential signer cannot complete marks that are not theirs yet, and they cannot view the PDF until it is their turn. Parallel signers can open at once, but they still only complete the marks assigned to them.

What to assign to whom

• Signature and initials — the visible marks that person must apply. Required if you mean them to sign there.
• Date — stamped when they submit. Use it for “signed on,” not for a start date someone else must type.
• Text — title, entity name, a short note that belongs to that person.
• Checkbox — an acknowledgment you can prove later, on that signer’s submit.
• Select — a choice that signer makes. Needs two or more options.

Do not mark optional notes as required unless you mean it. Keep marks inside the visible page. Name slots “Requester” and “Controller” so the next teammate does not guess. Suggest starting layout can drop a signature, initials, and date per recipient on the last page. That is a page-count heuristic, not a model that reads labels.

One-off draft versus a saved layout

If you will send this PDF once, assign on the draft, then send. If you will send it again, save the PDF and marks as a workspace template. The next envelope — and every bulk row, Web Form publish, and API create — copies those assignments. Members of another organization cannot see that layout. Templates that reuse field layouts is the reuse path.

Bulk send still creates one envelope per unique email. Each of those envelopes has a single recipient, so every mark should already point at that one slot. A Web Form fill also creates one envelope for the filler. Multi-signer assignment is for a send you start with several recipients, including POST /api/v1/packets/:id/send with recipients after create-from-template.

Fields stay where you sent them

Fields and routing are locked once the envelope is sent. Envelope admin does not move field boxes. If the PDF itself is the wrong file, void the in-flight envelope and send from the right one. Completed envelopes cannot be voided; the stamped copy is the record. Envelope admin is the in-place toolkit.

What assignment does not do

• It does not invite a later sequential signer early.
• It does not keep the envelope open after one decline. One refuse closes the envelope.
• It does not detect fields with a model.
• It does not replace an access code, a reminder, or an expiry. Those are send options.
• It does not skip the monthly envelope cap. One multi-signer envelope is still one send.

Free allows 5 packets a month. Free at 5 packets a month is the live cap. Starter is 20 envelopes — more than Free — plus 3 published Web Forms. Seat counts are planning numbers. Checkout is not open. Text-message (SMS) is coming soon. Drive not configured stays honest without Drive keys. None of those flags reassign a mark.

Check the page before you hit send

1. Scan every required box. Confirm the slot name matches the person you will invite.
2. If two people share sequential order 1, they both need marks. The person at order 2 needs theirs too.
3. Tell sequential later signers they will wait. Assignment does not hide the waiting page.
4. Copy the signing URL if Resend is missing. The envelope still exists.

When everyone has finished, Inkpacket stamps the values and stores a second object. Preview the pages in the field editor and download the signed copy from the same envelope. What a completed envelope includes is the after-sign guide. Assign the marks once if you can name the next send. Then pick routing and let the links walk. Open a workspace on Free — see published pricing and the FAQ if you want the proposed lanes before you send a two-signer envelope.