How to read an Inkpacket audit trail

An audit trail is the answer to “what happened to this agreement?” On Inkpacket that answer sits on the envelope, not in a mystery export you request later. Created, sent, viewed, signed, completed — and, when they happen, declined, voided, corrected, expired. Those events are scoped to the organization. Another workspace cannot read them.

The filed PDF is a different object. After every signer finishes, pdf-lib stamps values onto a second stored file. The trail explains how you got there. What a completed envelope includes is the stamp-and-download guide. This article is how to read the events when someone asks a pointed question.

What each event means

Read the log in time order. Status on the document is the latest close. Events are the path. An envelope can be sent, viewed, and then declined — completed is not implied by viewed.

• Created — a draft exists. Fields and recipients can still change. Nothing has been invited yet.
• Sent — a signing link was issued. If Resend is missing, the invite was logged and the desk still shows the URL.
• Viewed — someone opened the token (and passed an access code if you set one). Viewed is not signed.
• Signed — that signer submitted required marks. On a multi-signer envelope, others may still owe a mark.
• Completed — every signer finished. The stamped PDF exists. You cannot void this envelope.
• Declined — a signer refused with a reason. One decline closes the whole envelope. Links and reminders stop.
• Voided — you stopped an in-flight envelope. Tokens die. Tell people out of band; Inkpacket does not email the void.
• Corrected — the outstanding recipient changed on the same envelope id. The old token is retired if the email changed.
• Expired — the window ended. The signer sees This signing link has expired. Ask for a new envelope if the work continues.

What the trail does not prove

Viewed does not prove they read every page. Signed does not prove they understood the clause. Completed does not prove the PDF was the right file — only that the file you sent received marks. If the paper was wrong, send a new envelope. Envelope admin will not rewrite a filed copy.

The trail also does not prove a webhook arrived. Delivery is a separate log in Settings: last 12 rows, attempt count, last error. Webhook retries explained is that path. Do not treat an iframe postMessage as the legal record. The parent tab can lie. Embedded signing is for UI.

Questions the log actually answers

1. Did we send it? Look for sent. If it is still created, nobody was invited.
2. Did they open it? Viewed. If not, resend the existing link or copy it — envelope admin.
3. Did they refuse? Declined plus the reason on that document.
4. Did we stop it? Voided. Completed envelopes cannot be voided.
5. Did we fix a typo? Corrected on the same id — not a twin envelope.
6. Did the clock run out? Expired. How to choose an envelope expiry is why the window was that long.

On sequential routing, later signers are not invited until earlier ones finish. Reminders and resend only email people who have already been invited. The log will show sent for the first order before a later signer has a token. That is expected — sequential vs parallel signing.

A Web Form fill creates an envelope and then sends the invite. The trail starts when that envelope exists, not when the stranger opened /form/SLUG. Signature and initials still happen on the signing page, so completed is later than the fill. A bulk job creates one envelope per unique email — read each envelope, not the job row, when you need viewed or signed. Bulk send vs Web Forms is the fork if you are still choosing how envelopes start.

When the same events leave the desk

A workspace or per-packet webhook URL receives a signed JSON body on the same lifecycle. Verify X-Inkpacket-Signature with HMAC-SHA256 of timestamp.body. Webhooks and outbound webhooks match the headers.

If Drive archive is on in Settings, a completed envelope can upload the stamped PDF and a JSON audit export to the chosen folder. When credentials are set, the files land there. Without them the desk reports Drive not configured and does not pretend the upload happened. Archive to Drive on a completed envelope retries; without keys it soft-fails again. The desk remains the system of record. Drive is a copy.

What is not live yet

Checkout is not open. Text-message (SMS) is coming soon. Reminders go out by email today. In-envelope payments report Payments not live when Stripe is off. None of those change the events on the envelope. Free allows 5 packets a month while billing stays published, not charging. Free at 5 packets a month is the live send cap. Starter is 20 envelopes. Seat counts are planning numbers.

Open the envelope. Read the events in order. Download the stamped PDF only after completed. If someone asks what happened, quote the log — not a screenshot of an inbox. Open a workspace and send one envelope you intend to file.