How to send one envelope to multiple signers

Some agreements need more than one mark on the same PDF. A requester and a controller. Two partners on a vendor cover. An offer letter that still needs a countersign. That is one envelope with several recipients — not a bulk job, and not a chain of forwarded files. Inkpacket keeps every link, reminder, and audit event on that envelope.

The mode comparison is sequential vs parallel signing. Desk help is Docs. This guide is the send: who belongs on one envelope, how to place marks for each person, and what to do after the first invite goes out.

When several people belong on one envelope

Put people on the same envelope when they are signing the same filed copy. The completed PDF should show every mark. The audit should answer “who finished, who has not, who declined” without merging twins.

• A countersign after an offer or a vendor request.
• Two managers acknowledging the same policy on one form.
• A board envelope where members share an order, then a chair signs last.

Do not put fifty unrelated people on one envelope. If each person should receive their own copy of the same layout, that is bulk send — one envelope per unique email. Do not publish a Web Form and hope a second signer appears. A Web Form fill creates one envelope for the person who submitted the slug.

What you actually type

On Documents → new, add recipients and pick Sequential or Parallel at /desk/documents/new#routing. An envelope accepts up to 20 recipients. Sequential uses an order from 1 to 20: Inkpacket emails the current order, then the next after everyone at that order finishes. People who share an order sign in parallel with each other. Parallel invites everyone at once. The envelope completes when every signer has finished.

After a sequential send the desk says First signer was invited. Later recipients get their link after earlier ones finish. A later sequential signer who opens early sees This envelope is waiting for an earlier signer. They cannot view the PDF until it is their turn. Tell them that, or they will think the link is broken.

Place marks for every slot before you send

Assign each signature, date, text, initials, checkbox, and select mark to a recipient slot. A mark with no assignee is a gap on the filed PDF. Assign fields to each signer is the editor guide; how to place signature fields on a PDF is the type-and-coordinate walkthrough. Suggest starting layout can drop a signature, initials, and date per recipient on the last page — a page-count heuristic, not a model.

Name slots the way the team talks — “Requester,” “Controller,” not “Signer 2.” Save the PDF and marks as a template if you will send this layout again. Create-from-template on the API copies those slots so a worker can pass recipients and routingMode on POST /api/v1/packets/:id/send.

After the first invite

Reminders and resend only email people who have already been invited. A sequential signer who has not reached their turn does not get a nudge about a link they cannot use yet. Expiration still applies to the envelope as a whole — how to choose an envelope expiry. One multi-signer envelope is one envelope toward the monthly cap.

One decline closes the whole envelope, even when later sequential signers have not been invited yet. If nobody has signed and only the email was wrong, correct the recipient on the same envelope. If the deal is off, void it. Do not wait for the last person to decline. Completed envelopes cannot be voided.

SMS, embed, and missing mail

Text-message (SMS) reminders are coming soon, and reminders go out by email today. Inkpacket does not text a signing link. Resend stays on email too. The desk still shows the URL. Embed uses the same token; a later sequential signer framed too early sees the waiting page inside the iframe. If Resend is missing, copy the links you already have. Drive archive still reports Drive not configured without credentials.

What the cap counts

Free allows 5 packets a month. Free at 5 packets a month is the live send cap this envelope shares with one-off send, bulk rows, Web Form fills, and API send. Hitting it returns HTTP 402 ENVELOPE_LIMIT. Starter is 20 envelopes — more than Free — plus 3 published Web Forms. Seat counts are planning numbers; invite does not refuse when a workspace is full. Billing is published, not charging. Checkout is not open.

Read the events in order when someone asks who has the envelope — reading an audit trail. Then file the stamped PDF when everyone has finished, or open a workspace on Free and send a two-signer envelope so the waiting page is something you have seen, not a surprise.