Templates that reuse field layouts

If you send the same vendor agreement or intake form more than once, placing signature, date, text, initials, checkbox, and select marks every time is wasted motion. A template is the PDF plus those marks, saved on the workspace. The next envelope copies that layout. You pick the signer — or several, with sequential or parallel routing — and send. Members of another organization cannot see or start envelopes from it.

Desk help calls this three clicks: save a PDF as a template, place the fields once, start an envelope from the template. The in-app section is Docs. Features is reusable templates. This guide is the public version: when to save a layout, how coordinates work, how bulk send and the API reuse it, and when a one-off upload is still the right path.

What a template is

A template belongs to the current workspace. It is not a global form library. Suggest starting layout can drop a signature, initials, and date per recipient on the last page — a page-count heuristic, not a model that reads the PDF. You still place or adjust signature, date, text, initials, checkbox, and select marks yourself. Coordinates are stored as page percentages so the same marks land on the completed file after pdf-lib stamps values. FAQ matches the editor.

Name it something the team will recognize later. “Vendor agreement — 2026” beats “Template (3).” The people who send next month should not have to open the file to know which layout they are about to copy.

The three clicks

1. Open Templates and upload a PDF you send more than once. Name it.
2. Drop signature, date, text, initials, checkbox, and select marks on the pages. Assign a recipient slot. Save. Those coordinates stay with the workspace, not with a single envelope.
3. Choose Use template. Inkpacket copies the PDF and the placed fields into a new draft. You pick the signer and send from that draft — no re-placing marks.

Keep marks inside the visible page. A signature in the margin still “works,” but the filed PDF will look sloppy. Required fields block submit; do not mark optional notes as required unless you mean it. Field placement is the short product note.

One-off upload versus a template

If you only need a document once, upload a PDF from Documents, place fields, and send a signing link. That path does not create a template. The five-minute send is written for that case.

Save a template when you can name the next send before you finish this one. Offer letters, NDAs, intake forms, order covers, handbook acknowledgments — anything that will come back next week with a different email and the same boxes.

Bulk send and the public API need a template

Bulk send starts from a workspace template. There is no “upload a PDF and also a CSV” in this pass. Save the layout, then open Bulk send, map names and emails, and start the job. Each unique email gets its own envelope with that field layout. Bulk send for HR and sales envelopes is the list guide.

The public API’s create route takes a templateId. That is the intended write path from your own systems: mint a token, create a draft from the template, fill known values, send. Public API and signed webhooks lists the routes. POST /api/v1/packets is the help row.

What you can still change after you copy

The draft you start from a template is a normal envelope. You can still move marks on that draft. Once the envelope is sent, fields and routing are locked. You set reminder interval, expiration, and an optional access code at send, the same as a one-off. See reminders and expiry and access codes.

Isolation and roles

Templates do not leak across organizations. Owners create the workspace, admins invite, members send. A member in workspace A cannot open workspace B’s vendor layout. That is the same isolation the FAQ promises for documents, signers, invites, and audit events.

If the legal form changed, update the template (or save a new one) before the next send. Envelopes already out keep the PDF they were created with. Envelope admin will not rewrite a filed copy; completed envelopes cannot be voided. Send a new envelope from the new layout when the paper itself changed.

What templates are not

• Not model-based field detection. Suggest starting layout is a page-count heuristic.
• Not a cross-workspace marketplace of forms.
• Not a second routing engine. Sequential and parallel routing happen at send, on the envelope you start from the template. See More on signing order.
• Not a substitute for void, correct, or resend on an in-flight envelope.

When the form changes

Legal will revise a clause. HR will add a start-date mark. Sales will swap a cover page. Decide whether to edit the existing template or save a new one with a dated name. Envelopes already sent keep the PDF they were created with. A new layout does not rewrite old envelopes. If an in-flight envelope used the old file and the deal is still on, void it and send from the new template — envelope admin will not restamp a completed copy.

Place the fields once. That is the line on the home page. Open More on templates after you open a workspace — Free, no card while Stripe is off — and save the first PDF you know you will send again. The next envelope should take a signer and a send, not another afternoon in the field editor.