When recipients share a sequential order

Sequential routing on Inkpacket uses an Order field (1–20). Inkpacket emails the current order, then the next after everyone at that order finishes. Recipients who share the same order sign in parallel with each other. That is shared-order honesty: two people at order 1 both get a link on send, a chair at order 2 still waits, and you did not invent a third routingMode. One envelope is still one envelope.

The two named modes are sequential vs parallel signing on one envelope. When nobody should wait at all is when parallel beats sequential routing. The waiting page is first-signer waiting message. Desk help is Docs. This guide is the shared Order slot itself.

The FAQ says sequential routing uses order and parallel invites everyone. Features lists the same envelope under signing link. Ask Inkpacket for when recipients share a sequential order to open this article. Ask how routing works to open help. Ask add a recipient to open Documents → new #routing. Those phrases stay on the product screens. This article is the public version of why two people can both be “first.”

What a shared order does

• Everyone at the current order is invited at once. They can view and sign without waiting on each other.
• The envelope does not advance until everyone at that order has finished.
• A later order still sees This envelope is waiting for an earlier signer if they open early.
• After send the desk still says First signer was invited — “first” means the current order, not a single inbox.

Use a shared order when two officers must both mark the cover before a controller at order 2 sees the file. Do not use it to fake a campaign. If each person should have their own envelope, that is bulk send — bulk send for HR and sales envelopes. Assign every required mark to a recipient slot before send. A mark with no assignee is a gap on the filed PDF — assign fields to each signer.

What a shared order is not

• Not routingMode PARALLEL. Parallel invites every recipient on the envelope, including later countersigns.
• Not a second envelope. Two people at order 1 still share one envelope id and one monthly count.
• Not a way around one decline. If either person at that order refuses, the whole envelope closes.
• Not a change you make after send. Correct updates an outstanding name, email, or phone. It does not restack Order.

One decline still closes the whole envelope, even when later sequential signers have not been invited yet. That close is decline closes the envelope. Void after a partial sign is a different sender verb — void after a partial sign.

The click-path

1. Open Documents → new #routing. Add recipients. Keep Sequential.
2. Give the pair who may sign together the same Order number.
3. Give the person who must wait a later Order.
4. Place fields for each slot. Send. Copy signing links if mail skips.
5. Do not add fifty people to one envelope and hope shared order feels like a list job.

Public API POST /api/v1/packets/:id/send accepts recipients and routingMode SEQUENTIAL or PARALLEL. Put the same order on the recipients who should move together. A single name and email still works. Reminders and resend only email people who have already been invited — on a shared first order, that is both of them. Text-message (SMS) reminders are coming soon, and reminders go out by email today. Inkpacket does not text a signing link. The desk still shows the URL.

Embed and the waiting page

Embed uses the same token. A later sequential signer framed too early sees the waiting page inside the iframe. People who share the current order can both be live. Embed iframe versus popup framing is how you host that token. Do not treat iframe postMessage as the legal record. Wait for a verified webhook or read the audit on the envelope.

Caps and what is not open yet

One multi-signer envelope is one envelope, whether two people share order 1 or twenty people sign in a line. Free allows 5 packets a month. Free at 5 packets a month is the live cap desk send, bulk rows, Web Form fills, and API send share. 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. Text-message (SMS) is coming soon. Drive missing: Drive not configured. Stripe off: Payments not live. Those flags do not split a shared order into two envelopes or invent routingMode SHARED. The FAQ and More on signing order use Recipients who share the same order sign in parallel in the same words.

Give the pair the same number. Leave the countersign later. File the stamped PDF when every order has finished. Open a workspace on Free — see published pricing — and send one throwaway with two people at order 1 so shared-order honesty is a pair of links you have already watched advance together.