When to void, correct, or resend an envelope

Three sender verbs sit on a sent envelope: void, correct, and resend. They look interchangeable from a panicked Slack thread and they are not. One stops every link. One replaces the outstanding recipient on the same envelope. One emails the existing token again. Pick wrong and you either leave a live link on a dead deal or mint a twin envelope that your webhook consumers cannot merge.

The click-path and API routes live in envelope admin: void, correct, resend, and when signers decline and Docs. Features is envelope admin. This guide is the fork: which verb matches the mess in front of you.

The fork in one pass

• The agreement is off, the PDF was the wrong file, or you must stop collection now → void.
• The PDF is right and only the name or email is wrong, and nobody has signed → correct.
• The recipient is right and they never saw the mail → resend.
• They refuse to sign → they decline with a reason. That is their action, not yours.

Completed envelopes cannot be voided, corrected, or resent. Expired or declined envelopes cannot either. The filed PDF stays filed. The window ending is not a cancel — how to choose an envelope expiry. If the work still needs a signature after those closes, send a new envelope from the PDF or template.

Void when you decide the deal is off

Void marks the envelope voided, kills every signing and embed token, and stops reminders. The envelope id stays put. A webhook fires voided when you have a URL configured. Void does not email the signer. The link simply dies. Tell them out of band if they need to know.

Do not void because someone lost the first email. That is resend. Do not void because the intern’s address was a typo. That is correct — unless someone has already signed, in which case you send a new envelope. Do not wait for expiry to act like a cancel. Expiry is a clock. Void is a decision. The audit log records both.

What void will not do

• It will not rewrite a completed PDF.
• It will not mint a replacement envelope. If the work still needs a signature, start from the template.
• It will not notify the signer. Plan that message yourself.

Correct when the recipient is wrong

Correct updates the outstanding signer’s name or email on the same envelope. A new invite goes out. If the email changes, the previous token is retired so the old inbox cannot finish. Fields and routing stay where you placed them on the draft. This corrects the signer on the same envelope. It does not create a second one.

Correct is the right tool for a typo, a role change, or a display-name fix you want on the audit trail. It is the wrong tool after someone has already signed. It is the wrong tool if the PDF itself is wrong. Because the envelope id stays put, envelope status webhooks can treat corrected as an update to an envelope they already stored. The public route is POST /api/v1/packets/:id/correct.

Resend when the link never arrived

Resend emails the existing signing link to outstanding signer(s) again. The envelope and the signer stay the same. The token stays the same unless you also corrected the email. Resend is idempotent: it does not duplicate the envelope. If Resend is not configured, the desk still shows the signing link and says Invite email was not sent — copy the link and share it.

A reminder is the scheduled nudge on the cadence you set at send. Resend is a manual “send it again now.” Both leave the envelope id alone. What happens after a signing reminder fires is the job. Do not use resend to change the address. Do not use resend to stop the envelope.

SMS and embed stay on the same token

Text-message (SMS) is coming soon. Reminders go out by email today. Inkpacket does not text a signing link. Embed uses the same token — an iframe pointing at a voided or corrected-away URL will not complete. Embed signing versus a signing link is when to frame instead of mail.

Decline is the signer’s verb

On the signing page — and inside an embed — they can refuse and leave a reason. The envelope status becomes declined. Every signing and embed link stops. Reminders stop. The sender is emailed when Resend is configured; otherwise the decline is logged. 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 before they decline. If they already refused, send a new envelope to a different person. Do not wait for the last sequential signer to decline a deal you already know is off — void it.

Caps and a second envelope

Void, correct, and resend do not count as a new envelope. A second create-and-send does. Free allows 5 packets a month. Free at 5 packets a month is the live send cap. Hitting it returns HTTP 402 ENVELOPE_LIMIT. Starter is 20 envelopes — more than Free — plus 3 published Web Forms. Seat counts are planning numbers. Billing is published, not charging. Checkout is not open.

Drive not configured stays honest without credentials. Text-message (SMS) is coming soon. Stripe off: Payments not live. None of those flags pick the verb for you. The FAQ is the short version: void stops signing links; correct updates the recipient on the same envelope; resend emails the existing link without creating a second envelope.

Stay on the same envelope id unless the PDF itself changed or the envelope already closed. Then file what they signed, or open a workspace on Free and practice the three verbs on a throwaway send before a real deal depends on them. Reading an audit trail is how you quote what happened later.