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Bill of Lading

  • February 13, 2024
  • 5 replies
  • 81 views

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Hello - has anyone used DocuSign for Bill of Lading?  If so do you have the standard plan?   Looking at implementing it.

 

Thanks.

Best answer by David.Schmitz

@Julie M We use DocuSign for Invoices, procurement contracts, and documents such as Hospitality or Liability release forms.  We do have an Enterprise plan but I would imagine unless the Bill of Lading was extraordinary in its complexities that a Standard plan would not allow you all the features and functionality you need to create an appropriate envelope workflow.  I would suggest a free trial and then make sure before you buy that the plan covers any and all needs.

5 replies

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@Julie M We use DocuSign for Invoices, procurement contracts, and documents such as Hospitality or Liability release forms.  We do have an Enterprise plan but I would imagine unless the Bill of Lading was extraordinary in its complexities that a Standard plan would not allow you all the features and functionality you need to create an appropriate envelope workflow.  I would suggest a free trial and then make sure before you buy that the plan covers any and all needs.


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Hi @Julie M,

 

I hope you are doing well.

 

I would like to confirm if you were able to solve your issue by utilizing the solution that was suggested? 

 

If so, please mark it as the best answer by clicking “Select as Best” to make it easier for other users to find

 

Otherwise, feel free to let me know and I will gladly help you address the situation as soon as possible.

 

Best regards,   

Alejandro R. | DocuSign Community Moderator   

   

"Select as Best" below if you find the answer a valid solution to your issue!   

 


Scott.Nieman
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  • Troubleshooter
  • December 3, 2025

Thank you for this question ​@Julie M .

Did you ever move forward with this approach?

If so, I am curious if you used the Agreement Template Builder (ATB) with DocGen APIs to add in the eBOL detail lines. National Motor Freight Traffic Association has an eBOL that supports the carrier viewpoint, but in our case, we see that the shipper owns the process, not necessarily the carrier.

I think biggest challenge I see is that we need to ensure we have all the parties email addresses and / or phone numbers ahead of time to be able to add them to the envelope.  Or we somehow have to PATCH recipients onto the envelope has we learn who the carriers’ dispatched driver is, and who the person is at the receiving dock at our end customer or 3PL.  

 

@Alejandro.Ramos  are we able to send an envelope to a distribution list at our end customer’s receiving dock?  Can they update the envelope with the assigned person that will actually sign the Bill of Lading?


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  • Community Moderator
  • December 5, 2025

Hello ​@Scott.Nieman,

I hope you’re doing well.

Yes, you can send the DocuSign envelope to a distribution list. DocuSign will treat that as one recipient, so anyone who gets the forwarded email can open it.

To make sure the right person signs the Bill of Lading, enable “Allow recipients to change signing responsibility” from the Signing Settings. This way, the dock team can easily redirect the envelope to whoever is on duty, and all changes will be tracked in the audit trail.

Article: Change Signing Responsibility

I hope this information helps. Let us know if we can help with anything else. Wishing you a smooth rest of your day! 

 

Best Regards,

Jenny | Docusign Community Moderator


Scott.Nieman
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  • Troubleshooter
  • December 8, 2025

@Jenny.Martin Hi!

Perhaps I should have asked it differently.  I am looking at the updateRecipients REST API documentation, and I see a signingGroupId and recipientType as potential options.  PATCH is not an available REST verb, and it seems PUT is being used as it is a PATCH.  But the point is when generate an envelope for a Bill of Lading, we will only know two of the three recipients; specifically, the driver of the truck transporting the semi-trailer and the shipper (our operator at the loading dock that is working with the driver).  The Bill of Lading is generated after all the pallets are loaded into the semi-trailer, and they pallets are QA’ed, counted and the trailer door is shut and sealed, and the seal Id is entered into the ERP.  Bottomline is that I need to create a placeholder for the person that will sign at the end customer receiving dock at the final destination; I may not know that email address upfront.  

Does the signing group or recipient type allowing me to create this third recipient and patch in the email and phone number later once the driver arrives at the customer’s receiving dock?  Or is the email address mandatory, and I need to have this distribution list that someone can then assign to the actual signer?   Do they have to be a user or can they manually enter the new email address and other demographic information? 

I am confused by this statement in the documentation you provided where signing recipients cannot be re-assigned:

  • The new recipient is not assigned to any Docusign account. However, an account is required by a custom sending setting.

Thanks in advance!