You can definitely set two Signing Groups as parallel Recipients but you cannot set a Signing Order within a Signing Group. The Signing Group is designed to send the envelope notification to all individuals in the Signing Group at the same time and only one individual needs to take action. So the workflow would look something like this based on your post

Recipient 1 - Signing Order 1 - Signing Group A - Needs to Sign

Recipient 2 - Signing Order 1 - Signing Group B - Needs to Sign

Recipient 3 - Signing Order 2 - Leader A - Needs to Sign

Recipient 4 - Signing Order 3 - Leader B - Needs to Sign

Recipient 5 - Signing Order 4 - Leader C - Needs to Sign

So in the above Recipient 1 and 2 are Signing Groups who would get parallel notifications...only one in each Signing Group needs to take action then it flows to the three Leadership Recipients once both Signing Groups have completed actions.

How could I tweak it to make a Signing Group require all individuals to review and sign before it moves to Leader A?

Ultimately I have 2 unique groups, with 3 levels of authority that all need to approve it, before it moves to Leader A to sign. Almost all of the time the last level of authority wants to see that his/her subordinates have signed off before his/her approval.

In that situation then you cannot use a Signing Group because the purpose of a Signing Group is to group individuals but only require one Signing Group member to actually take action like Signing. Your scenario suggests you want three people to Review and Sign which means they need to be independent Recipients. But you could still parallel all these individuals...but it would look more like this....

Recipient 1 - Signing Order 1 - Dept A Signer - Needs to Sign

Recipient 2 - Signing Order 1 - Dept A Signer - Needs to Sign

Recipient 3 - Signing Order 1 - Dept A Signer - Needs to Sign

Recipient 4 - Signing Order 1 - Dept B Signer - Needs to Sign

Recipient 5 - Signing Order 1 - Dept B Signer - Needs to Sign

Recipient 6 - Signing Order 1 - Dept B Signer - Needs to Sign

Recipient 7 - Signing Order 2 - Leader A - Needs to Sign

Recipient 8 - Signing Order 3 - Leader B - Needs to Sign

Recipient 9 - Signing Order 4 - Leader C - Needs to Sign

or even a little more complex....basically structured to parallel each level of authority on each department group

Recipient 1 - Signing Order 1 - Dept A Signer A - Needs to Sign

Recipient 2 - Signing Order 2 - Dept A Signer B - Needs to Sign

Recipient 3 - Signing Order 3 - Dept A Signer C - Needs to Sign

Recipient 4 - Signing Order 1 - Dept B Signer A - Needs to Sign

Recipient 5 - Signing Order 2 - Dept B Signer B - Needs to Sign

Recipient 6 - Signing Order 3 - Dept B Signer C - Needs to Sign

Recipient 7 - Signing Order 4 - Leader A - Needs to Sign

Recipient 8 - Signing Order 5 - Leader B - Needs to Sign

Recipient 9 - Signing Order 6 - Leader C - Needs to Sign

Thank you for the quick responses!

In your more complex scenario, would both (or only one of) Recipient 1 and Recipient 4 have to sign before it goes to Recipient 2 and Recipient 5? Or does Recipient 5 only receive the envelope once Recipient 4 signs?

The importance here is the Signing Order, Signing Order determines who gets the notifications and when it moves to the next person. So in the complex scenario the order would require Recipient 1 and 4 to complete their action before notifying Recipient 2 and 5. Recipient 2 & 5 must take action before 3 and 6 are notified, then 3 and 6 take action and so on. You could group the Recipients differently for example.....and accomplish the same goal. I just group it based on Dept but it could be done on relative order as well.

Recipient 1 - Signing Order 1 - Dept A Signer A - Needs to Sign

Recipient 2 - Signing Order 1 - Dept B Signer A - Needs to Sign

Recipient 3 - Signing Order 2 - Dept A Signer B - Needs to Sign

Recipient 4 - Signing Order 2 - Dept B Signer B - Needs to Sign

Recipient 5 - Signing Order 3 - Dept A Signer C - Needs to Sign

Recipient 6 - Signing Order 3 - Dept B Signer C - Needs to Sign

Recipient 7 - Signing Order 4 - Leader A - Needs to Sign

Recipient 8 - Signing Order 5 - Leader B - Needs to Sign

Recipient 9 - Signing Order 6 - Leader C - Needs to Sign

That explanation helps. Unfortunately it doesn't fit what I would need.

Is it possible to create an envelope of 3 documents for Dept A to have them sign, create a different envelope with the same 3 documents for Dept B for them to sign, and then somehow merge those signature trails into one package for Leader A/B/C?

No, you can merge Templates but you cannot merge Signed completed envelopes. This would be a severe security or legal risk in my opinion. You could send an envelope to say Dept A, then wait for completion, then forward that to Dept B, wait for completion, then forward that to Leadership for additional Signatures.... however now you have three envelopes (each Forward create a new envelope) and a tracking nightmare. Much simpler to do in one envelope on the same document and have it all tracked and recorded in a single envelope. Sometimes it is better to change the workflow process than to try to adjust the envelope to fit some unusual requirement.

I mean lets say you sent two envelopes one through Dept A and one through Dept B, they completed each envelope. Now you could download each document then upload these documents into another envelope to send through Leadership but the process is really disjointed in my opinion and you now have two or more documents that need Leadership to review and if there was a mistake on one document then it has to go through the process again. In one envelope everyone sees the same info and a order can be defined that allows for fluid operation and workflow.

I understand and appreciate the help!

It seems like my ideal state is simply not possible at this point in time. Today the process is Dept A has 3 sequential signers, then Dept B has 3 sequential signers and then Leadership signs. I was hoping to maintain that sequential signing authority within each Dept, but allow Dept B to sign in parallel to Dept A to streamline the process.

Ultimately I will have to decide whether the Departments will be ok with waiting on each other for each level of authority or if we just continue with the current process.

I always look at this from the paper perspective and it seems like they are already following a sequential order and the paper has to wait for signatures from the least authority to the highest authority and in actuality the DocuSign process is more secure and iron clad if using "Date Signed" and the order as you know the timestamps show the order of Signature progression. Lets say this was one piece of paper....when mapped out, the steps would be 9 stages of signatures each happening by moving the paper from point A to point I. With DocuSign you are parallel and sequential requiring 6 stages from point A to F. When I sit down with departments I have them spill every step onto a whiteboard...carbon copies....emails...printing etc and then compare the DocuSign process and I have always been able to save steps with the workflow structure in DocuSign.