There are a couple of versions of bulk send and I'm not sure which one you're using.  If you're using the old bulk send, I think you can solve this by importing the CSV file in the template instead of the envelope.  If you're using the new bulk send, you may want to check that the role name you use in the template matches the role name you specify in the CSV file.  If the role names do not match, DocuSign won't pair them and you can end up with more than one recipient.

Yeah, that's one annoying function of Bulk Send, you can't change a random recipient to a Bulk send. It needs to already be a Bulk send recipient. I have a dummer Bulk Send File that I use, with only two recipients, both of them me, which I upload to use within a template. Then I assign the fields to that recipient and when I'd ready to actually send the envelope. I simply change the Bulk file before sending and everything works as desired.

Of course this doesn't help your current issue. But luckily you can highlight several fields at once and assign them to another recipient all at the same time. So that should hopefully make things easier.

Hope this helps.

I was having the same paroblem as David when I found this post. So I dug a little deeper.

NA1 Feynman's comment about "role names don't match" gave me a clue as to what might be happening. So, I downloaded a sample CSV file from my template and discovered that DocuSign changed the way the column headers have to be specified.

The role name must be included in the column header for the match to take place. It would be nice if the documentation on Bulk Send mentioned something about this.

For example, I have a template with a single role of "Dealership Owner". My column headers then become "Dealership Owner::Name", "Dealership Owner::Email", etc. Without the "Dealership Owner::" (the ROLE) in the column headers, I was getting the exact same problem as David. A new Bulk Send recipient added to the envelope that required me to specify all the tags again.

I also learned that the CSV file no longer requires quotations around the cell values. All values are treated as text, including phone and fax numbers. In the earlier version of Bulk Send, the only way I could quarantee success on import was to have all the cells specified within quotes, like ' "myemailaddress@domain.com" '.

Thanks for the clue NA1 Feynman.

My apologies to DocuSign for the comment I made above about the lack of documentation. I went back with my new found knowledge and reread the Bulk Send instructions. Step 4 in the Prepare your CSV file section, does specify how the ROLE:: value needs to be in the column headers. It's not obvious when you first read through it, though. I missed it the first two times I read it.

A suggestion for DocuSign might be to highlight at the beginning of the Bulk Send documentation that there is a new connection between a ROLE specified in the Recipient area and the column headers. Might keep the old-timers from stumbling over the problem that David and I did.

Bob, I tried what you suggested and I keep running into the same error as OP.  

I don't understand why Bulk Send functionality is separate from Templates function.  It seems that Docusign assumes that if you want to send something with custom fields out to many recipients, you are only going to do that one time.  But suppose you need a template that allows custom fields to be sent out many times - how frustrating that is to have to manually place each field every single time.

Example:  At our company, we regularly send out documents to be signed by our contractors.  There are probably 10+ fields (name, address, company DBA, commission structure) that are placed some 25+ times throughout the documents that have to be popoulated each time before sending; but, it is the same 6 documents that get sent each time - Template should be perfect for this.  So what I'd like to do is have an Excel upload with the 10 custom fields, and have that match to the 50+ location tags I've *already* placed via the Template.  ---Otherwise, I'd have to go and place 50 fields each time I send out a contract, which happens often. Thoughts?

Not sure I follow you, Robert. I was able to set up a template with tags associated to the ROLE specified in the recipients section.

When you create your template, just fill in the ROLE line in the Add Recipients section. You don't specify actual recipients at this stage.

Code your template fields to that ROLE.

Prepare your CSV file for bulk send import, being careful to name the columns using the ROLE you specified. Example: "ROLE::Email"

When you send your envelope, you will see the following in the Recipents area:

"Import a bulk list. Send copies of this envelope to many people at once."

Click that link to import the bulk send information, including the recipient's name and email address. You can use a bulk send file with only one recipient.

This should work well for what you want to do. Just be sure that all the column headers in the CSV file have "ROLE::<fieldname>" .

Each time you use your template, you need to import your bulk send list. Just change the contact information in the file and it will be brought in to fill in the envelope.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Bob - I think I am seeing the "New" version of Bulk Send.  I've seen some articles about the "old" vs "new" version of Bulk Send, which is confusing because support articles are floating out there referencing both with conflicting information.  

In my version, I am unable to add "ROLE::Email", because the template requires Name and Email as required columns without Role specified.  I can add other labels with "ROLE::Label" but not specify Name and Email.  The bulk recipient requires that I specify a Role that is different than the one I specified in the Template, which is why all the bulk tags don't reference the template fields.

Let me know if that makes sense

I hear you. At this point, you probably want to open a case with DocuSign Support and have them walk you through this. Name and Email were fixed column headers in the old version and the trick I learned to use the template with a new CSV file was to select "refresh list" on the right side when sending a new envelope.

That process is different in the new version as well. Sounds like we both got bit by subtle changes between old and new. I agree, to, that the documentation can be confusing until you figure it all out. Once you learn the ropes, the documentation makes sense.

Sorry I couldn't help more. I'm still a bit of a newbie when it comes to bulk send having only used it once or twice. Good luck.

does anyone know if this is on the development roadmap or how to recommend this for development?  I think this is a key feature that would significantly increase usage.  We would use Docusign much more frequently if this enhancement gets added.

I figured it out.

Create a bulk send envelope and save it to drafts.

Then create a template using that draft.

Then when the template is created - USE the template.

You can replace the bulk list by clicking MORE on the right then REPLACE LIST.

Wa La!!!