DocuSign Java SDK: Email Notification Discrepancies with Sequential Routing & CC Recipients

​@rahulmishra179 

1. Initial Email (Signing Request): When the document is sent for signing, signers receive the email according to their sequential routing order. However, both carbon copy users also receive an email at this initial stage, seemingly along with the signer who has routing order 1.

→ This works as intended, a carbon copy will receive a notification email when his routing order is active. You can have multiple recipients with the same routing order, including a mix of signers and carbon copies.

1. Declined Email: If any signer declines the signing process:

   • Signers with a routing order less than the declining signer's routing order receive a "declined" email.

   • All carbon copy users also receive a "declined" email.

→ This works as intended.

• Why are signers with earlier routing orders and all carbon copy users not receiving a "completed" email when the signing process is finalized?

→ When testing, did you ensure to have a different email address for each recipient in the workflow? Using the same email address for multiple recipients will not lead to multiple emails being sent. Docusign will not trigger duplicate emails and instead only send an email notification to the email address once. That having said, all previous signers and carbon copies should have received an email notification to inform them about the completed envelope, unless they opted out of the email notification in their Docusign account settings.

• Is there an issue with how I've configured the routing order for carbon copy users (both set to "1")?

→ No, most common use cases are to set the carbon copy either to “1” to have insight into the transaction from the very beginning or to the highest routing order so they are informed once the envelope was completed.

• Given that we have multiple signers and two carbon copy users, what is the recommended or correct routing order strategy for both signers and carbon copy recipients to ensure proper email notifications (especially for completion)?

→ The described behaviour is the default for Docusign eSignature, all “Needs to Sign” and “Receives a Copy” recipients will get an email notification when the envelope has been fully signed.

Thank you ​@Michael.Rave for your detailed response.

I wanted to clarify a few points based on your suggestions and share some observations from my testing:

1. Each signer and carbon copy (CC) recipient in my workflow is assigned a unique email address—I’m not using duplicate emails during testing.

2. None of the recipients have opted out of email notifications in their DocuSign account settings.

3. During testing:

   • At the initial stage, when the first signer receives the signing request, both CC recipients also receive an email (as expected).

   • If any signer declines, both CC recipients and all previous signers (based on routing order) receive the "declined" notification email (also expected).

   • However, once the signing process is fully completed, the "completed" email is not sent to:

     • The carbon copy recipients

     • Any signers who had a routing order lower than the final signer

To troubleshoot this, I tested the following scenarios for the CC recipients:

• Setting their routing order to 1 (alongside the first signer)

• Setting their routing order to the highest (after all signers)

• Removing the routing order altogether

Unfortunately, in all cases, the "completed" email still does not get triggered for them.

Could you please help me understand:

• Is there any additional configuration or envelope setting required to explicitly trigger "completed" emails to earlier signers and carbon copy recipients?

• Is there a way to verify from the API or envelope logs whether DocuSign attempted to send those "completed" emails?

Any further guidance would be greatly appreciated.

​@rahulmishra179 

I tested the scenario myself and as expected, I always get an email notification for all signers and all CC recipients.

As you mention you get the email for signature, I assume that you are not using embedded signing, correct?

In case you are using embedded signing, there is an option to configure if they should receive the completion email. This option is located under Admin → Signing Settings → Envelope Delivery:  “Send completion emails to embedded signers”

There will only be an entry in the log, if there was an email failure, but Docusign Support has access to all logs and can look into it. In this case, I would suggest that you open a case with them.

Thank you @Michael.Rave for verifying the scenario and for the helpful clarification.

To confirm:

• We are not using embedded signing—our use case is strictly remote signing via email.

• I also double-checked that the “Send completion emails to embedded signers” setting is enabled in our admin settings, just to be thorough.

• Since signers and CC recipients are receiving initial and declined emails correctly, it does seem unlikely to be a configuration issue on our side.

Given that the “completed” email is consistently missing for earlier signers and CC recipients
Appreciate your guidance!