How to Create a PowerForm in Docusign

Need to collect signatures on demand? Maybe you have a form you’d like individuals to fill out or a request process that should be kicked off at any time? Docusign’s PowerForm feature could be your answer.

PowerForms are self service envelopes that you can create and distribute externally. You can publish the PowerForm’s URL on your company website/intranet or send it through an email.

PowerForms are created from envelope templates. There are a few requirements your template needs to meet in order for it to become a PowerForm.

Your envelope template must:

• Have at least one document
• Have at least one recipient. The first recipient is the one who will be initiating the PowerForm from the URL. Any other recipients will be invited through the standard envelope delivery method. 
• The first recipient must have the “needs to sign” action
• Learn more about envelope template requirements for PowerForms here.

Example Use Case

PowerForms are great in scenarios where you want the recipient to initiate the signing process on demand. For example, event registration, PTO requests, university course withdrawal forms, etc. For example, maybe you want to allow your employees to request PTO on demand. You can create a PowerForm from an envelope template for a PTO request. The first signer will be the employee, they access the PowerForm URL when they’re looking to request PTO. They fill in all the eSignature fields and sign. Your envelope template may even have additional signers, like an HR Rep. Maybe the HR Rep receives a copy of every PTO request that is submitted. The possibilities are endless!

How to Configure a PowerForm

• Step 1: Prepare your envelope template. Add your documents, recipients (the first one will be the PowerForm initiator - the person accessing the PowerForm URL), customize your messaging, and your fields. For more information on creating an envelope template, click here.
• Step 2: Create a PowerForm. Go to Templates > Select the envelope template of your choosing > Create PowerForm
• Step 3: Customize the PowerForm. See below for the different setting options:
  • The PowerForm name and email subject will automatically populate using the information from the template, but can be customized independently if needed.
  • The instructions for the first recipient only will show up for the PowerForm initiator. Docusign provides some default instructions, but you can customize them as needed.

  • Email Validation: With this you can prompt the PowerForm initiator to check their email before signing the document. They will receive a code and plug it in in order to access the document. This helps to ensure your signers are using legitimate email addresses.

  • Message for All Signers: With this you can customize the message all signers will see, not just the PowerForm initiator.

  • Limit Usage by Quantity: This allows you to limit how many responses the PowerForm can capture. When the maximum is reached, the PowerForm becomes disabled. You can always change this number or reactivate the PowerForm if needed.

  • Limit Usage by Time Between Responses: You can limit how many times a particular person can fill out the PowerForm within a selected time frame. Minutes all the way up to months. The way an individual is identified is by a unique combination of name and email address.

• Step 4: Activate your form and copy the URL to distribute. You can post the URL on your company website, send through an email, etc. 

• Step 5: View your responses from the Agreements page.

Video: Watch a Walk-Through

Follow along in this quick video to learn how to implement the steps.

Best Practices

• Ensure you have “PowerForm Administrator” permissions - Users need this in order to create and manage PowerForms. See here for more information.
• By default the user who creates the PowerForm is the sender. This means they will own all the envelope responses the form collects. You can change the sender to another user on your account by following these steps.

Additional Resources

• PowerForms Support Article
• PowerForms vs Templates Article
• PowerForms vs Web Forms Article
• Docusign University eSignature Templates Video Playlist

Join the Conversation

Have you created a PowerForm yet? Let us know your use cases or questions in the comments.