AppAssessor / Admins

Simple, Speedy, and Seamless Salesforce-DocuSign Integration

By Andreea Doroftei

Branded content with eSign Connect

Supercharge your eSignature process in a matter of minutes through a native Salesforce experience integrated with DocuSign.

Highlights

  • Send customized templates directly from your Salesforce Records.
  • Track the progress of your sent Envelopes and Recipients in real time.
  • Choose if and how files are saved in Salesforce once completed.
  • Automate your process based on DocuSign Envelope progress.
  • Make use of the seamless integration regardless of your DocuSign plan.

DocuSign is one of the most well-known eSignature solutions – even if you haven’t implemented such a process yet, chances are you have heard about them on multiple occasions. With numerous Salesforce customers using DocuSign as their go-to eSignature provider to eliminate the physical paperwork, it’s only normal that users won’t want to switch between the two tools when having to send documents to prospects, customers, or collaborators, right?

eSign Connect was introduced into Appiphony’s suite of products in order to provide a quick way to enable the connection between Salesforce and DocuSign. It allows customers on all plans and tiers to manage this process directly from their CRM. By combining the up-to-date Salesforce record information with the possibility of sending contracts or other documents out for signature from the same place, this tool will help streamline the process for everyone involved.

This in-depth review will showcase the main eSign Connect features, ideal use cases, and setup effort, as well as how fast your users can (and will) adopt this new experience.

Features

If your organization is already using DocuSign, the great news is that the existing templates can be used directly from eSign Connect once installed. But if you’re just starting with DocuSign, it would be great to create any of the templates you will be using first or make sure you have them locally on your machine.

With the templates ready, let’s dive into eSign Connect!

Meet the Envelope Component

At the core of the functionality sits a custom Lightning Web Component which you will easily find in the Custom – Managed section when editing a Record Page.

The Envelope Component can be added to any standard or custom Salesforce object page, and it will be your team’s gateway towards enjoying the seamless DocuSign integration. As expected, it can be positioned anywhere that makes the most sense for your users, and filtered if needed based on record attributes.

Determine Template and Recipients

After connecting with your DocuSign account directly through the component, users will be prompted to enter the recipients to whom the documents should be sent to, as well as the files or templates that are to be included in the Envelope. Note that a maximum of 10 items can be added, and if using a DocuSign Template, any information will be brought over into this screen – for example, default signers or the custom message you input.

Additionally, you are not losing any of the functionality available in DocuSign for the recipients, as you can add as many as needed, determine their order, and choose to leverage existing Salesforce Leads or Contacts or manual input. Of course, if not all recipients need to sign, you can select which of them needs to receive only a copy. You can also modify the Subject and Message, or make use of the additional options such as choosing to save the file to Salesforce once ready and even sending out reminders.

Upload Files from Device or Salesforce Record

eSign Connect allows users to pick and choose the source of their files or templates, and as shown above, there’s absolutely no problem if they prefer to use a local copy to be sent out for signature. There is another option, however, that becomes available if there are any documents related to the record the component is opened from: Salesforce Files. This way, wherever the document is coming from, the eSign Connect Envelope component has your team covered!

Preset Recipients

Chances are that in most cases, certain documents have to be signed by specific roles within the organization. As long as they exist as a lookup on the Opportunity in this case, or as an Opportunity Contact Role only for Opportunity related templates, the Template Role Mapping can remove the need for manual input.

For each of the DocuSign templates that have one or more Roles defined, you can pre-set how the name and email will be populated within the Envelope component; be it from a field, the sender, or manually.

Track Progress Without Leaving Salesforce

What would a seamless experience be without real-time updates? Sending the Envelope out for signature is only half of the process, as ultimately the documents have to be reviewed by all involved parties and also signed. The same eSign Connect Envelope component will display a related list, with one record for each Envelope, to give Salesforce users the option to track the status directly on the record it originated from.

Clicking on any of the Envelopes will bring up a modal with more details, including a breakdown and status of each recipient. This becomes especially useful if multiple recipients have to sign, as your team will know exactly whom to follow up with.

Additionally, if the option to attach the completed file(s) to Salesforce was not selected by default or when the Envelope was sent out, it’s not a problem. It can be linked to the Salesforce record from this screen as well, or downloaded to the device for review.

File Output Preferences

We all know that reviewing multiple individual files can quickly become a hassle, especially when related to the same Salesforce record. While eSign Connect offers the option for the completed file to be added to the Salesforce record following the signature(s), there is also an option to combine all files into one.

Considering that as many as 10 files could be sent out in an Envelope, it may make sense to combine them into one. This means that not only is all the information in one place, but the files will also become easier to identify on the record since there won’t be as many.

Roadmap

The team at Appiphony is not planning on stopping any time soon, as enhancements to eSign Connect are already being worked on. With declarative automations being one of the main focuses of Salesforce Admins, coming soon is a custom Flow action which will allow them to easily extend the realm of eSign Connect by automatically sending envelopes for signature – this way, whenever possible, sellers won’t even have to think about the extra clicks!

Additionally, Appiphony’s brand new Merge Connect product is due to be launched soon and will seamlessly integrate with eSign Connect, empowering customers to build a tailored end to end process by leveraging both the Word and PDF document generation capabilities alongside the DocuSign integration and signature features. Stay tuned!

Use Cases

With the main use case being to send out documents for signature without switching between Salesforce and DocuSign, you may now be wondering how you can further ensure that all particularities of your implementation can be accounted for. Rest assured as the need for customization has definitely been accounted for.

Each organization is different, and with Salesforce being at the center of multiple processes, the possibility to streamline them as much as possible is a must, isn’t it? eSign Connect ships the Envelope and Recipient as Custom Objects, which means that the sky’s the limit when it comes to the ways you can automate your end-to-end process, based on information coming into these two records.

For example, you may want to notify the Opportunity Owner as soon as one of the Envelope recipients has viewed the document so that they know to follow up soon in case the Envelope is not progressing. Alternatively, you could explore changing the Opportunity Stage and notifying the Opportunity Team when the Envelope is completed, so that the team knows to take action and finalize the deal. In the end, it’s dependent on your requirements, but there are many possibilities and either Salesforce Flow or Apex can be used to achieve your team’s dream process.

While having the option to seamlessly integrate Salesforce with DocuSign is great by itself, how about making your output documents dynamic, based on the Salesforce record they are generated from, with tags already included? Drive Connect is another product from Appiphony’s suite, which can propel your eSign Connect implementation even further, by allowing your team to retrieve, auto-populate, and store templates and documents – all without impacting your Salesforce storage and with a DocuSign integration fully compatible.

Drive Connect allows you to build templates using mail merge syntax, thus ensuring that all the information that your team needs from an Opportunity and related Products, for example, is automatically added prior to sending the file out for signature. Even more so, as long as you add the respective tags in the template, they will become readily available without any manual input during preview.

Of course, as mentioned above, the files can be directly fetched from Google Drive and also sent back to the chosen folder once the Envelope is completed. The option to relate the File to the Salesforce record will still exist, but won’t be a must anymore.

READ MORE: Seamless Salesforce to Google Drive Connector

If your organization uses SharePoint instead of Google Drive, Appiphony offers an option for you as well! In this situation, the files can be retrieved from the SharePoint folder of your choice, and also sent back to the default folder of the record or a different one, once again not having to use any Salesforce storage.

READ MORE: Unlock the Power of Seamless SharePoint to Salesforce Integration

In both scenarios though, this also means that users within your organization who do not have Salesforce access can amend the initial document before it is sent out for signature, or review the completed file.

Setup

Getting started with eSign Connect takes only a matter of minutes – in fact, it may take longer to determine where to add the component on the page rather than actually completing the setup (if we’re not accounting for any deployment time or template creation).

There are just a few steps to complete: install the managed package from the AppExchange listing, connect the DocuSign Account, configure the file destination and mapping templates, assign permissions, add the component on the Record Pages(s), and voila!

With the exception of installing the package and editing the Record Page to add the custom component, everything else can be done directly from the eSign Connect App, making it easy to go back as needed and make additional changes over time.

Support

In case the Appiphony team’s comprehensive guide does not answer all questions pertaining to your use case, you can quickly reach out to the support team directly from the Salesforce setup page by submitting a request with all details about your issue or question – the team will promptly help in no time!

Alternatively, you can also use the support form available on the Appiphony Website for any questions you might have even before installing the package.

Pricing

Options for both annual and monthly plans are available, starting at $12/user/month with no hidden costs. Regardless of the option you prefer, you are in full control of your plan in a self-service manner, as all purchases can be initiated from the License & Permissions page within the eSign Connect App. Even more so, there will be no extra cost involved on your DocuSign plan either because eSign Connect is compatible with all DocuSign tiers.

Summary

Finally, integrating Salesforce with DocuSign can be a breeze with eSign Connect while allowing you to customize your templates and processes to support your business requirements. Be it ordering the signers, relating documents to Salesforce records or Google Drive, or creating automations based on Envelope progress, everything can be achieved directly from Salesforce.

Try eSign Connect for free for up to 10 users for 14 days to discover hands-on how hassle-free the Salesforce and DocuSign integration can be!

The Author

Andreea Doroftei

Andreea is a Salesforce Technical Instructor at Salesforce Ben. She is an 18x certified Salesforce Professional with a passion for User Experience and Automation. 

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