Documenso

Add Recipients

Add signers, approvers, viewers, and CC recipients to your document. Each role determines how the recipient interacts with the document.

Add a Recipient

Open the document editor

You can access the document editor by clicking on a document in your Documents dashboard.

If you're uploading a document, you'll be redirected to the document editor after the upload is complete automatically.

Click add signer

In the Recipients section, click + Add Signer to add a new recipient row.

Recipients panel in the document editor

Enter recipient details

Fill in the following information:

  • Email: The recipient's email address (required)
  • Name: The recipient's name (optional, but recommended for clarity)
  • Role: What the recipient needs to do (see Recipient Roles)

Recipient Information

Email Address

The email address is where the recipient receives their signing invitation.

Make sure it's correct - once you send the document, the invitation goes to this address and cannot be changed.

Name

Adding a name helps recipients identify themselves when they receive the document. The name appears in:

  • The signing invitation email
  • The document activity log
  • The completed document's signature certificate

If you leave the name blank, the email address is displayed instead.

Assigning Roles

Each recipient needs a role that determines what actions they can take:

RoleWhat they do
SignerMust sign the document
ApproverMust approve the document (signing is optional)
ViewerMust confirm they viewed the document
AssistantPre-fills fields for other recipients
CCReceives a copy after the document is completed

For detailed information about each role, see Recipient Roles.

The Assistant role is only available when sequential signing is enabled.

Multiple Recipients

You can add as many recipients as you need. Click + Add Signer for each additional person.

Common scenarios:

Add yourself and the other party as signers.
Add the main signer plus a viewer as witness.
Add an approver first, then signers.
Add CC recipients who receive the final document.

Signing Order

By default, all recipients receive the document at the same time and can complete their actions in any order (parallel signing). You can change this to require recipients to act in a specific sequence.

Parallel Signing (Default)

All recipients receive the document simultaneously. The document is completed when everyone finishes their required actions. Use this when:

  • The order doesn't matter
  • You want the fastest completion time
  • Recipients are independent of each other

Sequential Signing

Recipients receive the document one at a time, in the order you specify. Each person must complete their action before the next person is notified.

To enable sequential signing:

Enable signing order

Toggle on Enable signing order in the Recipients section.

Set the order for each recipient

Assign an order number to each recipient (1, 2, 3, etc.).

Use the same number for parallel steps

Recipients with the same order number act simultaneously at that step.

Sequential signing is required to use the Assistant role. Assistants must act before the signers whose fields they pre-fill.

Example workflow:

OrderRecipientRole
1Admin AssistantAssistant
2Department HeadApprover
3Contract Party ASigner
3Contract Party BSigner
-Legal TeamCC

In this example:

  1. The assistant pre-fills information
  2. The department head reviews and approves
  3. Both contract parties sign at the same time
  4. Legal receives a copy after completion

Editing Recipients

You can modify recipient details anytime before sending the document:

  • Change email or name: Click on the field and type the new value
  • Change role: Select a different role from the dropdown
  • Change signing order: Adjust the order number (if sequential signing is enabled)

After sending a document, you cannot change recipients. If you need different recipients, you'll need to create a new document.

Removing Recipients

To remove a recipient, click the delete icon (trash) next to their row. This also removes any fields assigned to that recipient.

You cannot remove recipients after the document has been sent.


See Also

On this page