How to send a PDF for signature and get it back signed

To send a PDF for signature, upload the final file to a signing service, add each signer's email, place a signature field for every person and press send. Each signer gets a link, signs in the browser, and you get back one completed PDF plus a record of who signed and when.

That's the whole job once the document is ready. The trouble sits around it: a file that changes after it goes out, a missing field for the second signer, a request that looks like phishing, a signed copy nobody can find a year later. This guide covers the sender's side from the first upload to the file you keep, with Chaindoc's signing flow as the worked example.

To send a PDF for signature, you can email it as an attachment, share a link to a cloud copy with signing built in, or send a signature request from a signing service. Under US law all three can carry a valid electronic signature: the ESIGN Act says a signature or contract can't be denied legal effect just because it's electronic (15 U.S.C. § 7001(a)).

What differs is what you can show later. An attachment that comes back with a pasted signature image proves very little on its own. Who opened it? Was page 4 swapped before it came back? You'd have to piece that together from email headers, and honestly, nobody enjoys that. A signing service writes the record as it goes, which is why it's the default for anything you might have to defend.

Most resends start here. Once a request is out the text is fixed, so finish the document first.

• Freeze the text. Final amounts, names, dates and addresses. If someone still has comments, wait for them.
• Convert Word to PDF yourself, or check the conversion. Chaindoc takes PDF, DOCX, PNG and JPG and turns a DOCX into a PDF on upload, so open the result and look at page breaks and tables.
• Attach the exhibits. If the contract mentions Schedule A, Schedule A belongs in the same file.
• Number the pages, and strip tracked changes and comments. A stray comment ships to every signer.
• Leave blanks only where a signer fills something in, and plan a field for each one.
• Name the file the way the signer will recognise it: "Northwind services agreement 2026.pdf" beats "final_v7.pdf".

Starting from nothing? A contract template gets you to a clean first draft faster than an old contract with the names swapped. And if the original is on paper, scan it as one PDF rather than a stack of photos.

None of this is required by law, to be fair. It's what keeps you from sending the same contract twice.

Signers and people who only need a copy

Not everyone on a contract signs it. Before you request an electronic signature from anyone, decide who signs and who only needs the result. Your finance lead may only need the final PDF, and so may the client's lawyer. Put only the people who sign on the request and send the completed file to the rest. Some services let you add a recipient who just receives a copy; keep that list short, because a contract shouldn't travel further than it has to.

Which fields to place

• A signature field, one per signer, on the signature line.
• Date signed, next to it, so nobody types the wrong date.
• Name or title, when the signature block prints them.
• Initials on every page? Only if your lawyer asks. They add clicks and add little proof, since the audit record already ties the signer to the whole file.
• Text fields for what the signer supplies, like a start date or a purchase order number.

Sending a PDF for signature to several people

When you send a PDF for signature to more than one person, Chaindoc invites everyone at once and they sign in any order. That's usually the fastest way to close. A fixed order makes sense when a later signer needs to see the earlier signatures, say a director countersigning after the client. Microsoft's eSignature has a "Recipients must sign in order" switch for this, and Chaindoc does it through approval routes on the Business plan.

A long chain has a cost, though. Each person waits for the one before, and one holiday stalls everyone behind it. If speed is the real problem, these fixes for a slow signing round go further on reminders, deadlines and templates.

When you send a PDF for signature, the service delivers the email, but you write the subject and the note, and they decide whether it's opened today or ignored. Name the document, the person and the date: "Northwind services agreement, two signatures on page 6, needed by Thursday" gets signed sooner than "Please review and sign".

There's a second reason to be specific. Fake signing requests are a common phishing lure, and the FTC tells people to check a doubtful message by contacting the company through a phone number or website they already know (FTC phishing advice). A note that sounds like you passes that check.

Whether you're looking up how to request a signature on a PDF in Acrobat or how to send a document for electronic signature in DocuSign, the steps barely change between services. The names do.

DocuSign

How to send a DocuSign request: upload the document, drag the fields onto it, add the signer's email and send. DocuSign calls a request an envelope. One envelope can hold several documents and signers, and it counts against your allowance once, when it's sent, whether or not anyone signs (DocuSign pricing FAQ, checked 2026-09-21). The free DocuSign account is a signer's account; for sending, DocuSign's free-account page points you to a trial or a paid plan.

Adobe Acrobat

Adobe's request signature tool follows the same path: upload the PDF, sign in, add the recipients' email addresses, mark where each one fills in and signs, send, then track and remind. Recipients don't need an Adobe account. On the business plans, requesting e-signatures comes with Acrobat Standard for teams, and bulk send with Acrobat Pro for teams (Adobe pricing page, checked 2026-09-21).

Google Docs and Drive

To request a signature in Google Docs, open the document and choose Tools, then eSignature; for a PDF in Drive, open it and pick eSignature from the menu. You drag signature, initials, name, date and text fields onto the page, assign each to a signer, and request the signature. The finished PDF lands in the same folder with an audit trail page at the end (Google's eSignature help). Which Workspace accounts get the feature is listed on that page, so check yours before you plan around it.

Microsoft 365

In SharePoint, open the PDF, start a signature request from the viewer, add internal or external recipients, place signature, initials and date fields, and send. It only takes unencrypted PDFs, which trips people up more than you'd think.

Once you send a PDF for signature, the job is half done. The request now sits in a pending list until the last person signs, and it's worth looking at that list once a day rather than on the morning the deadline passes.

Three things go wrong often enough to plan for. The signer doesn't open it: send a reminder that names what's needed and by when, and if two reminders get nothing, pick up the phone. The wrong person got it, usually someone who changed roles: in Chaindoc you can change the recipient before they sign instead of starting over. Or the deal changes halfway: cancel the request, fix the document and send it again, because no service lets you edit a file other people are already signing.

If a signer declines, read their reason before you resend. A refusal is usually a question about one clause, and sending the same file again only repeats it.

When the last signature lands, the request moves to your completed list. That's the moment to file it. Not next quarter.

Download two files the day the request completes: the signed PDF and the certificate of completion (in Chaindoc, the audit trail PDF). Store them together where the contract owner will look. The PDF is what the parties agreed to; the certificate shows who signed it, when, and from which email.

US law cares about the copy staying usable. Where a law requires you to keep a contract, an electronic copy counts if it accurately reflects the agreement and stays accessible to everyone entitled to it for the required period (15 U.S.C. § 7001(d)). A PDF that lives only in one employee's inbox fails that the day they leave.

Keep these together:

1. 1.
   the signed PDF;
2. 2.
   the certificate of completion or audit trail;
3. 3.
   the consent record, if the signer was a consumer (see the next section);
4. 4.
   the request message, and any reply that changed the deal.

Chaindoc adds a check you can run later. The server computes the file's hash when you upload it, the hash of the published version goes on the blockchain, and each signer's proof is recorded when signing completes. If someone claims the file changed, the hashes either match or they don't. To check the signatures inside a signed PDF, use the PDF signature verification service, which asks you to confirm your email first. What an audit trail records, and why it carries weight in a dispute, is covered in our audit trail guide.

For a contract between two businesses there's little to check before you send the PDF for signature. ESIGN and the state versions of UETA treat an electronic signature like ink, and UETA applies once the parties have agreed to deal electronically, which can be inferred from how they act (UETA § 5). A company that answers your request by signing it has shown that agreement by doing so.

Consumers are different. When a law says you must give a consumer certain information in writing, you can deliver it electronically only after the consumer consents, having been told about the right to paper and how to withdraw, and the consent has to be given in a way that reasonably shows they can open the format you'll use (15 U.S.C. § 7001(c)). Loan disclosures and insurance notices are the usual cases.

Some documents shouldn't go out for e-signature at all. ESIGN doesn't cover, among others, wills, codicils and testamentary trusts, adoption and divorce papers, court orders and notices, or notices of utility shut-off, foreclosure or eviction on a primary residence, health or life insurance cancellation and product recalls (15 U.S.C. § 7003). Those follow their own rules.

In the EU, Article 25 of eIDAS says an electronic signature can't be refused as evidence just because it's electronic, and a qualified electronic signature has the same effect as a handwritten one in every member state. Where a national law asks for written form, a qualified signature is the route; the QES guide explains when that applies.

Run through this before step 6. It takes two minutes.

1. 1.
   Is this the final version, with exhibits attached and comments removed?
2. 2.
   Does the PDF look right on every page after conversion?
3. 3.
   Is every email address copied rather than typed?
4. 4.
   Does each signer have a signature field, and only the fields they need?
5. 5.
   Everyone at once, or a fixed order?
6. 6.
   Is there a deadline, and does the message name the document and the date?
7. 7.
   If the signer is a consumer, have they consented to electronic delivery?
8. 8.
   Does the signer know the request is coming?
9. 9.
   Do you know where the signed PDF and the certificate will be filed?

Nine yeses? Send the PDF for signature. If one is a no, fix it now, because after sending every fix is a new request.