Before you send: what a signature request actually is
Sending a document for signature is not the same as attaching a PDF and hoping someone prints, signs, and scans it back. A proper e-signature request bundles the document, the exact spots that need a signature, and a record of who did what and when into a single tracked workflow. The signer opens a secure link, fills in their fields, and you both end up with a finished, verifiable copy — no printer, no scanner, no app to install.
On a signing-first platform like tuyaform, the people you send to never need an account. They open the link, sign in their browser, and they're done. That matters because every extra hurdle — a forced signup, a paywall, a download — is a place where signers stall. Keeping the signer side free and frictionless is the single biggest thing you can do to get a document back quickly.
This guide walks the owner side of that workflow in four practical steps — build, place fields, add signers, send — and then covers how you track progress and what lands in everyone's inbox at the end.
Step 1 — Build the document (template or from scratch)
Every signature request starts with the document itself. You have two honest starting points: a ready-made template or a blank document you build from scratch. Templates are the fast lane for common paperwork — an NDA, a consulting agreement, a consent form, a simple release — where the structure is already settled and you only need to adjust names, dates, and a clause or two.
Building from scratch makes sense when the content is specific to you: a custom statement of work, an internal policy acknowledgment, an event waiver written in your own words. You add your headings, paragraphs, and any fixed text, then move on to the parts the signer fills in. Either way, the goal of this step is the same — get the final wording locked before you place a single field, because changing the text after fields are positioned is exactly where mistakes creep in.
One expectation to set: tuyaform is a document builder, not a PDF-markup tool. You compose the agreement inside the editor rather than importing an existing PDF to annotate. If your content lives somewhere else, plan to recreate the parts that matter in the builder so the fields line up cleanly with the text.
Step 2 — Place the fields each signer must complete
With the wording final, you mark the spots where each person needs to act. The core field is the signature field, but a real agreement usually needs more than one type. Initials fields capture a quick separate mark for acknowledgments. A date field captures when the signing happened. Text fields collect things like a printed name, a title, or an address, and checkboxes handle consent toggles and yes/no confirmations.
The detail that makes multi-party signing work is assignment: every field belongs to a specific signer. When you drop a signature field, you say whose signature goes there. That's how one document can ask the client to sign on page one and your own countersignature on page three, without either person being able to fill the other's fields. Before you can send, at least one signature or initials field has to exist and be assigned, and every field you mark required must have an owner — the editor will stop you if one is left unassigned, which is a useful guardrail rather than an annoyance.
Step 3 — Add your signers and choose the routing
Now decide who signs and in what order. You can add a single signer or several, each identified by name and email. With more than one signer, you choose how the request flows.
Sequential routing — "one at a time" — invites each signer only after the previous person finishes. Use it when order matters: an employee acknowledges a policy before a manager approves it, or one party signs before the other countersigns. Parallel routing — "all at once" — invites everyone together and lets them sign in any order. It's the faster option when the signers are independent, like three roommates on a lease or two partners on a mutual NDA. There's no universally correct choice; pick the one that matches how responsibility actually moves in your situation.
Step 4 — Lock it down and send: access codes, message, email or link
The last step is how the request goes out and how protected it is. For each signer you can set an optional access code — a short shared secret the recipient must enter before the document opens. The link is already a secret, unguessable token, so an access code is a deliberate second layer for sensitive paperwork: you send the link by email and the code through a separate channel like a text message or a phone call, so access to the inbox alone isn't enough.
You can also attach a short message that travels with the invitation; a line of context goes a long way toward a signer trusting the request and acting on it. Then you send. The default path is email: each signer receives their own invitation with a unique link. If email delivery isn't available, you can still create the signing links and copy each one to share however you like — a chat message, your own email client, wherever the signer is. Because signers don't need accounts, what they receive looks like your document. On a paid plan the signing page carries no 'Made with tuyaform' credit; on the free plan a small 'Secured by tuyaform' footer is shown.
Track, remind, and keep the chain moving
Sending isn't the end of your job — tracking is. From the document's status view you can see who has opened the request and who has actually signed, updated as it happens. If someone is sitting on it, you can send a reminder, with a sensible throttle so you can't accidentally spam the same person (roughly once an hour per signer). In a sequential flow, the next person is invited automatically the moment the previous signer finishes, so the chain keeps moving without you babysitting it — and you're notified if anyone declines, so a stalled document never goes silently unanswered.
What everyone gets back: the sealed PDF and Certificate of Completion
When the last required signature lands, the document is sealed. tuyaform applies a tamper-evident seal to the finished PDF, which means any later alteration to the file becomes detectable rather than invisible. Alongside it you get a Certificate of Completion: a companion record listing each signer, their email, timestamps, and the audit-trail events — opened, signed, completed — that together evidence the signing. Everyone who was part of the request receives the final copy, so there's a single agreed version rather than competing drafts.
In broad terms, this is what makes an electronic signature hold up. In the United States, the ESIGN Act and state UETA laws give electronic signatures the same standing as ink for most everyday agreements, and the audit trail is the proof that a real person agreed at a real time. In the EU, the eIDAS regulation recognizes electronic signatures across member states, with higher-assurance tiers available for regulated use. None of this is legal advice — requirements differ from one country and document type to the next, and a few categories such as certain wills and some property transfers may still call for paper or notarization, so confirm the rules that apply to your specific case before relying on an e-signature for anything high-stakes.