This article explains how to request electronic signatures on documents already saved in an employee's Personio profile. If you want to request signatures while creating or uploading documents, see our article about adding documents to an employee profile. 

Before you start

Before requesting signatures in Personio, make sure the following are in place:

• Your organization has the required plan and monthly signature requests available.
• Your organization has accepted DocuSign as a subcontractor in the Data Protection Information tab.
• You're familiar with the legal validity of electronic signatures.
• The documents you want signed are in one of the supported formats: PDF, DOCX, DOC, TXT, CSV, HTML, DOTX, OTT, RTF, ODT, OTM.

Permissions and requirements

The requester must have:

• View permissions to the relevant employee's Public profile under People data > Personal data
• Edit permissions for the relevant document category under People data > Documents

The signer must be either:

• An employee in Personio with a valid email address saved in their profile, or
• An applicant in Personio Recruiting with a valid email address saved in their profile.

Signature limits and expiration

• You can add up to 12 signers per uploaded document and up to 25 signers per document created from a template with signature placeholders. 
• Signature requests expire four weeks after their send date. If someone does not complete the signing process within four weeks, they can no longer sign the document and you must send a new request. 

Request a signature on an existing document

To request a signature on a document that has been uploaded to an employee's profile, follow these steps: 

1. Go to the relevant Employee Profile > Documents tab.
2. Click the document you want signed.
3. Click Request signature.
4. Select the document signer from the dropdown. 
5. Optional: Click Add signer to include additional signers. You can add up to 12 signers. Make sure to add them in the order you want them to sign. 
6. Choose the signature type and email language, and add an optional email message.
7. Optional: Select the checkbox to notify the requester and signers once all signatures are completed. Notifications appear in their Personio Inbox.
8. Automatic email reminders about pending signature requests are enabled by default. Adjust the frequency or turn them off if needed. Emails continue to send until the signature status changes to Signed or Expired.
9. Request the signature.

You'll return to the employee's document list. Depending on the signee, they will receive the request as a task in their Personio Inbox or by email. The status in the Signature column updates automatically.

To check the status of a signature request or send a reminder, see our Monitor and manage signature requests article.

Create employee documents and request signatures in bulk

You can use a document template to create personalized documents for multiple employees at once. If the template includes a signature placeholder, you can specify whose signature is required. See how to create a document for multiple employees.