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Get the order spec signed before production starts

Every order builds a DocuSign purchase agreement with the exact spec, so the customer authorises it before anything is cut.

When this happens

New form submission on your product order form

Do this

Create a DocuSign envelope from your purchase agreement template and send it to the customer

One-directional. A submission triggers the action — nothing is written back into your form.

Custom work goes wrong at the specification, not at the bench. A customer picks a variant on the order form, the shop reads it a slightly different way, and the disagreement surfaces after the material has been cut.

A signed purchase agreement fixes the spec in writing first. The order form feeds item, quantity and variant straight into the agreement, DocuSign sends it, and the customer's signature is the go-ahead to start. Payment stays where it already lives: formformform captures the order, and you charge through your usual billing tool.

Setting it up

  1. 1

    Publish the product order form with Color, Variant, or Size as an explicit option list — the agreement can only be as precise as the wording on the form.

  2. 2

    In DocuSign, save your purchase agreement as a template with the customer as the sole signer.

  3. 3

    Add text tabs for the item, the quantity and the variant, plus an initial tab beside the specification paragraph so the spec is acknowledged separately from the contract as a whole.

  4. 4

    Create the Zap with formformform's New Submission trigger and your order form as the source.

  5. 5

    Add the DocuSign action that sends an envelope from a template, mapping Full Name and Email Address to the recipient.

  6. 6

    Map Item Name or Product, Quantity and Color, Variant, or Size into the specification tabs, and Special Instructions into the free-text clause.

  7. 7

    Put the item name into the envelope subject so a repeat customer can tell two open agreements apart at a glance.

  8. 8

    Place a test order, check the specification block reads exactly as the customer wrote it, then switch the Zap on.

What maps where

Using the Product Order Form as the starting point. These are its real fields — swap in your own and the mapping works the same way.

Form fieldDocuSign
Full NameSigner name on the purchase agreement
Email AddressRecipient email for the envelope
Item Name or ProductItem description tab in the specification
QuantityQuantity tab in the order schedule
Color, Variant, or SizeVariant tab beside the item description
Special InstructionsCustom requirements clause

Variations worth knowing

Put delivery on the agreement too

Map Shipping Address and Delivery Method into the delivery clause so the customer signs off on where the build goes as well as what it is. Most post-dispatch disputes start with one of those two.

Only above a run size

Add a Zapier filter on Quantity so small stock orders skip the agreement entirely and only larger runs generate an envelope. Every order still lands in your responses list, signed or not.

If something isn't arriving

The agreement goes out before the shop has priced the job.

Put a Zapier delay or an approval step between the trigger and the DocuSign action so a person confirms the price first. The submission then waits inside the Zap rather than in somebody's inbox.

Special Instructions is cut off in the agreement.

DocuSign text tabs have a fixed character limit and a fixed height. Set that tab to multi-line, enlarge it in the template, and cap the field length on the form so long notes cannot overflow unnoticed.

Frequently asked questions

Can the customer pay when they sign?

Yes. Add products and priced options to the form, then collect payment through secure hosted checkout with Stripe, PayPal, or Square. Payment status is tracked alongside the response.

Can a signed agreement change the order in the form?

No, the connection only runs one way. If the customer asks for a change after signing, void the envelope and send a new one; the original submission stays untouched as the record of what was first agreed.

How do I include a drawing of the build?

Add an upload field to the order form and the customer attaches it. A phone photo of a sketch or an exported image sits well inside the 2 MB per-file limit and arrives on the response for the shop to open. A full CAD set or a scanned drawing sheet will run past 2 MB, so keep a URL field beside the upload for a shared folder and map that link into a text tab. A drawing the customer has to sign still belongs in the DocuSign template, since the envelope carries the template's documents.

Related automations

Build the form first

The automation needs somewhere to fire from. Publish a form, connect it once, and every submission from then on runs this flow.

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