Frequently Asked Questions

Demo is a sandbox environment used for testing. A User can build, create, change, modify and alter any kind of workflow in Demo, and can't "break" anything. Like Production, in Demo, when Users test sending an envelope it does send an email to the person specified though, so in that sense it's real and live. Demo also has some features Production does not because DocuSign wants Users to see and experience more functionality to see if it's something they want to purchase.

Production is the live environment that is also the system of record. Accounts are configured at the Organizational level (from our team) and managed at the Departmental level. Some settings are unique to Departmental Production accounts, like Branding.

Testing a new workflow or building and testing should happen in Demo, especially when a User is working with a new feature, like, say, WebForms. Once it's complete, the User can download the configuration then upload it to Production to use.

Equivalents are things like test kitchens, Demo is like a test kitchen, it's not a live restaurant kitchen.
Demo is also a staging environment, think of it as a rehearsal space before a live performance.

Most if not all software products have a Demo, Sandbox, QA or Testing environment versus a Live Production environment. When it comes to software like UCPath (PeopleSoft), their QA environment is where they test a payroll run, but no one gets paid. UCPath Production is where payroll is run, and emplioyees are paid.

Branding: Refer to Branding information here to build and use a Brand in your account. The Admin role is required to create Brands. 

Groups: How to create and manage Groups. The Admin role is required to create Groups. 

Apply Branding to Groups: 

Here are the possible scenarios for users and groups, and how it affects the brands available:

• User is not assigned to any groups. The user uses the default signing brand for all envelopes he sends and any templates he creates.
• User is assigned to a group that does not have any assigned brands. The user uses the default signing brand for all envelopes he sends and any templates he creates.
• User is assigned to multiple groups, which all have assigned brands. The user has access to all of the brands assigned to all of the groups to which he belongs. He can select which brand to use for each envelope he sends or template he creates.
• User is an administrator on the account. eSignature administrators have access to all brands configured for the account, regardless of the groups they are assigned to.

How to apply the Brand in your account, or a SPA account to different workflows. 

Add the SPA or account to Groups with selected Brands. When building a Template, use Advanced Options from inside the Template to select the Brand you want to use from the drop down list. Then proceed to create a Powerform or WebForm for your use. 

Please email security-assessments@berkeley.edu to request a review of your proposed workflow. If it's one page or multiple documents, if you will be storing your workflow in DocuSign or mass downloading it, please email security-assessments@berkeley.edu to request a review of your proposed process. Attach your documents and request that an advisor consult with you on this work. You can also work with your DocuSign Departmental Account Administrators and Data Proprietors. If you don't know who they are, you can look them up by L4 department on the Active Accounts sheet, or email esignatures-support@berkeley.edu to ask for help in identifying them. DocuSign is approved to collect but not store P4 data, so you want to be sure your work process is compliant and secure. (Hot tip: Refer to DocuSign training for the ability to "mask" data using asterisks.) 

• DocuSign Department Account Administrators (Department Admins) will be responsible for provisioning their Department’s users and permission profiles (roles), provide DocuSign training, and offer ongoing support to all their Departmental users. This is an active role.
• The DocuSign Department Account Administrator is NOT an executive role, it is a task-based administrative role that executes the work of account management. Executive management of DocuSign happens at the Organizational level in bIT Productivity and Collaboration
• DocuSign Department Account Administrators (Department Admins) understand that DocuSign access is a service that is granted conditionally upon adherence to the MOU and UC's Privacy, Security and Data protection policies. A breach of the MOU or UC policy regarding data collection or management puts a department at risk of losing access to DocuSign. Adhering to MSSEI, MSSND, and Data Classification standards is required at all times
• Read the Memorandum of Understanding to learn about the responsibilities an Account Administrator accepts(link is external) responsibility for

• A Data Proprietor is a person in your L4 Department who also has a DocuSign User account. They could be an Administrator but they don't have to be. Their role is to advise anyone using your DocuSign departmental account about HOW to collect, store, and save or purge data. They advise on aspects of collecting any data but especially P3 and P4 data(link is external). They advise on appropriate storage of that data(link is external). Note that Box and Google Drive are NOT P4 Compliant storage options.
• How do I know if I would be a good Data proprietor? A data proprietor should be able to answer the question: How do I identify PII and how do I know what to do with it? If they cannot answer this question, that's a good sign they may not be a good fit to be a Data Proprietor
• A Data Proprietor is usually someone in an IT role, preferably someone who has a high level understanding of Secure Data management. They  advise on retention policy as it relates to the data your department collects, and on best practices of recommending an API integration for storage in a suitable secure database. If Box, Google Drive or Perceptive Content are chosen, they would work with any team Users and Admins along with the Imagine/DocuSign team to set up that integration. Depending on that project's simplicity or complexity, that could take a month or year
• Read the Memorandum of Understanding to learn about the responsibilities a Data Proprietor accepts(link is external) responsibility for

DocuSign is available to all campus L4 Departments and Regional Service Teams (at the L4 level).

Users access their account through the Department or Region’s account. Users not in the Same L4 should be provisioned access to DocuSign in their own home L4 department, even if functionally, they work with another group or work for another L4.

For Each campus L4 Department or Regional Service team that uses DocuSign, a Department Administrator will configure the departments User permissions and roles. This is an active role, it requires active hands on support of department staff. The DocuSign Department Account Administrator is NOT an executive role, it is a task-based, administrative role that executes the work of account management.

To learn more about Departmental Accounts, visit the Department Administrator Support page. 

The Account Administrator should ask the New User to log into DocuSign, in Production, using their @berkeley.edu address at this link: DocuSign:  https://docusign.berkeley.edu/. At this point, CalNet will authenticate the user's Primary email as seen in UCPath, and provision the User an account with limited signing access in their L4 home department.  

Users should only use an @berkeley.edu address.

The User will be auto-provisioned into a default DocuSign account and the users UID will be pulled into DocuSign. Their account will be synced with their L4 department. They will receive a confirmation email. Once confirmed, they will be active with the DocuSign role of "DS Viewer" in a holding account. 

The Account Administrator can log in to Docusign and use the navigation: Admin, Users, and look up the User by email address. Using the Action navigation on the left, the Admin can Edit the User profile, and update the User role to Template Manager, Powerform Manager, Powerform Admin or any other role that suits the User needs. 

An account Administrator will log into DocuSign. In DocuSign, navigate to Settings, click Users. Locate the user whose permission profile (role) you want to edit. In the ACTION drop down on the right for the selected user, select Edit. Choose the Permission Profile from the drop down menu and click Save.

We have a whole page of resources! Please refer to our Training and Accessibility page on this website for Introductory training, Advanced training and Administrator training. https://esignatures.berkeley.edu/training-accessibility

DocuSign Roles for Users

include DS Viewer, Sender, Bulk sender, Power User and DS Admin. Berkeley also has custsom roles like Template Manager, Powerform Manager, and Powerform Administrator. In addition, Departments can add their own custom roles, but are not required to. 

Here's a chart that refers to some of the existing roles in DocuSign, but does not include Berkeley's custom roles. 

DocuSign User accounts are placed within their home L4 Department(PDF file)(link is external) DocuSign account.

If the User moves to another UC Department, the former and future Department Administrators must make some changes.

Envelopes and templates/PowerForms

The employee changing departments should first consult with the Department Admin in their original department about what Templates or completed Envelopes they are allowed to take with them. Once a defined scope of work is approved, send a request to esignatures-support@berkeley.edu(link sends e-mail) requesting that the DocuSign team uses the “Custody Transfer” feature to transfer Envelopes & Templates to the user’s new department.  While PowerForm data can be downloaded from the old account, and uploaded into the new account, the user must re-create Powerform url (link) in the new account.  Templates can be downloaded, saved (unopened) and re-uploaded into the new account. Do not open Template downloads before uploading in your new account. 

Closing the Old Account

The Department Account Administrator for the former account should close the user account. See this video here to close a user account(link is external). 

Accessing and Using the New Account

When the user who has moved departments logs into DocuSign again, upon logging into DocuSign, they will automatically be provisioned an account in their new department, and assume the role of "DS Viewer" in their new department account. To update the users permission profile (role) the User should request that the Department Admin in the new department update their permission profile to a role that suits the Department needs.  See this video here to update a user permission profile(link is external). 

Log into your DocuSign account.

In the top right corner, click the grey circle with your initials.

Scroll down to My Preferences > click Signing and Sending > click Notifications.

All notifications are pre-set to ON CLEAR the check box for any notification that you do NOT want to receive.

Click SAVE.

Your notification preferences are updated and the changes apply to all future envelopes.

Open DocuSign Demo, on the home page, click Templates.

Select the template you want to move and from the dropdown menu on the right, choose Download.

Download the Template to a place you can retrieve it easily (e.g. your desktop) and DO NOT OPEN THE TEMPLATE file.

Open DocuSign Production, click Templates, click the yellow box New, and from the pulldown menu choose Upload.

The Template and it's fields you have input will be uploaded and ready to use.

It is important that your documents are accessible to those with different abilities. Refer to our page on Training and Accessibility. On this page, scroll down to Accessibility to learn more   https://esignatures.berkeley.edu/training-accessibility

Instructions:

1. Log in to your DocuSign eSignature account and go to My Preferences > Signing and Sending > Delegation
2. Select 'Add Delegation' and complete the following:
1. Select a user from the list of users on your account.
2. Select a start date. Delegation activates at midnight on the start date, based on your account's timezone.
3. (Optional) Select an end date.
3. Review the delegate status information:  
   1. •Active. The delegation is in effect. The start date has passed and if there is an end date, it is in the future.
   2. •Scheduled. The start date for the delegate is in the future; delegation is not yet in effect. When the Delegation start date is in effect, the delegate will then receive email notifications for envelopes to sign on behalf of the Manager, Chair, Dean etc.
4. Where to see the status that you have been added as a Delegate: Navigate to My Preferences, Delegates, then click to the tab next to My Delegates: Delegated To Me.  
5. Notifications: Delegates should receive an email when an envelope is routed to to sign. That won't happen until it's their turn to sign, so if an envelope is sent that includes several signers and the person you're signing for, you should receive an email only when it's their turn to sign. You can test this by sending a test envelope (anything at all that requires a signature) to two people, yourself, then the person you're signing for. If you need to review or update your email notifications, follow these DocuSign instructions to update your email Notifications. 

When the Delegate applies a signature, all recipients will see the Delegates signature, NOT the signature of the Manager, Chair, or Dean. See this link about setting up Delegation, and about Signing as a Delegate. 

An Envelope ID can be located in several places depending on your role in the transaction. Please see this DocuSign support article for specifics.

Faculty and Staff may be provisioned a DocuSign account by their Departmental Account Administrator for the express purpose of conducting business on behalf of the University. On occasion, Student workers working in a specific department may be provisioned a DocuSign account but only for the purpose of conducting business on behalf of the University.

Users must find their L4 Department (i.e. VRIST, AACHN, BSHUM) by using their name@berkeley.edu email address and looking it up in CalGroups. (Note: Users in a Department must use their Berkeley domain email address name@berkeley.edu for all DocuSign use.)

Next, look in the Active Accounts spreadsheet to find the account Administrators for that L4, and check for the names of the Administrators listed. Email your Administrator directly to request access to your department’s DocuSign account.

Users should bookmark UC Berkeley DocuSign websites: 

https://docusign-demo.berkeley.edu this is the Demo environment

https://docusign.berkeley.edu this is the Production environment

Note: Students who are not Student workers do not have access to Berkeley’s enterprise DocuSign license because DS is managed at the department level, and, students should not use their @berkeley.edu address to sign up for a private personal account with DocuSign. Student workers should contact their supervisor to request an account. Alumni do not have access to use Berkeley’s enterprise DocuSign account, and should not use their @berkeley.edu address to sign up for a private personal account with DocuSign.

Be sure you are logging into DocuSign with your @berkeley email address.

Check your CalNet directory listing to be sure the primary email has the suffix @berkeley.edu Please do NOT use email addresses such as @law.berkeley.edu, @haas.berkeley.edu or @calperformances.berkeley.edu or any other subdomain.

Check with your Departmental Account Administrator to make sure you have an active account. If you need to look up your Administrator, check the Active Accounts sheet. If you are still not able to log into DocuSign, ask your Administrator for help, then email esignatures-support@berkeley.edu.

Log into DocuSign and navigate to Manage and look in your Inbox.

If the envelope has been completed by all the other recipients you will find it there. Search envelopes by name and status Completed. If you are not receiving email notifications, Notification Settings for emails can be adjusted in My Preferences.

Log into My Preferences by clicking on your initials in they grey circle located the upper right corner of any DocuSign page.

Click the grey circle then navigate to My Preferences, then on the left hand menu scroll down to Notifications.

Envelopes containing P1, P2 and P3 data can be stored indefinitely in DocuSign. DocuSign is approved for P4 data collection, but envelopes containing P4 data may NOT live in DocuSign for more than 30 days.

A Berkeley Security reviewed plan is required to collect P4 Data and a storage solution (Perceptive Content, Terra Dotta, Ellusian or SharePoint) and must be used to store Envelopes with P4 Data.

Your department should have or implement a retention policy that complies with your department's/unit's regulatory requirements, policies and IT security guidelines.

Ask your Department's Data Proprietor about your Department's guidelines, and how to securely collect and manage the data you're collecting. Your Data Proprietor can be found on the Active Account sheet.

Ask your DocuSign Department Account Administrator give you a new permission profile (role) in DocuSign.  Look up your Departmental Account Administrators for your corresponding L4 on the Active Account sheet.

If you need to find what L4 Department you're in, search your name or email address in CalGroups. Then, look up your Department Account Administrator on the Active Account sheet. 

See https://support.docusign.com/en/guides/ndse-admin-guide-transfer-envelopes-templates

Each DocuSign User at Berkeley can have only one default account, with an @berkeley.edu email addrss. This should be their home L4 Departmental account. Occasionally, a Departmental Administrator may provision a user an account in another department for a specific purposes (pulling reports) for a set period of time. 

The User can select any one of their accounts as a default account for the Admin to set as the Default. When a default account is set, the User will always start in that account when logging in, and may switch after logging in.

If a user has multiple accounts, and an envelope is sent, it will send and return to the default account. This is not something that the sender can control or set in preferences, at the envelope level or departmental account level. If you have multiple accounts here are instructions on how to switch between accounts.

This works if the envelopes come from a PowerForm link or URL (versus a Template).

The sender or the Department Account Administrator should navigate to Manage, select the PowerForm, select Download and DocuSign will generate a csv file with all the raw data. This can be exported to an Excel Spreadsheet. Here is Detailed information on how to do this.  Note that this is a snapshot of data at a specific point in time. Dynamic monitoring of downloaded data would have to happen in another program that DocuSign is configured to send data to. 

Caution: If a PowerForm Sender's account is closed (e.g because they left your Department) the PowerForm will no longer work. If you still can, and need to change the Sender, see  Change a DocuSign PowerForm's Sender for instructions. 

1. Log into your UC Berkeley DocuSign account at https://docusign.berkeley.edu/.
2. Navigate to the Manage section using the Manage menu item at the top of the Home page.
3. From the left menu choose Inbox to show a list of the documents you received.

Discuss with your Department Account Administrators that you are leaving and what remaining work you own/access in DocuSign.

If you do not know who your Department Account Administrators are, you can look them up on the Active Account sheet.

Ask your Dept Admin to: Transfer ownership of your envelopes, templates and PowerForms to someone else in your Department. Here's how an Administrator can transfer ownership.

If you are moving to another DocuSign Departmental Account while still at Berkeley, and want to take your envelopes and templates with you, ask your Department Account Administrators to send a request to esignatures-support@berkeley.edu requesting that the DocuSign team uses the “Custody Transfer” feature to transfer Envelopes & Templates to the new department.

If you utilized a link to a form that was found either in an email or on a website, then included your information as the first signer, then added the
recipient's information, sent the form off for signing, and now cannot find those forms in your DocuSign account, it's likely you are just in the middle of the natural routing process for signing DocuSign Powerforms. 

This is normal behavior for a Powerform link. The Envelope has been routed to the next person for review. The two people who have access to that Envelope at this time are *that* signer (and not previous signers, and not signers who are next in the signing order), and, the person who is the owner of the Powerform can see the status of that Envelope.

There are two solutions in the short term: to either email the signer to confirm the Envelope has not gone through one of the filters set on their personal email account and gone to Spam, or, comfirm that they are in process of signing. Or, reach out to the owner of the Powerform link, and request a status update. That owner, if could also click "Resend" to send a reminder to sign back to the next person in the signing list (only that person will get the notification). Either way at this time, there isn't any other action to  take until the signer signs (or declines, or assigns another signer). This is true wether or not the signer has an @berkeley.edu address or a personal or private business email. 

Once the Envelope is completed, all signers will receive a final signed copy. Those completed envelopes will appear in your DocuSign account. If you don't know where to look for Completed Envelopes, refer to this 2 minute video to learn how to Manage Envelopes. 

The best approach is to create a PowerForm as a Template in your personal DocuSign account, then, change the Sender of the PowerForm to another User or SPA account (the role PowerForm manager should not be required for the SPA account to send (or host) the PowerForm link, once created).